OT Chevy Volt

Well, for starters, $1.16 per kWh? Where does this guy live? According to the Department of Energy:

The three States with the highest average price of electricity in 2010 were: Hawaii (25.12=A2 per kWh) Connecticut (17.39=A2 per kWh) New York (16.31=A2 per kWh)

Those with the lowest average prices in 2010 were: Wyoming (6.20=A2 per kWh) Idaho (6.54=A2 per kWh) Kentucky (6.75=A2 per kWh)

So, with a blatant fallacy like that, I would just line a birdcage with the rest of the "article."

No, there is not.

I pay about 7 cents per KwH.

i

No, not hardly. It's not as economically efficient as a regular car when you figure in the added purchase price, but only by a little. It's the huge government subsidies that aren't figured into the operating costs that make it a stupid move.

That's the big whopper in the piece, I even balked at that one before even seeing the Snopes link - they have their energy priced 10X too high, and probably on purpose to make it sound worse.

Depending on the region and the transportation costs part of the power price of course, it's more like $0.10 to $0.12 a KWH range from a fossil-fuel fired plant, not $1.10 to $1.20.

Even less if it's generated with Hydro. Once you recover the costs of building the dams the operation and maintenance is damned cheap, and the fuel is essentially 'free'.

The only places you're going to find energy that expensive is on a small barrier island or other isolated Off Grid location where you're running and maintaining a local Diesel fired generator plant and having the fuel shipped in. Or you have to lay a new undersea transmission cable from the mainland every few years when it shorts out and fails, and they fold all those costs into the billing rates.

But that's what the Rural Electrification Administration is for, to subsidize those costs. Otherwise great swaths of the Midwest and Rockies would still be lighting their houses with Kerosene lanterns.

-->--

No. He says he pays $1.16 kWh for electricity. He's visually challenged, or he can't read an electric bill.

Another technically incompetant reporter. Sheesh.

After separating the fixed and proportional costs, I pay $0.159 per KWH. If I simply divide the bill by the consumption it looks like $0.25. I can run a gas generator for considerably less than $1.16 / KWH.

Much more significant is the cost of the battery divided by its capacity times cycle life, to give dollars per KWH. With lead-acids, solar power doesn't break even for me if the panels are free.

jsw

Ha-ha! Jesus, Gunner, whose accounts are those? Are you paying $1.16 kWh for electricity? If so, maybe that's one of your problems....

Of course not. Gummer has jumper cables going directly to the utility pole.

Are you suggesting that he's tethered to the cables to keep his heart running, or just that he runs his computers for free?

I'm generally not a fan of government subsidies, but this is an exception. This technology won't get off the ground without it. If we wait till fuel is $10 a gal to start, it will be too late.

The Volt needs more work before its ready. With just a bit more work, there should be a commuter car that will take you on short trips twice a day. That's a great potential to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Karl

Why not? I heard that was what it took to wake you up. ;-)

John B. wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

[...]

No way in the world that's true.

Gunner Asch wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

[...] [...]

A buck-sixteen per kilowatt-hour? NOBODY pays that much for electricity.

So much for your idea of "quite accurate".

Why is it that even though this technology has been around LONGER than gas engines and almost as long as cars have even been available that "Electrics need just a bit more work"???? And that everyone should have to pay for this work? How about the fact that they are NOT a practical vehicle for more than a VERY small segment of the population who in all likelihood don't even own a car now and that for the few people who actually want them now are buying NOT for any real reason other than "SEE WHAT I DO FOR THE ENVIRONMENT", Ever notice what these folks usually do with these cars? Take look at the ones who buy them, they take them out for special events and demonstrations but the rest of the time they drive the good old reliable gas burner.

A "commuter car for short trips" Just going back and forth to work for many is a 30 or more mile one way drive. What do you use while the electric car is charging? How about when a big storm hits and knocks out all the power for miles around? How do you charge up then?

