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GE To Buy 25,000 EVs, Starting With the Chevy Volt
DeviceGuru writes "In what's claimed as the largest-ever single electric vehicle commitment, GE plans to acquire 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015. The buying spree will initially involve 12,000 GM vehicles, beginning with GM's Chevy Volt in 2011. By converting most of its own 30,000-strong global fleet, and promoting EV adoption among its 65,000 global fleet customers, GE hopes to be in a strong position to help deploy the vehicles' supporting infrastructure, including charging stations, circuit protection equipment, and transformers. In contrast to the all-electric Nissan Leaf, the Volt implements a small gas engine, which can recharge the vehicle's battery to extend its range beyond the 100 mile limit of all-electric cars like the Leaf, leading some to question the Volt's EV credentials."
GE plans to acquire 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015.
Do corporations get the same tax break as consumers do for electric vehicles?
If so, then GE could get a $187,500,000 tax credit (25,000 * $7,500) in the process.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
That's because Georgia is GA, not GE.
$40,000 is still not a car for the masses.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
Georgia the nation has a GDP of $20 Billion, General Electric has a revenue of $157 Billion. Odds are the government of Georgia could not afford 25,000 Chevy volts.
Everyone knows who GE is, no one cares about broke Soviet Bloc nations.
You're right. There is no infrastructure to support electric vehicles.
What we need is some kind of nation-wide distribution network for electrical power. That's probably decades away assuming you can find someone willing to spend the billions of dollars to install one.
Oh wait...
What you're missing: You charge your vehicle primarily at home - where your car spends the vast majority of its unused time anyway. Charging stations external to that are a bonus but not strictly required. For example you might have an exterior outlet on your office building you can use in lieu of a dedicated charging bollard.
If you're one of the people who think there must be an exact gas station analog in place for electric vehicles, you are wrong. The entire premise of EVs is that the "energy economy" they work in is completely different; distributed instead of centralized. Every outlet is a potential "gas station."
=Smidge=
Under normal, battery-charged conditions and under 70 MPH, the gasoline engine does not run at all.
For most folks who commute less than 20 miles per day (80% of the population, according to GM), the vehicle will always be on the battery.
Sounds like an EV to me.
I can see a family with two cars getting one all-electric vehicle. Probably 90% of the driving my family does is within the round-trip range of an EV. But right now I'm not seeing a really mass-market EV. An EV should be cheaper to manufacture than a gasoline powered car if you compare the complexities of the drive systems. EV: Battery, electric motor, differential and final drive system. Gasoline engine: Battery, ignition system, fuel tank, fuel pumps, fuel injectors, air intake, air filter, intake manifold, pistons, crankshaft, valves, cam shaft, coolant pumps, radiator, coolant thermometer, exhaust pipes, EGR valves, muffler, catalytic converter, flywheel, clutch, transmission, differential and final drives. The number of moving parts in a gasoline engine that need lubrication is huge. In an electric motor there is one. Lithium batteries are somewhat exotic and expensive but so are the precious metals they put in your catalytic converter.
I think the manufacturers are happier selling you a hybrid vehicle with two engine systems and charging you more than a gasoline powered car instead of selling you an all electric vehicle and charging less. Or they'd rather make a pure EV that is so exotic they can charge Porsche prices for it, like the Tesla. The only possible exception coming soon is the Nissan Leaf. It'll be interesting to see how Nissan does with it.
Solar + EV = win. A neighbor of mine did this and his average bill is negative $2/month. Having an EV car shortens the solar panel system installation ROI period considerably.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
a diesel gas turbine (i.e. fuel oil turbine) is more efficient than your typical diesel generator. It's effectively a jet engine.
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Wrong, there is a planetary gear between them. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/automobiles/17VOLT.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Chevy%20Volt&st=cse
At least do a little research for making ridiculous claims.
electricity demand could increase significantly
Hopefully people will wake up to the benefits of Nuclear Energy. It is in fact our only hope for future energy demands.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
For the comparison to be fair, you have to take into account the subsidies that the oil industry receives, which are not insubstantial. (In sheer dollar terms, they dwarf the subsidies that go to alternative energies.) Actually most major industrial sectors have managed to lobby for subsidies of one kind or another (whether direct cash or tax breaks).
Also worth noting is that gas has a massive infrastructure currently in place. So even if electric vehicles are cheaper in the long-term, once we reach steady-state (hence a "good idea"), it may be that they are somewhat more expensive in the short-term, as we build up our infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, and know-how (things tend to get cheaper as we engineer them better and better). In such cases, the argument for government subsidies is that the government spends a small amount of money in the short-term, subsidizing an industry that will save the populace large amounts of money in the long-term.
You may disagree with that particular analysis, and think that EVs won't be a net gain in the long-term, but saying that good ideas don't need subsidies is short-sighted.