Unlike the fond hopes of politicians, the Chevrolet Volt isn’t quite the revolutionary breakthrough in transportation we’ve been promised:
The electric Chevrolet Volt will roll off the assembly lines next year.
The price is a staggering $41,000 US — a BMW price for a Chevy.
Price isn’t the only clanger here. The car can only travel for about 65 km on an electric charge. After that, it fires up a gas-powered engine like everything else on the road. So much for reduce, reuse, recycle — this is a car with two engines. Hummers only have one.
And Hummers don’t have a massive battery that’s about as easy to dispose of when the car’s finally done as a tub of PCBs.
The Volt is more than twice as expensive as its non-electric counterparts. It can’t drive far enough to get from one city to another. And when your Volt has a low battery, it literally takes hours to recharge. So maybe it will ready to go when you need it. Maybe it won’t.
I checked; the name “Smart Car” is already taken, but “Dumb Car” is available.
GM knows this. Which is why it plans to produce only 10,000 of them next year.
I’m very much in favour of an economical electric car: the Volt doesn’t meet that definition. It’s been rushed to market for political, not for economic reasons. It’ll be kept in the market regardless of sales figures for the same reason: it allows Barack Obama and senate leaders to point at the Volt as tangible proof that they care about the environment and reducing American dependence on foreign oil.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rob Lewis, Nicholas Russon. Nicholas Russon said: The Chevy Volt should be called the milliVolt (@ezralevant) – http://is.gd/e0cX9 […]
Pingback by Tweets that mention The Chevy Volt should be called the milliVolt « Quotulatiousness -- Topsy.com — August 3, 2010 @ 08:30
wow! nice!!!
Comment by tchibo gutschein — August 5, 2010 @ 04:24