"The technology just isn't there yet" Seems to be the constant cry of the folks who think that Solar/Wind/electric/hybrid items are the best way to go. Amazing when you look at how much money has been put into all of them over the years and how many outright failures there have been. You would think that after 100 plus years of research and money they would have things up and running without needing to steal money from other people to keep going.

Same thing with passenger rail. The current mantra is to build MORE high speed rail, this in areas where passenger rail was removed over the past

30-40 years because it wasn't used enough to keep it operating. Sounds just like the thing to do..

How about these companies go to the public and ask for the money instead of grants through the government. If the products look to be truly viable they will get funding. If they are a joke then they don't.

Has GM paid back all of the $13.4B they got in the bailout yet? the last figure I saw was $8.1B repaid by April of 2010.

are you referring to another subsidy? I'm not nearly as critical of the TARP program now that much of it has been paid back.

I can't believe they're trying to get $46k (merely -double- the cost of a Prius) for those things.

For $20k less, I'd go for a Toyota Camry Hybrid and be extremely happy. $25.9-27.4k. $2k upgrade from Prius to Camry? No brainer.

Makes one wonder how much they paid him for the article.

What are those, Gnu Yawk City prices?

Yup.

--snip--

Now called the RUS, or Rural Utilities Service.

-- Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. -- John Quincy Adams

I wonder how far a quiet li'l Honda EU generator would take an EV. The Hondas run 8+ hours per tank of gas. Pop that puppy in the trunk, route the exhaust out the bottom/back, and drive nonstop to Vegas from anywhere! (Well, not from Australia.)

-- Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. -- John Quincy Adams

1) If it were feasable, it would already be in the works 2) We reduce dependance on foreign oil with domestic drilling and building more refineries. ANWR, Gulf of Mexico, etc. 3) So, where do you think we get the fuel to make the electricity to power the car? Probably from electric plants that burn foreign oil. d'uh.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

I'm generally not a fan of government subsidies, but this is an exception. This technology won't get off the ground without it. If we wait till fuel is $10 a gal to start, it will be too late.

The Volt needs more work before its ready. With just a bit more work, there should be a commuter car that will take you on short trips twice a day. That's a great potential to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Karl

That's better than anything I could have written.

Go, man, go!

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

Why is it that even though this technology has been around LONGER than gas engines and almost as long as cars have even been available that "Electrics need just a bit more work"???? And that everyone should have to pay for this work? How about the fact that they are NOT a practical vehicle for more than a VERY small segment of the population who in all likelihood don't even own a car now and that for the few people who actually want them now are buying NOT for any real reason other than "SEE WHAT I DO FOR THE ENVIRONMENT", Ever notice what these folks usually do with these cars? Take look at the ones who buy them, they take them out for special events and demonstrations but the rest of the time they drive the good old reliable gas burner.

A "commuter car for short trips" Just going back and forth to work for many is a 30 or more mile one way drive. What do you use while the electric car is charging? How about when a big storm hits and knocks out all the power for miles around? How do you charge up then?

"The technology just isn't there yet" Seems to be the constant cry of the folks who think that Solar/Wind/electric/hybrid items are the best way to go. Amazing when you look at how much money has been put into all of them over the years and how many outright failures there have been. You would think that after 100 plus years of research and money they would have things up and running without needing to steal money from other people to keep going.

Same thing with passenger rail. The current mantra is to build MORE high speed rail, this in areas where passenger rail was removed over the past

30-40 years because it wasn't used enough to keep it operating. Sounds just like the thing to do..

How about these companies go to the public and ask for the money instead of grants through the government. If the products look to be truly viable they will get funding. If they are a joke then they don't.

Easier just to drive a Honda automobile.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

I wonder how far a quiet li'l Honda EU generator would take an EV. The Hondas run 8+ hours per tank of gas. Pop that puppy in the trunk, route the exhaust out the bottom/back, and drive nonstop to Vegas from anywhere! (Well, not from Australia.)

-- Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. -- John Quincy Adams