Opel Eco-Speedster

[Jay_LHD3]

This car was first shown in 2002. Nine years ago, what happened? We should be mass producing these by now.

[Brokinarrow]

Originally Posted by Jay_LHD3

This car was first shown in 2002. Nine years ago, what happened? We should be mass producing these by now.

I'm going to guess that a large oil company bought the design and buried it.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Jay_LHD3

This car was first shown in 2002. Nine years ago, what happened? We should be mass producing these by now.

I'd be willing to bet that that each one probably costs at least a quarter million dollars, lacks any and all comfort features, and would never pass any sort of safety standards. Improving any one of those areas would add weight & make it less efficient.

Originally Posted by Brokinarrow

I'm going to guess that a large oil company bought the design and buried it.

GM usually doesn't sell their technology. They'll license it, sure. But selling it? Not very often. They are highly protective of their intellectual property and they don't let things that could be a competitive advantage for them slip away easily.

The only way I can see GM selling it is if they felt that there was more money to be made by selling the tech than by producing the car. If it had potential, it would be worth a lot of money. So for a company to buy it, they'd have to cut a rather substantial cheque for it. Massive one time payments show up rather easily in the financial reports of publicly traded companies like GM. The media looks through those reports and tends to talk about things like a $250,000,000 (estimate) transaction from, lets say ... Exxon-Mobil, to General Motors, they sorta latch onto such stories because they'd support conspiracy claims that the auto industry & big oil are in cahoots. Since I recall no story remotely close to that happening, in the last decade I'm inclined to believe it never happened and fall back on the more logical course of action I stated in the first part of my reply.

[Jay_LHD3]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

I'd be willing to bet that that each one probably costs at least a quarter million dollars, lacks any and all comfort features, and would never pass any sort of safety standards. Improving any one of those areas would add weight & make it less efficient.

Good point, but I was just thinking if they could do this 10 years ago...

I wonder if it was a kit car, that you assembled in your garage, how many would sell, especially if it came in under $40,000?

It would be like the 'Ultima GTR', but with great fuel mileage instead of just raw power!