Recent Comments:
Obama calls GM a "sobering reminder" of U.S. economy woes {Autoblog}
Jul 15th 2008 5:13PM Excellent work filling your pointless Obama "news" quota.
GM shrinks Volt's gas tank, range drops from 600 to 360 miles {Autoblog}
Jul 9th 2008 12:53PM Good argument. No, ML, YOU don't 'get it'. Not a single sentence you wrote is accurate. The car is not 'dumbed down'. The gas tank is smaller. The car is not less capable than the import competition. No import car can run on electric power only, supplied from the grid. You then make a clueless statement about range, which shows you don't understand a) how the Volt works, b) how it's different from current hybrid vehicles, and c) why that difference is important. You then ramble on pointlessly a bit about hype and the Vega.
To repeat: the gas tank is smaller. The gas tank is smaller. The gas tank is smaller. The car is not less efficient. No innovation has been dropped. The gas tank has simply been made smaller. Do you understand yet? Can you possibly comprehend why that makes NO DIFFERENCE to the purpose and innovation of the car. No? I'll illuminate it for you, though I doubt you have the capacity to understand: the purpose is to run on grid-supplied electricity for 40 miles. That hasn't changed. That is still the promise. The distance the car can run in range-extended mode is less, because, for daily commutes of under 40 miles, in the Volt will use no gas. Ever. The size of the gas tank for the average commute is thus irrelevant. On days when you do go over 40 miles, then you have the gas engine range-extender to provide that ability. But on most days, when the average commuter goes to and from work, they don't need to drive more than 40 miles. A 600-mile gas-extended range would be almost pointless, because on the average daily commute, the size of the gas tank would NEVER EVEN COME INTO PLAY. In the Volt, on the average daily commute, not a single drop of gas would be used. And, crucially, that hasn't changed. Do you understand yet?
GM shrinks Volt's gas tank, range drops from 600 to 360 miles {Autoblog}
Jul 9th 2008 11:58AM They made the gas tank smaller. They made the gas tank smaller. They made the gas tank smaller.
Repeat it. Maybe it'll sink in. NOTHING about the fundamental nature and purpose of the car, which is the ability to drive 40 miles on electric power only, replenished from the grid, has changed. NOTHING. They simply made the gas tank smaller. I have no idea how you get 'half-assed' and 'crap' out of decision to make a 12-gallon tank smaller, unless you don't understand the purpose of the car.
Your 50-mile guess for the final 'hack' production version would require GM to make the gas tank small enough to run only 10 miles after the 40 mile electric-only range. The gas tank would be 1/5 of a gallon in that case. Does that seem likely to you? Really? And good job bringing up the Vega. A car from the '70s. How wonderfully relevant.
GM shrinks Volt's gas tank, range drops from 600 to 360 miles {Autoblog}
Jul 9th 2008 1:29AM There are truly some deep thinkers commenting on this site. 'Reducing the range' by cutting the gas tank size is about the biggest non-issue I've ever heard of. It is also completely beside the point of the Volt. If you're so worried about running out of gas on your 600-mile daily commute, buy some jerrycans, fill them, bungie them to the back of your Volt, and you're set.
This isn't a 'scam', it's not 'over-promising and under-delivering'. The key feature of the Volt, the new technology, which is that it can run 40 miles on electric power alone, still remains. That hasn't changed. If you're commute is under 40 miles, you'll be using no gas. No gas. The size of the gas tank WILL NOT MATTER. That is the point. That is the reason for this car. Repeat until it sinks in.
I don't know how fundamentally stupid one would have to be to think that the big technological leap of the Volt was the 12 gallon container the concept vehicle used to store gasoline.
Autoline on Autoblog with John McElroy {Autoblog}
Jun 27th 2008 3:11PM Wasn't the EV1 ridiculously expensive for GM to build, even setting aside development costs? It's fun to blame Big Oil and the Illuminati and the reverse vampires, like the "Who Killed ..." fantasists do, but GM makes it pretty clear they were disappointed that there just wasn't much of a market for a very pricey two-seat commuter vehicle. Gas prices notwithstanding, it's not clear that that portion of the market has suddenly changed so dramatically.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060720104044/http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/fastlane_Blog_2.html
Details and images surface of new Maserati Quattroporte and Quattroporte S {Autoblog}
Jun 23rd 2008 1:09PM This misshapen lump does a good job of upholding the previous Quattroporte's title of the Ugliest Sedan Big Money Can Buy. Maserati can be justifiably proud not to have relinquished their belt, not that any other sedan really ever came close.
For the next "freshening", Maserati designers should look to adding even more awkward out-of-place blingy fender vents. Only three abominations per side aren't enough.
Lewis Hamilton spends £200k on vanity plate {Autoblog}
Jun 19th 2008 10:19AM I guess href doesn't work. Here's the link again:
http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/splitter/2008/06/Nummernschild_fuer_Lewis_Hamilton_war_eine_Ente_08061804.html
Lewis Hamilton spends £200k on vanity plate {Autoblog}
Jun 19th 2008 10:18AM I think Hamilton is the biggest jackass in F1 today (which is saying a lot with Alonso around), but a German site reports (with no additional link) that this story is not genuine:
Link in German
Honda presents first customers at FCX Clarity Job 1 {Autoblog}
Jun 16th 2008 4:12PM Is there a convenient link to descriptions of what some of the pictures of production equipment are showing?
Renault debuts electric sedan in Israel {Autoblog}
May 16th 2008 12:36PM tankdog, if GM still had the EV1 they would be trying to figure out why, at well north of $100,000 a pop, they can't move more than a token few off dealer lots.
The Volt is no more vaporware than this electric Megane. Both are being promised for the future. Both are in development. You can't buy either now. Get that through your head. Also, the Volt is not trying to recharge a huge battery pack. It is recharging a small battery pack, one which gives about a 40-mile range.
The swappable battery pack is a fine idea, with the correct, currently non-existent, infrastructure. As a more plausible convenient near-term solution, something like the Volt makes a lot more sense, especially in the States.
