Posted on 03/02/2011 3:45:10 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Ford's chief financial officer has warned predictions of a surge in electric car sales are "very ambitious", as next generation vehicles dominate the Geneva Motor Show.
Lewis Booth, a Briton, raised concerns about their viability without state subsidies. Most leading car makers have unveiled new electric or hybrid models in Geneva, while BMW and Peugeot have confirmed a €100m (£85m) joint venture to develop electric technologies.
However, Mr Booth said: "Electric vehicles at the moment are still very expensive and have limitations. There is a question mark about how long governments can subsidise vehicles when they are under so much pressure from other funding issues.
"Some of the sales projections... for electric vehicles are very ambitious because I am not sure how customers are going to be able to afford to pay.
"Our philosophy is that we have a suite of technologies, from continuing to improve conventional vehicles, right through to plug-ins, hybrids and electric vehicles. The customer is going to decide and we want to satisfy all customers, not just rich customers."
Philippe Varin, chief executive of Peugeot, warned Europe is in danger of being left behind by Asia and America if it does not improve investment in infrastructure for low-carbon vehicles. "We have to standardise infrastructure. We are late compared to Asia," he said.
"When you look at the amount of money supporting car manufacturing in
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“I’m not for evs as a single solution, but I want to cut off the muzzies from the 100s of billions we send them. Evs and nat gas look like the winners to me.”
Plus nuclear.
If Johnny (& Chang) jumps off the roof of the building are you going to?
“The Chevy Volt costs $41,000 — and I think that’s AFTER a $7,500 subsidy from the federal government.
As someone pointed out on another thread: if you multiply that by the number of Volts that Chevy wants to sell this year, it’s nearly a billion dollars.”
To make it even worse, just TRY to get one for 41,000. The typical “premium” at the dealership is 5K - so, actually, the Chinese are subsidizing the government that owns a good part of GM, which is actually subsidizing the dealer, not the buyer of the car, who will be stuck paying for the government subsidy so that the Chinese can be repaid, with, they hope, interest.
The system works! Uhhh.....NOT.
yes
evs powered by domestic coal and nuke generated juice
You do realize the Volt has a gas engine on board as a range extender don’t you?
That’s what makes it unique (and more expensive), as compared to the Nissan Leaf which is battery only.
Ditto that!
How GM “Lied” About The Electric Car
The Chevy Volt has been hailed as General Motors’ electric savior. Now, as GM officially rolls out the Volt this week for public consumption, we’re told the much-touted fuel economy was misstated and GM “lied” about the car being all-electric.
http://jalopnik.com/5661051/how-gm-lied-about-the-electric-car
The article says that the engine kicks in and provides torque when you are above 70mph. That’s not an all electric, that’s a hybrid.( A hybrid that doesn’t even top 40 mpg.)
Why would the rick drive such trash??
My test for electric cars is if I can drive it from New Jersey to Tampa in 24 hours. If not, than they are a waste of time.
I’m not thrilled.
But I do believe FReepers have an obligation to correct factual errors in posts.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm
The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can’t Have
Good for Ford!
We keep our house at 72°F 24/7.
It’s doctors orders because of my wife having cold agglutinin disease.
GM’s sales goal for the Volt for 2011 is 10,000 units.
At $7,500 each (max) in subsidy, that’s $75 million at a maximum, assuming that every buyer has $7,500 in taxes they can offset.
Not peanuts, not what I would call a wise expenditure, but a LONG way from $1 billion.
We keep; our thermostat at 68 degrees. It gets a tad chilly in here, especially at night. We have blankets, sweaters and heavy robes handily available. I can hardly wait for the warmth of summer.
There are lots of vehicles sold in Europe that we can't have that get superb mileage. I really miss my old VW rabbit diesel hatchback that got around 40-50 mpg all the time. There really is no equivalent vehicle sold these days in this country.
Unfortunately the USEPA really limited diesels with severe emission limits. The amount of claptrap on the 2010 diesels is amazing.
Buying an electric car with our current electrical grid in America is like buying zeppelin stock.
It will fly, but when it fails it will do so with flaming glory.
68°F is way too cold for the old curmudgeon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.