Posted on 05/10/2009 9:05:12 AM PDT by catnipman
Parade Magazine interview on 5/10/09 with Larry Burns, GM R&D chief:
... What about progress on electric cars and hydrogen-powered vehicles?
The Chevrolet Volt—which comes out in 2010—goes 40 miles on a single battery charge. We're also testing 100 hydrogen fuel cell Chevrolet Equinoxes. The beauty about fuel cells is that they can be re-energized in five minutes and go 300 miles, whereas it takes eight hours to recharge a battery that goes 40 miles.
Isn't hydrogen an infrastructure problem? No place to fill up?
There are 170,000 service stations in the U.S. How many would have to provide hydrogen so that it would never be more than two miles away? Twelve thousand. Even with a wildly high number like $2 million a station, that's just $24 billion. Also, to make gasoline, you need hydrogen. The amount of hydrogen used to make gasoline today could fuel 200 million fuel-cell vehicles. So it’s not a question of whether you can do a hydrogen infrastructure—it's a question of will.
Given the pressure on GM right now, is R&D still a big commitment?
The three U.S. auto companies are working well with the Department of Energy on prioritizing research and development, but the collaboration has to go a bit further. Toyota’s first fuel-cell cars were leased by the Japanese government for $7000 a month. We need that same kind of participation. We need to go to that next level, or we’re going to be left behind.
(Excerpt) Read more at parade.com ...
1. Gasoline is not made from hydrogen. However, hydrogen is produced from natural gas, which is nothing but hydrogen and carbon, So, guess what's left over? That's right, you guessed right: carbon! And guess what happens to it? You guessed right again! It's released into the atmosphere! And naturally, additional carbon-based fuel must be burned to produce the energy necessary to convert natural gas into hydrogen, so it would have produced less atmospheric carbon just to burn the natural gas in autos to start with.
2. And hey, only $24 billion for converting 12,000 service stations, so that there would be a service station with hydrogen every 2 miles. That would make the continental U.S. only 48,000 square miles, or approximately 219 miles by 219 miles in dimension. Well, with government education so poor, probably these reporters and their readers won't realize this. But hey, the cost will be only 24 billion dollars. Guess that's a bargain for a country that small, hey?
3. GM is collaborating with DOE on prioritizing R&D. Very scary.
4. But what's really, really, really scary is:
"Toyota’s first fuel-cell cars were leased by the Japanese government for $7000 a month. We need that same kind of participation. We need to go to that next level, or we’re going to be left behind. "
Translation: "Having directed us to develop non-economical vehicles that we already know that no one will voluntarily buy from us, the U.S. government has promised to lease fleets of these vehicles at exorbitant prices."
Actually, Larry accidentally spilled the beans about how Obama-Chrylser-GM-UAW Corporation will really operate. Spend billions of taxpayer money to prop up the living dead to build bizzaromobiles that no on will buy. Spend more billions of taxpayer dollars for electric hydrogen filling stations that no one will use, and then step in and spend billions more taxpayer dollars to buy/lease fleets of bizzaromboiles for the government.
So apparently the deal is essentially that the US-owned auto companies will subsidize UAW labor to manufacture automobiles for the U.S. government. It makes sense I suppose that auto companies owned by the government would make autos for the government.
Gee. At least they didn’t lease any tanker airplanes from Boeing for the Air Force.
Reminds me of the days of the $20,000 toilet seat or $4,000 hammer.
That’s because Boeing isn’t owned by the government (yet).
Actually the specification was "not more than two miles" not "two miles apart"
However 12000 stations, one every 4 miles, would allow for hydrogenising the 46,876 miles Interstate Highway system. But not the full 160,000 mile National Highway System (4% of the nation's roads).
Bizarro world!
With the need for gas stations to be in the 4 mile range.. guess they will have to build lots of gas stations, not just reto fit the ones that are here... In lots of places in the country,you can drive for miles and miles and more miles and not even see a regular gas station, so adding that to the cost when more stations will need to be built.. These know it all policos need to get out of the city and into the real fly over country, with one of these caskets on wheels..
Sadly, I’ve already determined that I’ll never buy another GM vehicle as long as I live. I’ve never bought a foreign car before, but I’ll buy foreign before I buy commie!
We are living in the age of insanity.
Oil, Gas in a more expensive form
IDIOTS, Morons and Pinkos infest DC
They were using that slogan 25 years ago.
I remember, because it was about three years after I got rid of my Ford Mustang II. First new car I ever got. Bought it from my uncle, who owned a Ford dealership.
Worst piece of junk I've ever owned.
My uncle, by the way, drove a Mercedes. Even he said Ford made junk.
They're always asking "have you driven a Ford lately?" because they need people to give them a second chance. Only, they don't give you your money back, so that you can have a second chance with that.
Absolutely not true. You cannot blanket cover 3 million square miles with 12,000 stations
That is just plain evil.
If they succeed in this, only government and the ruling class will have “cars.” And the “stations” needed to fill up these “cars” will be limited to just the cities. I highly doubt the vast spaces of the midwest will have any. Talk about forcing people into cities and then cutting off their mobility. A socialists wet dream.
Just Wow.
Screwing Americans with our tax dollars. Evil.
In my part of the country (mountain west) you can eaisly drive over 110 miles before coming to the next town. And there is nothing, I mean nothing in between, except rocky hills, sagebrush and jack rabbits. There is no way to build new gas stations out there as it is mostly BLM (Federal) land with no water.
4 major problems, I do not know if they are well known, so I hesitate to post. Safe to say, I do not see it happening anytime soon. There is a reason they call them "fool cells"....
My last two cars were Ford and GM. I bought a 91 Ford Explorer and put about 150k miles on it, and then a 01 Chevy Suburban which currently has about 100k miles on it. My next will probably be a Honda. I will not purchase a communist car for any reason.
Well, that’s one way to keep afloat an incompetently run and now nationalized business: force the taxpayers to pony up for over-rated and over-priced goods which no one in his right mind would buy/rent.
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