Comments on: Bob Lutz: “Electric Car Future Definitely Coming” (Video)

By: Ivor O'Connor

Ivor O'Connor — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:06:00 +0000

“Lutz also
made a misleading statement, which was that Tesla Motors “simply
crammed” more batteries into their cars to achieve long range, basically
just making its cars very expensive.”

There’s nothing wrong with this statement. Tesla has crammed more batteries in their cars to achieve long range and in the process made their cars very expensive. It’s true and you just make things worse by trying to denying it. It is also true Tesla has gone to extremes in other ways to achieve long distance. (Can you say no spare tire?) Lutz would love to achieve success but he chose wrong in many ways. Elon almost always gets it right. And when Elon is ready he’ll introduce a car that competes with the Leaf in its price range. With a huge infrastructure and will win awards from everybody again. When this happens it won’t be the Tesla cars that get raked up and discarded…

By: josetony

josetony — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 02:58:00 +0000

The prices for Ev”s are slowly becoming more attractive for consumers. Nissan Leaf is around $5,000 cheaper since the company move the assembly plant to the US. The GM Volt is getting around $4,000 discount in price. The Fiat EV , Mitsubishi I Miev and the Honda Fit EV are offering good deals on leases lately. So as soon as we get batteries that can be charged faster, the gas engines car sales are going to stop growing.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:28:00 +0000

What is the game they could play, Marion?

By: Marion Meads

Marion Meads — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:15:00 +0000

Let us hope that the oil industry never gets to play the gasoline price game that could kill the EV’s.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:00:00 +0000

You must be assuming that shale oil can be brought to the surface and refined for about 1/3rd the cost of other oil sources.

It’s not the amount of oil in the ground, it’s the cost of getting that oil extracted, turned into fuel, and distributed.

An EV uses about 0.3 kWh per mile. At the US average price of electricity that’s roughly 3 cents per mile. ($0.11 x 0.3 kWh)

A 50 MPG hybrid would need to find fuel at $1.50/gallon to drive as cheaply. Actually less than $1.50 when you factor in higher maintenance costs for ICEVs.

By: Ross

Ross — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:50:00 +0000

North Dakota has the highest gas prices in the US so lower prices doesn’t inevitably follow from more dirty global warming causing tragedy of the commons fossil fuels.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/28/column-kemp-bakken-refineries-idUSL5N0E93PL20130528

With the price of charging EVs already very favourable compared to the price of gas it will take a lot more than a few dirty oil fields to set back the EV. When the prices of the EVs come down a bit more over the coming decade it will be game over for ICE vehicles.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:56:00 +0000

Perhaps you need to review Lutz’s career in the auto industry.

As for the Volt never coming close to fulfilling its commercial expectation, patience Grasshopper. Major technological changes generally do not catch on overnight.

By: Marion Meads

Marion Meads — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:57:00 +0000

the electric car dream would again be dashed to pieces if the oil companies are able to succeed over the protesting environmentalists in fracking the California Shale to produce shale oil. The shale oil is more massive than the entire middle east reserves and easier to extract than the Bakken Shale because this one is mostly sitting vertically, thanks to the tectonic plate actions. The oil industry could then play the trump card of lowering gasoline prices down which would become a big setback for EV’s adoption.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/14/news/economy/california-oil-boom/index.html
http://www.moneynews.com/Markets/Mills-oil-gas-reserves/2012/11/12/id/463765

Existing desolate lands with old oil pumps are sitting atop the biggest shale reserves, and fracking for them in the same place should not create more desolate landscape. Well so far, the environmentalists are lobbying hard and are able to hold off the BLM auction of new land leases atop the shale formation…

By: jamest2

jamest2 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:51:00 +0000

Why does anybody listen to Bob Lutz about electric cars? His only credential is to have cost GM billions to develop a car that has never come close to fulfilling its commercial expectations.