It is really strange how GM’s cars and trucks had some of the worst mileage in all of the industry and all of a sudden, with a government check in their pocket, their mileage on all vehicles jumped 20%. Cobalt in 2006 had mileage of 24 city and 30 hwy. In 2009 they have listed 32 city and 38 highway. Yeah Right.

If you want to see the leader in AC cars look at AC Propulsion or the Tesla.

GM is Great Mistakes by Greedy Mothers.

I think this guy is correct, electric charge is discussed.coulomb open network, such as ATM machine or something similar. Maybe you have an account, a charge, small companies, if you use another person, but you still can collect all of the place. I heard the best place to and the concept. Why not? If not, they would limit their customer service.

I can’t wait to exposure! !

GM is now the leader on electric technology.

Funny how all the anti-GM soCal toyota types are all upset.

Frank

1. How can I use an all electric car for longer trips without pulling over to charge 4+ hours at a time every 50-100 miles?

- You could barely drive from SF to San Jose one way on battery with a Volt. A Telsa gets you about 200 miles, or under 4 hours of highway driving. I can drive a lot further than 200 miles in a day. If you REALLY want to use your car without being constrained to 4-6 hours of downtime in charge, you need Better Place.

2. Let’s say you’re grocery shopping and your battery is low. Let’s also say the grocery store (or other similar place, ie mall) has a charging station. Do you feel safe popping open your AC plug cap and charging your car unattended for hours?

- I don’t because in the same principle I wouldn’t be comfortable leaving my gas cap off and leaving the area. People will screw with your car in general and leaving something like an AC cap open in a public area is asking for it. I also don’t think any merchant is going to hire an extra person to keep an eye on your car. The Better Place system avoids this obstacle, too.

“If you own the battery, you won’t want to switch it – how would you know the new one is good?” – I think this can be solved with well stocked charging stations and constant testing.

“Fast charging” stations, if they do/will exist will still take hours. We can’t figure out how to 100% power up a cell phone in under 3 hours, so I don’t hold a lot of hope for the car version of this.

I still support Better Place, because their idea really solves these problems. Hopefully I’ll see it happen in my life time.

They both agree that there needs to be a battery-replacement business model. Better Places thinks it should be something like a service contract, whereas GM puts it in the price of the car/warranty.

They don’t seem to mention that both can co-exist. Look at the same business model for laptop batteries. Dell sells laptops, with batteries. They sell replacement batteries. They warranty their own batteries.

But other companies sell Dell laptop batteries too… and if these batteries were super expensive, I’m sure someone would finance them.

Why can’t GM sell their batteries, and companies like Better Place sell batteries too? Who cares how they get the money, whether it’s in the price of the car, or in a monthly rental payment.

1) Dude buys a car, with a battery.
2) Dude’s battery goes dead.
3) Dude can either:
– a) Get another battery, under warranty.
– b) Buy a battery from the same people he bought his car from.
– c) Rent a battery on lease/contract/rental agreement from Better Places.

What’s the big deal?

I think the Coulomb guy is right – EV charging has to be an open network, like ATM machines or something. Maybe you have an account with one charging company and pay a little fee if you use another one, but you can still charge every where. I heard Better Place will go with that concept too. Why wouldn’t they? If not, they’d just be limiting the number of customers they can serve.

Can’t wait to get my EV!!

I think open charging and home charging are the best long term options too. It’s dumb to think someone will spend $35k – $40k for a car that the so they won’t have to put gas in it and then pay a $100/month least on the battery for the rest of it’s life. Hell, I’m putting about 250 miles a week on my Prius and it only costs me $50 a month in gas. Gas would have to hit $5 a gallon for me to spend $100 a month in gas. And then I’m still coming out ahead because I still paid $10,000 less initial cost for the car.

But lets face it, as prices drop (the CEO of LG/Compact power says 50-75% price reduction in 5-10 years..) the window of opportunity will close for Better Place as the same pack (which lasts 10yrs + before reducing to 80% DOC) will cost as little as $2,500 by the time it’s due to be replaced.

If EVs can be engineered to accept battery packs of various sizes (not guaranteed as doubling capacity also doubles weight) there may be a longer term business ‘renting’ larger packs for weekend trips.

Most consumers are smart enough to know that they’ll get the best price in a competitive market. If GM thinks they can preclude consumers from using 3rd party services through some type of engineering of the Volt so that only GM can service/swap/charge the battery-they’ll end up finding that few people will be willing to buy the Volt int the first place.

Most people who look for an electric car are looking to ‘avoid’ the ongoing cost of buying gasoline. Period! The environmental benefit is just a perk. So trying to charge a fixed rate of est. $100/mo to rent a battery, and you still pay for your electricity makes no sense at all. I am not going to say that some consumers are not stupid, but most hybrid/electric car consumers might be thinking a bit more about their purchase.

It seems greed is raising it’s ugly head once again. Batteries should be part of the car, just like a gas tank. The consumer pays to refill the batteries/gas tank when needed. No third party companies should be trying to make profit from the batteries/gas tank.

Charging should be available and provided by our power companies who already have power lines along every roadway and every light pole in the country, along with companies offering charging in their parking lots and parking garages. This is one way for power companies to progress with technology. Unlike the post office who seems to have never thought ‘email’ would really catch on, and didn’t bother to offer a @usps.com secure email address.

This is not rocket science, but as always, greed tends to complicate things and slow progress.