Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Awesome
Here's a news flash....
Batteries do not produce energy. I think you probably already knew that. The energy in batteries has to come from some source and get transferred to the battery and then transferred out of the battery. This process is INCREDIBLY wasteful. I prefer to drive a vehicle that is the PRIMARY energy producer and not using 2nd or 3rd generation energy that most of which has been wasted.
People who drive electric cars WASTE energy. My SS is a primary producer. I save the planet. The volt is wrecking our planet!
If the goal is to make energy somewhere and then store it in the car (battery) and use it later, why bother with expensive batteries and junk. Why not just put a couple of inexpensive compressed air tanks in the car and use the energy in the compressed air to power the car. It's the same as a battery, but costs a lot less.
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Gas engines aren't very efficient either you know. From a full tank of gas, only about 30% is actually used to move your car, the rest is wasted. I havnt seen any figures of how much energy it takes to charge a car bat, vs how much energy you get out of it. But I'm pretty certain it's better than gas.
I do have to agree with I guess both sides of the argument though.
The volt cost too much, and the whole point is to use less gas. But on the same note, all hybrid/ electric whatever cars cost too much to anyone who is really trying to save money on gas. And not for political or environmental reasons, but because they can't afford to pay high gas prices and a car that drinks it like a fish.
The volt, while is the most attractive hybrid in its price range (which isn't hard to do at all), it's still not really all that to look at. The concept looked way better To be and production version, exterior wise seems way too watered down. But does send a message that electric cars don't have to be butt ass ugly like the leaf, and Prius.
The cars are not a bad idea though, and at some point the prices will go down as more and more people buy them. It's the same with virtually any new piece of technology. Just will take some time since cars are pretty expensive to begin with, even cheap ones and new models only get built every 5 years or longer.
The plan isn't to save everyone from high gas prices this summer. It's more long term, like 20 years from now. And there will be some growing pains.
I'd rather GM, Toyota and Nissan make these cars and push the industry forward than not. So in all, it's a very good idea. Just will take some time to become a very good value, and hopefully better looks.
Oh, and I think GM should eat the cost to keep those workers from going without paychecks for 5 weeks. Not like it's going to really hurt GM the slightest, but the workers, not so much.