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Chevrolet Unveils 200-Mile Bolt EV At Detroit Auto Show
MikeChino writes Tesla, take cover – General Motors is taking aim at the affordable electric vehicle market with the brand new Chevy Bolt, which was just unveiled at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show. The all-electric vehicle is able to travel 200 miles on a single charge, and it will cost about $30,000 – which puts it squarely in the ring with the Tesla Model 3. According to the article, "Chevrolet is planning to launch the Bolt EV in 2017, and inside sources say that it will be available in all 50 states."
Just for reference, the average-priced car is unaffordable by the average-income household.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
While that makes sense, the claim of the article is that car prices are rising relative to household income -- in other words, it implies that the average new car used to be affordable, that it now is no longer so, and that it's continuing to become increasingly unaffordable.
This, I can agree with. There's no legitimate reason why cheap, lightweight cars like the Honda CRX (better fuel economy than a modern Prius... in 1988!) are effectively no longer allowed to be made. (And before somebody tries to use something like an Elio as a counterexample... it's not. It's a damn motorcycle.)
That's a strawman argument: the average household can indeed afford a $200 per month car payment, but that $200 per month is only enough to get you a cheap, lower-than-average car! The article never made any claim that the average household couldn't afford a car at all; only that it couldn't afford an average one.
It's also a strawman for a different reason: the minimum wage is not $1980 per month! First of all, $1980 / 160 hours (full time for a month) = $12.375 per hour, which is simply wrong. Federal minimum wage is actually $7.25 per hour, which would add up to $1160 per month. Second, federal minimum wage is per hour, not per month, and most minimum-wage workers aren't allowed by their employers to work a full 160 hours per month even if they want to, so the minimum "monthly" wage is even less than that.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Tesla would seemingly need the battery cost reductions from their "GigaFactory" to get the cost of their 200-mile electric car down to $35,000, and Chevy is going to sell a 200-mile EV for $30,000 without those cost reductions?
Something's gotta give to pull that off.
Nissan's 2016 LEAF is going to have a 200+-mile range, and will also be sub-$30K.
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No one will admit to it,... but either OPEC is trying to destroy the US Shale-Oil business by pushing the price of oil through the floor.
It's really weird that you feel like no one will admit to it, and that it's speculation "on your part". This is widely known. It is not a secret. It is a workable and working strategy. This is not a conspiracy theory, it is reality. I've seen probably a dozen articles on it, and it's the topic of discussion on both NPR and conservative talk radio. Rest assured, the price will rise again.
The saudi's paid some very smart investment analysts to determine the burn down rate of new wells, pipelines and capacity in north america, and compare that to global markets. Their reserve value will outlast the shale oil investment costs, you can be sure. They also decided to punish the other OPEC states for previous non-cooperation in price fixing at the same time, and this will cause those competitors to deplete reserves faster too. It's a triple win for them. Win/win/win.