Comments on: Volt Battery Pack Too Bulky, Expensive to Compete With Hybrids, Says Study

By: CR

CR — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:22:12 +0000

This states the obvious... Why would GM still even be using cylindical Lithium Ion cells? The volt will not be in the shape of a flash light. There are other flat LI technologies that are scalable for mass market that are more efficient, take substantially less space (i.e. flat) and are more cost efficient.

Finally, nothing about this suggests that it is good news for Better Place. How is news that batteries are bigger heavier and more expensive in anyway a benefit for BP? They are going to have to fast-charge the battereis anyway for their model to work, so why swap them when you can fast-charge (level 3) them in the same time.

And FYI- BP does not have a single deal inked in North America, only Denmark and Israel. I wish the press would do some research before they start publishing reports about "deals" with Hawaii and San Francisco, etc... A mere public records search will show that they are not fully disclosing the truth in BP's press releases.

Also0 anyone notice how BP is slowly realizing that battery swapping is not going to work and are changing their business model to include charge stations? I wish they were public so we can see what type of cash and working capital they REALLY have on hand.

By: D Sakarya

D Sakarya — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:18:52 +0000

Harding surprising. GM spent a decade pissing on hybrids and propping up the hydrogen hoax.

By: thegeniusfiles

thegeniusfiles — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:08:01 +0000

What this country needs, for lack of a better term, is a Manhattan Project for alternative energy. Why is so much research wasted on finding new ways to kill people, when an equivalent amount of research in alternative energy would obviate the need to find new ways to kill people? The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan are about energy policy not terrorism. It's our patriotic duty to find alternatives to oil.

By: kerry bradshaw

kerry bradshaw — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:26:30 +0000

The Bllomberg study is seriously flawed,partly because it fails miserably in estimating the gas avoided by a Volt. GM, by the way, will be producing a 10 mile ranged plug-in Saturn. But the 40 mile ranged Volt is the only vehicle that makes sense in terms of reducing emissions. Do the simply math (apparently beyond the capabilities of Bllomberg) and you’lll see that a ten year ownership of a Volt will save $22,000 in fuel over a typical 20 MPG car of today, while a Prius will save less than $14,000.
These numbers assume $4 gas, Assume $5 gas and the Volt savings jump to over $26,000 and have an $11,000 advantage over the Prius. A 10 mile plug-in
fares much worse than the Volt in terms of fuel bills, and in less than five years, its cost advantage (now about $10,000) will shrink to less than $5,000, which is nowhere near enough to offset its poor fuel performance. I might add that the study is also foolish because 10 mile ranged plug-ins deserve a much lower subsidy from a country wanting to cut carbon emissions and reduce oil dependencies.
A Volt can avoid five times as much gasoline and carbon emissions as can a 10 mile plug-in, and people are desirous of buying cars that can make a significant diference. The plain hybrid or 10 mileranged plug-in cannot do that and doesn’t deserve any subsidies. One of the truly moronic
concepts of the study is that people buy cars on the basis of fuel costs and cost-effectiveness. Since when?