CAFE: GM Spokesman Sets "Very Conservative Expectations" On Initial Volt Production

[666666]

thanks a lot !

[Chaz_23]

The key being the word "could." But textbook economics is one thing, reality another.

Originally Posted by goblue

Americans who understand macroeconomics understand how raising the gas tax could paradoxically make gas cheaper overall.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by AMcA

I think an even bigger issue than testing and design is the supply chain. You don't just call up Pep Boys and order batteries for 50,000 plug-in hybrids.

You've gotta find someone who CAN make them, and who CAN BE TRUSTED to do the job reliably, who then has to BUILD a factory to build them. And then your trustworthy supplier needs to find a boatload of suppliers it can trust.

And even then you can hit unforeseen product issues with your batteries and other special Volt-specific components.

The Volt will start out small, and by the time it gets into big volume production, who knows where Hydrogen will be...

Meanwhile, GM will need a hyper-fuel efficient car based on more traditional technology. Or just let the Japanese and Europeans corner that market.

[AMcA]

Originally Posted by Ming

And even then you can hit unforeseen product issues with your batteries and other special Volt-specific components.

The Volt will start out small, and by the time it gets into big volume production, who knows where Hydrogen will be...

Meanwhile, GM will need a hyper-fuel efficient car based on more traditional technology. Or just let the Japanese and Europeans corner that market.

Let me boldly predict, Ming: hydrogen will be nowhere. There's absolutely no infrastructure to distribute it. There's no extra supply margin of electricity that could be used to generate it. Hydrogen, if it's going to happen, will require a shift so massive, and investments so huge, that it will be decades - that's plural "decades" - before it comes into anything like general use.

[smith7629]

The government should know better. We get beat up all the time in defense acquisitions because we put a requirement out for bidding that really can only be answered by one company. The various agencies in gov't acquisitions can make us change our requirement so that it promotes competition and gives other companies a chance to bid. Here I see the same thing....put out a requirement that obviously can only be met by a car company that specializes in small cars will kill our domestics. Companies that make full size trucks and vans are important for supporting many industries within the United States. We need to rethink this.

[davefr]

Originally Posted by Hoboken Tim

We should scrap CAFE, and replace it with a gas tax.

What planet are you from "baby einstein". We already have a ton of gas taxes!!