GM Working on Feasible Electric Car

WindBourne writes "While Ford wants to simply offer cosmetic changes to automobiles interiors and exteriors, General Motors has finally gotten the message about electric autos. They are about to introduce the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid which gets 40 Miles on a charge, but has a generator that can keep the auto going up to 640 miles range. From a styling POV, it is not a tesla, but it is also not a focus or a pinto. From the Rocky article: 'GM did not release cost estimates but said they recognize the Volt's price will have to be competitive. Company Vice Chairman Robert Lutz said in a statement that more than half of Americans live less than 20 miles from their workplace and could go to work and back on a single charge.'"

Comments

Is electric really better?

[rbf2000]

These car companies seem to think that electric cars are the way to go. A lot of people like them because they are cleaner and cause less pollution. However, a lot of electricity is made by burning coal, which is not exactly a clean process. Also, transporting electricity is extremely inefficient. Depending on the length of the cable run, up to 50% of the electricity is lost, which means that even more coal has to be burned to compensate for that. Also, electricity is not stored very efficiently, either.

I don't know which is actually more efficient, burning fuel at the point of use, or creating electricity, transporting it over power lines, and then storing it on a battery, but I know that the actual benefit is not nearly as much as the perceived benefit.

Hybrid cars are a better idea, IMO, but I think I'll stick with regular gas until they come up with something like a hydrogen powered car.

Re:The myth of the electric car

[timmarhy]

people who poo poo the electric car are always morons who don't understand even the basics of electric motors or how the cars work. in a nut shell, electric motors are 98% efficent, compared to about 30% for THE best combustion engines. the generation of the power at power plants is also many times more effiecent then if you were to try do it with your own combustion engine, so the argument that your having to burn fossil fuels anyway doesn't hold up (not to mention you don't need fossil fuels to make electricity). the only downside to electrical cars right now is replacment of batteries, which requires the disposal of toxic chemicals, which can be mostly recycled into new batteries anyway.

Re:Idiotic rational

[Skreems]

Oddly enough, it's usually the people that love driving big heavy cars that also bitch like hell when anyone suggests making them actually pay for ALL the resources they're using up in the process... wonder if the GP is one of them...