View Single Post
Old 07-04-2010, 02:44 PM   #82
Mr. Wyndham
I used to be Dragoneye...
 
Mr. Wyndham's Avatar
 
Drives: 2018 ZL1 1LE
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 31,873
Send a message via AIM to Mr. Wyndham
Electric Infrastructure isn't impossible...it would require replaceable batteries...think...flashlights. When the light dies, you put in a new battery -- but if you have rechargeable batteries, they can sit on the counter till you need them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HeHasReturned View Post
A. Bob Lutz was the North American chairman, therefore, he is representative of the entire company as far as North America is concerned.
B. The electric cars you have brought up were not mass produced electric cars for the masses. The ev1 you mentioned: 1000 cars produced over 4 years, and those were only leased out. How about the Leaf: 150,000 cars will be produced annually just at the Smyrna plant in Tennessee. It will be the first mass produced electric car for the market. You cannot possibly say that electric cars are not feasible for the masses until you have one that is built for the masses with proper infrastructure. Nissan has partnered with the government to get charging stations built, and estimates range as high as 11,000 charging stations.
You know what, I'll agree with you, it was intelligence that held back automakers from mass producing electric cars. But not in the way you think. You seem to think that automakers were intelligent enough to know not to build electric cars because they weren't "feasible," based off a half-assed attempt by GM and a few other startups. I think in fact that they weren't intelligent enough to figure out how to mass produce electric cars succesfully. Only now has Nissan really solved the problem by lobbying for infrastructure. They needed somebody like Tesla to come along and start something up. It's like Lutz said, "If some Silicon Valley start-up can solve this equation, no one is going to tell me anymore that it's unfeasible."
I'm not going to respond point by point...but I will say you strike me as intent on believing what you WANT to believe...rather than what's actually true. All your "proof" is debatable at best...and I have to agree with DGthe3's assessment of the situation.

Battery technology has developed exponentially over the past decade...since the EV1. None of the cars today could have existed back then...the EV1 proved that...it was impractical, expensive, and underperforming...so it isn't very fair to start drawing a timeline and attach any sort of pioneer label on one company...
__________________
"Keep the faith." - Fbodfather
Mr. Wyndham is offline   Reply With Quote