Comments on: GM Aims To Cut Chevy Volt Cost By $10,000

By: Samuel Hay

Samuel Hay — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 08:57:00 +0000

I dont think most people really know what a bargain solar panels are today. When I first started in solar energy in the seventies, panels were upwards of $35.00 per watt. The last ones I purchased several weeks ago were .80 per watt. That puts the payback period at less than three years. My advice to new home builders is to just cut the square foot size of a home by 100 square feet even at $100.00 per square foot, you hardly know the difference, and you never have a utility bill especially if you are on a well and septic system. The new split system heat pumps are available at a 23 SEER. You just cannot imagine how this makes it all so easy now. My house was designed with no ductwork, which I detest anyway for the mold, bacteria and virus the ducts can harbor and the air distribution is more than adequate with only two 18,000 BTU units in a 3500 ftsq house.Someone evidently forgot one of the basic rules of thermodynamics and that is that heat is attracted to cold, allowing a very efficient distribution of hot or cold air to migrate throughout the house. I do have a 12′ x 32′ conservatory built onto the house where I grow citrus year round in Atlanta and it also adds considerable heat to the house in winter. Everybody should have one! They are cheap to construct and insular using the Twinwall polycarbonate which is virtually unbreakable. Imagine fresh pineapple, bananas, kiwi, apricot, oranges, limes, lemons, date palms, etc year round in any climate! Diffuse radiation (reflection) from snow climes even puts more solar radiation into the conservatory than non snow days.

The only problem is that it is difficult to eat grocery store citrus after you have eaten it fresh from your own home.
GO SOLAR, its the best bargain on the planet!

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Tue, 28 May 2013 22:05:00 +0000

It’s your lucky day!!!

Toyota makes the Prius Plug-in just for you!!

$32,000 MSRP. Then you get some help cutting that down with the federal, and possibly state, subsidy.

Buy one. Let’s see how fast we can get the second hundred thousand electrics on the road.

By: twiggy

twiggy — Tue, 28 May 2013 21:36:00 +0000

i’d rather get a volt with half the battery and shave that cost off. plus all the fancy interior can go. i’d rather get 50% of my miles from electricity then the 0% I get now. Give a battery that can go 15 miles. That would be plenty to get to work, plugin in there, and then get home, repeat.

By: A Family Apparently Cut Their Solar Payback Time In Half With An EV

A Family Apparently Cut Their Solar Payback Time In Half With An EV — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:13:20 +0000

[…] year later, they replaced their 2007 Acura RDX with a 2013 Chevy Volt. They used the surplus electricity they generated to power the Chevy Volt, so they were able to […]

By: AlexFethiere

AlexFethiere — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:32:00 +0000

Bob, I could have been clearer. I was referring to the Model A of 1903-4, and the Model T ultimately was able to run on three fuels as were available at the time.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:13:00 +0000

Got your models backwards. The “T” was Henry’s first car. Came out in 1908 (the year my father was born and the bin number for my favorite granola).

The Model T was a very crude machine when it first rolled of the assembly lines. Crank started, no fuel pump, no electric lights, no windshield wiper, no windows, ….

The Model T improved with age and significantly dropped in price. But the Model A was a major step forward.

As for ridiculing gasoline replacements, no ridicule is necessary.

Gasoline replacements are struggling to get down to the price of gasoline. Electricity is already 4x cheaper than gasoline per mile driven.

By: AlexFethiere

AlexFethiere — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:04:00 +0000

“What man of sense would exchange his horse and carriage for the Model A, a rich man’s trinket that derives its propulsion from earth juices instead of honest oats?” Such a question sounds funny today, and not just for its diction. The Model A is almost forgotten, but the money and effort spent on it paved the way for the flex-fuel (kerosene, gasoline and ethanol) Model T, and anyone who poked fun ultimately had egg on their face. Electric cars have come a very long way, and the next model could be the Model T that breaks through into mainstream acceptance.

A lot of energy and time is wasted ridiculing fuels that could compete with gasoline if the market were open. One wonders how much more could be accomplished with a more open-minded approach.

By: dougbrockman

dougbrockman — Thu, 09 May 2013 01:48:00 +0000

Answer: No.
The public will continue buying the trucks and suvs they appear to crave. If GM won’t sell them Toyota will.

By: alvinjh

alvinjh — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:01:00 +0000

Golf cart

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:42:00 +0000

Horses will never replace cars.

Man will never fly.

We got it….

By: RealHarshTruth

RealHarshTruth — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:38:00 +0000

What a joke! How many more of these money-losing white elephants is GM going to puke out before realizing that there is not a large, mainstream commercial market for electric cars. Only the Teslas that are bought by overpaid, effete hipsters in SF are potentially viable for that small niche market of hipsters.

The Volt will be binned with the EV1 and other GM abortions.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:59:00 +0000

The editor and chief is tied up taking care of some personal business.

Since the correct number occurs both in the title and in
two other spots in the article, plus the fact that the context of “$7000 to $1000″ would be a major clue to most, I think we might unbunch our bloomers and worry about more important things.

For example, let’s worry about how we get decent climate/clean energy legislation through the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. Or how we get the Canadian government to come to its senses.

Them am stuff to make a feller worry….

By: Rob Hruska

Rob Hruska — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:37:00 +0000

Snail mail, that is. Troublemaker.

By: sola

sola — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:12:00 +0000

They are not the same category. Teslas are practically luxury cars, while the Volt is a mid-range car.

If one wants a luxury EV (because he/she has the money for it) the choice will hardly be a Volt.

If one wants an economical EV they will hardly choose a Tesla.

By: Mohan Raj

Mohan Raj — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:37:00 +0000

It will be better if they can reduce the cost of Spark-EV so that it can sell in higher #.

By: James Hilden-Minton

James Hilden-Minton — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:19:00 +0000

This validates the developmental path of Tesla. Build the car from the ground up for optimal performance and minimal cost.

By: JustSaying

JustSaying — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:16:00 +0000

I thought 3rd generation Tesla was to be in the $30s. Will have to of course wait and see

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:11:00 +0000

Thanks. The fix is in the mail…

By: adam aston

adam aston — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

heads up: confusing typo -- "Following previous EV price cuts, Akerson said that he has plans in mind to achieve the $7000–$1000||NEEDS EXTRA ZERO|| cost reductions mentioned above, and that the car will be profitable at that point."

By: Shiggity

Shiggity — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:19:00 +0000

One costs 40,000$ before subsidies, the other will cost 75,000$+. Then you’re saying if the already cheaper one gets cheaper you’ll get it instead? What?