Get ready, Chevy Volt due this November. Update!!!

[chargerboy69]

Did I mention it was Motor Trend car of the year?  

Big deal. . so was Renault Alliance. Oh, . . . . and the Horizon.

Yeah I know it was a joke.  
I liked the Horizen.  

The Horizon really?  Yea, I can see those as being a babe magnet. 

[Silver R/T]

Ford is coming out with all electric Focus later this year. The competition is on

[tricky lugnuts]

These guys are pitching it as the Mopar - GM - FoMoCo muscle car battles of old, i.e. my EV charges faster than yours.

http://www.torquenews.com/119/ev-marketing-battle-erupting-between-ford-and-nissan

I realize the herd is embracing this, but it almost seems like "How the media made an electric car world in six days, and on the seventh didn't have to recharge."

Ford's predicts 12,000 charging stations in the U.S. within 18 months - that's one-tenth the number of gas stations and up from 1,800 today.

That's just the start.

Charging stations are the new parking meter and home appliance, businesses need them for employees and customers, and every home in America needs at least 1.5 of them - two or three, given the number of cars people I know own.

Home stations are also subsidized by the feds, 50 percent tax credit.

Private companies are announcing planned station builds, and select Best Buys will sell 240 volt home stations:

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/01/07/best-buy-to-sell-fords-electric-charging-stations/

Wait, this is weird . . .

Ford (and Nissan) say the Volt sucks, contrary to the Gospel of 1969chargerrtse. (Ford should grow up, and stop being afraid of the future.)

Nissan says a 480 volt charge can give the Leaf's battery an 80 percent charge in half an hour!

Too bad the Volt can't do that yet!

The electric "Thunderbolt" Focus goes 84 mph, top speed.

Woot-woot. EV war is on!

And Volt - the best car the company formerly known but still subsidized as Government Motors has ever built - gets "unlimited mpg"   so long as A. you accept a "mile-per" rate of at most 4 miles for every one hour of 120 volt charge.

Wow, 10 hours plugged into a wall buys the range of a gallon of gas.

But come on!

Man up, get over to Best Buy, and get the super beefy world-saving 240 volt charging station in your home garage. Then you can charge your Volt - hi ho Silver - in a mere "blink-of-the-eye" four hours, which gets 10 miles per hour of charge instead of four.

Here's hoping you like doing crossword puzzles or hanging out on ChevyVolt.com.

Quick question: Is there like a bung in a Volt's gas tank, because if I ever put gas in it - the horror - and went a long time on just electric charges, that gas might get kind of gross and screw up my gas engine that gets a galaxy-busting 37 mpg or so?

Anyway, 50,000 people will own a Volt, so what half of them will be owned by GE first -  and then 200,000 - and nobody in those evil oil-producing countries out there will ever meaningfully hate us again, because (Ha Ha!) we won't be giving them, well, quite as much money for their oil.  

And Afghanistan, stalwart of openness and free trade, will gladly sell us their GINORMOUS lithium reserves for our electric car batteries and leave none for China.

Such is the glory of Volt!

Ahem.

I appreciate your crusade, 1969chargerrtse, and as an avid environmentalist ( a moron by you) I can only say I would join you in your cause if I thought it was leading anywhere beneficial.

"Silly and threatened"?

Silly, maybe . . . Threatened - more ways than I care to go into.

No one denies "things are going to change" and automakers are pushing electric cars.

That's pretty low on my perceived threat-meter.

Yes, change is inevitable and scares people.

But really? "The future is coming, and it includes electric cars whether we like it or not."

That's quite the platitude you've got there - no doubt Volt will succeed.

YET there remain a number of cost-benefit issues, public policy questions, and a vast amount of uncertainty about the future of electric vehicles and the benefits they will potentially bring to bear.

I know, people are stupid for bringing those up.

But I wonder what's going to happen in terms of electric rates if we get as many electric car charging stations as we have gas stations over the next 10 years, or even half of that number, which would be about 64,000 charging stations?

That seems low, given the way people are hyping the need for them.

And what if they all, or even half, start to offer 480-volt half-hour quick charges for people with electric cars, and tens of millions of people start using them, two and three times a day, at least, on trips longer than 100 miles.

Let's say everyone who is anyone, i.e. a million people or more, runs out and buys a VOLT THREE YEARS FROM NOW when gasoline hit $6 per gallon because A. unprecedented international demand in China, India and Brazil, B. new domestic carbon taxes in the U.S., C. unprecedented refinery outages and, finally, D. another 3.9 cent per gallon tacked onto the federal tax on gas to help pay for road and bridge repairs, modernize public rest-stops and keep "the electric vehicle wave" going.

That's a tall order, but . . . we're gonna slide onto electric avenue . . .

