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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."
$40,000 is still not a car for the masses.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
Switching their fleet to plugin vehicles makes a lot of sense for GE, especially in the long run. If it actually helps accelerate the rate of plugin vehicle adoption, electricity demand could increase significantly. GE would absolutely love that... it would probably help them sell more nuclear reactors, like the ESBWR (near-term) and the PRISM (long-term).
Getting tired of Slashdot... moving to Usenet comp.misc for a while.
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.
GE also sells wind turbines and probably sells the so called Smart Grid components too.
So while I think this is all a marketing plan/investment it also has general value to promote greatly reducing our use of hydrocarbon based fuels.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
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.
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