Quote:
Originally Posted by Number 3
You are simply stating anecdotal information to make your case. The ICE in a Volt just simply won't be running for most customers. I jokingly say the Volt will be the best source for hardly used 1.4 L engines down the road. The engine and drivetrain in the Volt will meet your 15 to 20 year expectation. There is no reason it wouldn't. The battery is a different discussion. You are correct, LiION batteries aren't cheap. That's why EVs are, at least for today, expensive.
And you grossly overestimate the reliability of a 15 to 20 year old car. Yes, the average vehicle on the road is something like 17 years old (there are over 300 Million cars in the U.S.) but those aren't the pinacle of reliabilty you seem to imply.
What everyone is missing is simply this. EVs are coming. Not today, not tomorrow, but with oil prices and the OMG we will run out of oil tomorrow Al Gores of the world, we will be finding ways to use less of it. The Volt is a choice that many will make. They will gladly pay the premium to have the flexibility of an EV WITH and ICE for extended driving. And in time, like most technogies, the price will come down.
And who knows, maybe there will be some other type of energy storage medium invented over the next few decades. The problem is, that today and for the forseeable future, oil is king. It's frankly just to cheap to procure, transport, store and deliver. Everything else on the planet from Bio Fuel to Hydrogen is wayyyyyy more expensive. But there is still a market for people that don't want to use gas........at all.
And yet the NUMBER ONE reason of concern for any EV purchase is .....drum roll please............RANGE ANXIETY. And that is the Volts Moon Shot.
|
Don't misunderstand me, I'm looking forward to 20 years from now when my next Camaro type vehilce comes standard with a hybrid motor. Could you imagine the boost in acceleration with the instant tourque of a electric motor?
Twenty years is just my ball park guess for the cost of all this new tech to come down, it could be less, it could be more?
Either way, yes I 100% agree the drive for hybrid and EV cars is finally where it needs to be for them to be acceptable. Enough people are willing to pay more for new technology because its what they want, even if it may not be the most logical choice. Hell, I'm a single guy with a Camaro I drive maybe 3,000 miles a year. Not a lot of people would call that logical, but its what I want to spend my money on. With that in mind if someone wants a Volt, Leaf or what have you I can't fault that. What I can fault and will continue to do so is the folks on this site that tell me this vehicles are the more logical choice right now vs. some of the most efficient gas engined cars on the market.