Now that the electric vehicle wave is ALIVE, we have to really get it going and make up for that expiring $7,500 per Volt subsidy that applied to the first 200,000 sold, and myriad other subsidies automakers and consumers have been receiving in connection with electric vehicles . . .

By my math we can raise $1.5 billion EVERY DAY with a 3.9 cent per gallon gas tax, based on U.S. gasoline consumption of 378 million gallons per day - and then dump half that, via grants, loans, investments, into electric vehicle R&D or real-world upgrades, to keep things GROWING, so someday the Volt can go more than 100 miles on a charge . . .

No, never mind.

1969chargerrtse, when he's not teaching people the first three letters of the alphabet to make a point about the Volt, keeps quiet about the apparent fact that he likes taking income tax dollars to subsidize things like the Volt from the government's general fund, further driving up borrowing costs and shifting the tax burdens around based on a vehicle purchase or lack of, instead of collecting money to do those things based on user fees or "sin" and "social cost taxes."

You're right, I should pay my full income tax burden because I haven't bought a Volt or home charging station.

And here I was, thinking it might be wise to put a similarly minor federal tax on electricity usage, for utility and grid upgrades . . . Again - nah.

Anyways, I wonder what all this growth in the electric car world is going to do to everyone's electricity rates.

Probably make electric cheaper, at the same time everything else is getting better in this country.  

With all the coal bound to be mined and burned for these emission-free cars, I know folks down in West Virginia are really looking forward to this. Lots of good mountains left to blast for coal seams, and plenty of good land to strip away in Appalachia, all in the name of them fleet holders and urban commuters, and finally the rest of us, being able to call ourselves green and efficient and and weaned off oil.

Maybe we can fracture all that Marcellus shale in New York and Pennsylvania to get the natural gas out to power plants! I know - we'll start building nuclear reactors.

Minor details. Everyone knows, once you invent the electric car, generating electricity is actually the least of your worries.

Coal's not a scarce natural resource! Neither is natural gas, or uranium! We can power 4,000 pound go-karts with battery stored electricity for eternity.

And it doesn't matter, anyway. Even if those things were scarce, you couldn't get "addicted" to them, like you can oil. Because:

A. Your dumb if you're not worshiping the Volt.

We'll all be able to sync our iPhones and Androids to our new electric cars, get four and maybe even up to 10 miles per one hour of 120 volt charge (if you buy an inferior Nissan or Ford), Tweet while we drive, and at any time on our new mobile wireless network download a nifty up-to-the-minute battery health report from the Internet complete with a pinpoint GPS location of our car with all the neat new Ford Focus and Chevy Volt apps in development . . .

Yee-haw. We're digitizing our streets.

Hey, at least its looking like the start of another new bubble with everyone gearing up to make big investments:

http://www.bnet.com/blog/electric-cars/beyond-rhetoric-ge-and-nrg-energy-bet-heavily-on-electric-cars/2933

Maybe if it takes hold we'll all be able to afford a $41,000 car that takes close to a decade to break even on compared to a $10,000 car that gets 40-plus miles per gallon.

[1969chargerrtse]

Dang, I thought you moved on.

You love writing long long responses? If you would use that same amount of energy to go to " ChevyVolt.com " you would know the Volt has a software program in it that runs the engine for a short amount of time to keep things lubed and warmed up when it's being mostly used on electric power.

" Quick question: Is there like a bung in a Volt's gas tank, because if I ever put gas in it - the horror - and went a long time on just electric charges, that gas might get kind of gross and screw up my gas engine that gets a galaxy-busting 37 mpg or so? "

Question answered. All the other things you write are just crazy man stuff.  

Yeah your right a car that at it's worst mpg is 37 and it's best over a 100 is a terrible thing.  I see you didn't do any growing up?

[1969chargerrtse]

Ford is coming out with all electric Focus later this year. The competition is on

Yeah that's great stuff.  That's the exciting thing about the Volt finally being out and other companies trying to build something even better.  When it was first announced about the research to build the Volt gas was over 5.00 a gallon.

[elacruze]

Tricky, you have a very long leash on your Red Herring.

[Ghoste]

Why is it silly to mock a low production, taxpayer subsidized, public relations exercise but perfectly rational to wildly cheer it's superiority by quoting magazine hacks who likely have as much passion for washing machines as they do cars? 

[1969chargerrtse]

Why is it silly to mock a low production, taxpayer subsidized, public relations exercise but perfectly rational to wildly cheer it's superiority by quoting magazine hacks who likely have as much passion for washing machines as they do cars?  

I hope you know I could care less about the car of the year award?
Boy that " taxpayer subsidized, public relations exercise " thing really bugs you.  I just disagree with that idea and and could care less.
Enough about the Volt, I have to go clear the driveway of some of that white stuff we got up here in the East corner of the US.
I love when Brock asked me if there was a Volt site for me to go to?  That was funny.  

