$20,000 over sticker for Chevy Volt is simply supply and demand

>"If they want GM to give the car away, they should stop complaining about government ownership."

One might hazard a wager that not a single person who complains of
government owneership also wants GM to give the Volt away.

On Mon, 9 Aug 2010 11:03:22 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

>On Aug 9, 11:08*am, Michelle Steiner > wrote:
>> In article
>> >,
>>
>> wrote:
>> > I wouldn't buy one at half price.. The 40 mile wonder.. *:/
>> > Doesn't go far enough to do me any good..
>>
>> That's 40 miles on just the initial battery charge; after that, the
>> gasoline motor kicks in to recharge the battery, and you'll keep going for
>> so long as there is gas in the tank. *And when the tank runs low, you
>> simply put more gas in it.
>>
>> It's not like the Nissan Leaf, which is battery only.
>
>It's still fairly useless to me. I'd be running off the gas
>engine more than the electric motor.
>I'll stick with the dinky gas or diesel cars..

Let's assume the Volt gets about 40 mpg when the engine is running. If
you drive 400 miles a day, you get 10% better gas mileage, or 44 mpg.
And if you drive 100 miles a day, you get 40% better gas mileage, or 56
mpg.

I agree, $41,000 is too much for me, but I've always driven inexpensive
cars (the current Prius is the most expensive car I ever bought, and the
only one for which I ever paid more than $20,000. In fact I only paid
more than $10,000 for two other cars, one of which I still have).

GM needs to amortize the cost of developing the car, in the first place.
They are using technology that American automakers have never used
before. No part of the electric drivetrain has been made in the USA
previously, nor have batteries of the type the Volt will use, either.
While components of the Volt may never be reduced in cost to the level
that we will be buying $18,000 Volts, surely the cost of production will
fall as time goes on.

When I still owned a home, I might have had the infrastructure to own a
Volt--a 110V outlet and a power cord. I now live in an apartment, so
owning an electric car I would not be able to charge is, unfortunately,
not something that makes sense, and I'll just have to keep on driving
the Prius.

hls > wrote:
> wrote in message
...
>> How will those electric batteries hold up in the Winter time when the
>> temps get wayyyy down below zero?
>> cuhulin
>
>Question has already been asked.. What difference does it make?
>The Obama administration is going to buy a bunch of these POS
>things no matter what you think, or do, or want.

Hey, it has to be better than the K-cars that the GSA still has in
the motorpool down here. Those things just won't quit running no
matter how hard everyone wants them to.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

wrote:
> If I want an electric car, I will convert my 1948 Willys Jeep.Actually,
> those old World War Two Jeeps (Willys and Ford Jeeps) were rated by the
> Pentagon as 1/4 ton trucks.
>
> On the web, Brian's Military Jeeps
> cuhulin
>

500lb? That's only a couple of typical USAians of cargo
now. Or maybe just one!
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/c...ys-bounce.html


--
Andrew Muzi
<www.yellowjersey.org/>
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On 8/9/2010 12:16 AM, john wrote:
> "So you think the Chevrolet Volt electric car will cost too much? Tell
> that to the Chevy dealer who has already decided to charge $20,000
> over the sticker price.
>
> That's right. Months before the first Volt lands on a showroom floor,
> there's enough excitement that the dealer -- who earns a living
> calculating what the market will bear -- is charging nearly 50% more
> than General Motors' asking price for the revolutionary car.

VW did that with the new BUG and Toyota would too if they made anything
worth buying. Doesn't last long for any of them.

wrote in
:

> How will those electric batteries hold up in the Winter time when the
> temps get wayyyy down below zero?

A lot of expensive replacements and repairs. To say nothing of the
effect of salt and sand. assuming we ever get winters again south of 50
N. Last winter we had a winter that I'd call comparable to what
Washington DC usually gets - at 45 1/2 N.



--
(setq (chuck nil) car(chuck) )

AZ Nomad > wrote in
:

> On Mon, 9 Aug 2010 23:34:16 +0000 (UTC), chuckcar >
> wrote:
wrote in
:
>
>>> My 1948 Jeep has a tailgate.I could slide the batteries in there.
>>> I don't want an electric vehicle though.
>
>>Nah, neither do I. Unless it's a Tesla with a 500 mile range.
>
> my gas car doesn't have a 500 mile range; however, my car doesn't
> take 4 hours to fill up.
>
> I'd be happy with a 300 mile range EV If I had the ability to swap
> batteries the way I swap propane tanks.
>
I don't know if you get Top Gear, but if you do, did you ever see the
episode with the car with the replaceable frame and power plant? It was a
protoype demonstrated by James May. Horrendous controls, but it's a way
of doing what you mention above. The body lifted completely off leaving
a 3" thick at most support with the wheels on it. It was a fuel cell
car. I still prefer the idea of a hydrogen internal combusion engine
better, but such things as removing the ammonia produced may be a
problem I suppose.

--
(setq (chuck nil) car(chuck) )

Peter Granzeau > wrote in
:

> On Mon, 9 Aug 2010 11:03:22 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
>
>>On Aug 9, 11:08*am, Michelle Steiner > wrote:
>>> In article
>>> >,

> When I still owned a home, I might have had the infrastructure to own
> a Volt--a 110V outlet and a power cord. I now live in an apartment,
> so owning an electric car I would not be able to charge is,
> unfortunately, not something that makes sense, and I'll just have to
> keep on driving the Prius.
>
It's all just marketing. The VW Lupo can get 75 MPG on a journey with no
problem.


--
(setq (chuck nil) car(chuck) )

Of course, electric cars in America aren't a new thingy.
http://www.eaaev.org/History/index.html
cuhulin

In message >, chuckcar >
writes
> I still prefer the idea of a hydrogen internal combusion engine
>better, but such things as removing the ammonia produced may be a
>problem I suppose.
Where does the ammonia come from?
--
Clive