Dave Head wrote:
> I am thinking about the launch of the Chevy Volt sometime on or about
> year 2010. This is an electric car with an internal engine that is
> designed to run only when the battery becomes discharged enough to
> need it. Otherwise, the car is supposed to run 40 'city' miles on a
> charge that requires 6.5 hours to accomplish.
>
> Now, how many people can get by with <40 miles of driving a day? I
> think a whale of a lot of them. With an overnight charge, a huge
> number of people could get where they need to go, and back again,
> without burning a drop of gasoline/diesel/ethanol/whatever. The
> energy could be transferred to sources that the USA has plenty of
> within its borders - coal, nuclear, wind, and maybe eventually solar,
> geothermal, etc.
>
> Not only does this seem to me to be a great breakthru, but it should
> make economic sense as well. The price of electricity to go the same
> distance as the gasoline required to do it is said to be one quarter
> as much. For those who don't hit the road for long distances very
> much, not buying a drop of gasoline all year would be a significant
> savings, especially if they can buy this car for 100% of their needs.
> The car should have an unusually high resale value as there are fewer
> moving parts that are easier to repair (electric motors are dead-
> simple in this respect) and by the time the car expends its battery,
> battery technology _should_ be such that a replacement battery will be
> even cheaper than it will be upon initial release of the car.
>
> So, is the Chevy Volt the beginning of the end of the oil problem, the
> refining capacity problem, and other oil-related problems?
>
> Dave Head
>

HAHAHA. Another stupid expensive technological solution. The answer to
the oil problem is smaller cars and lower speeds.