[Ghoste]

It bugs me but not nearly as much as you probably think.  I think it likely bugs me more in the context of the one sided press on the car.  Truthfully, the existence of the Volt doesn't keep me from sleeping and I couldn't care less whether it fails or becomes a smash success.  I just prefer to see what happens naturally.

[1969chargerrtse]

It bugs me but not nearly as much as you probably think.  I think it likely bugs me more in the context of the one sided press on the car. Truthfully, the existence of the Volt doesn't keep me from sleeping and I couldn't care less whether it fails or becomes a smash success.  I just prefer to see what happens naturally.

Yep I hear ya. To me it's neat to see something different hit the market. To one day own a loud smelly vibrating Muscle car and a quiet electric/gas family car is kinda cool.
If I could afford one, I'd have one now as Ct is one of the states they are selling them in, but.......  me got no money. Lucky to have the Charger period.  
Actually I'm kinda going through Charger withdraw right now.     Dying to take it out.

[Brock Samson]

See, this is what happens when we let chevy guys on the site... 

[1969chargerrtse]

See, this is what happens when we let Chevy guys on the site...  

How is a 69 Charger owner ( and past 440/6 Bee and 340 Challenger ) of which still has his original brochure from 40 years ago classified as a " Chevy " guy?  No really, how?  
I'd like to be known as a Muscle car guy thank you.

[The70RT]

So is anyone getting one or what???

[1969chargerrtse]

So is anyone getting one or what???

Ha ha    Not anyone on this site that's for sure. 

[The70RT]

So is anyone getting one or what???

Ha ha    Not anyone on this site that's for sure. 

I was beginning to wonder as long as this thread is.

[1969chargerrtse]

So is anyone getting one or what???

Ha ha    Not anyone on this site that's for sure. 

I was beginning to wonder as long as this thread is.

It's long for many reasons.  But if I list them it would be twice as long as it already is.
I started out just saying how cool it is that another type of mode of transportation is coming, and OMG.  Shame on me.  You would think I said something like " Wow I love the New Chargers. "   
If you go back to the beginning threads, every reason thought possible tells how it would never work. Guess what?  It works and it's here and every American should be proud. 

[The70RT]

So is anyone getting one or what???

Ha ha    Not anyone on this site that's for sure.  

I was beginning to wonder as long as this thread is.

It's long for many reasons.  But if I list them it would be twice as long as it already is.
I started out just saying how cool it is that another type of mode of transportation is coming, and OMG.   Shame on me.  You would think I said something like " Wow I love the New Chargers. "  
If you go back to the beginning threads, every reason thought possible tells how it would never work. Guess what?  It works and it's here and every American should be proud.  

Thanks Rob, this keeps me from reading the whole thread 

[Ghoste]

And you know what, if I were completely honest I would have to admit that in true hypocrite fashion, if it were a foreign electric car you were raving about then I'd be getting out the patriot club and trying to hit you with it.  There are a lot of things I respect about the car but there are a lot of things I can't too I guess.  Oh well.

[1969chargerrtse]

And you know what, if I were completely honest I would have to admit that in true hypocrite fashion, if it were a foreign electric car you were raving about then I'd be getting out the patriot club and trying to hit you with it.  There are a lot of things I respect about the car but there are a lot of things I can't too I guess.  Oh well.

Gotta love honesty. I just love anything that has wheels and moves. 

[Ghoste]

Me too... mostly.

[ChgrSteve67]

2011 Car of the year.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40998635/ns/business-autos/

Try and buy one now.

[Guns N Rotors]

2011 Car of the year.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40998635/ns/business-autos/

Try and buy one now.

Undoubtedly, the judges were swayed by this video of the awesome Chevy Volt dance. With advertising like this, did any other car even have a fair chance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvwTMZNWGuk&feature=player_embedded

[Brock Samson]

Comment from the Vid.

  "I think Phoebe from Friends wrote this song".    

[Landonsrt]

The biggest issue I have is everyone lambasting GM for getting a bailout and having already paid back their loan. Now they have to suffer for the fact that the government owns so many shares of stock to make even more back that will never go back to the people who paid for the bailout! US!!!
No ones saying shit about chrysler's bailout.............

[chargerboy69]

The biggest issue I have is everyone lambasting GM for getting a bailout and having already paid back their loan. Now they have to suffer for the fact that the government owns so many shares of stock to make even more back that will never go back to the people who paid for the bailout! US!!!
No ones saying shit about chrysler's bailout.............

Ok, I will.  I think most people in this thread who are bashing GM about taking taxpayer money (myself included)  is because this thread is about a GM car.  I am buying a new truck this year and it sure as shit will not be a Ram or a Duramax.  And set a new Mustang next to a new Challenger, guess which one I am going to take?  Not Ma Mopar.

And please do not think for one second GM has payed back the "Loan" because they are far from it.