On 23 May 2007 15:12:02 GMT, Jim Yanik > wrote:

>Dave Head > wrote in
ps.com:
>
>> 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)
>
>you still have a gasoline engine that needs service and repair,PLUS the
>electrics(including the generator).

When's the last time you actually had an _engine_ repair? Probably the most
reliable piece in the car. And... it could be a diesel. Even more reliable.

Electrics are pretty reliable, too. Hardly anything ever goes wrong with a
motor. Bearings. Replace 'em yourself, easily. More likely for the control
electronics to go south, but this is true for engine computers too.

Meanwhile, there's that 1 to 4 ratio of the cost of electricity and the cost of
gasoline, with gasoline much more likely to get more expensive than electricity
is.

>> 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
>>
>>
>
>If you can recharge from an electric outlet in 6.5 hrs,you could plug it in
>while AT work,and double your range.

Exactly, if you can get your company to agree to that. They'd probably do so,
and would likely get incentives from the government to do so when there's a
certain density of electric vehicles on the road.

OTOH, a lot of people will be less than 20 miles from work, and not need to do
that. I would guess that daytime electricity will become more expensive than
nighttime electricity when the power grid has to start supplying electric for
both air conditioners _and_ battery charging. The thing that makes electric
cars viable immediately is the fact that the electric grid is only near
overload during the day, with very much excess capacity when the sun goes down
and we don't need the power hungry air conditioner.

>Will the Volt have airconditioning and rearwindow defrosters?

I don't know those particulars, but I'm betting it'll fail if it doesn't -
people want at least air conditioning. RW defrosting too is nice, but prolly
not a reason not to buy it.

Dave Head
You have all the rights that you're willing to fight for.