Frankly Scarlet, I don’t (care) if it has an engine or not. What difference does it make? Outside of wanting a pure totally electric car, so what? Seems to me a car with a primary electric drive system and an on board recharging system makes a whole lot more sense. You can drive it 800 miles without having to stop for a charge. Why should you have to find or map out a route based on charging stations? To me it is a design flaw.
I also see that Elon has canceled or delayed his space flight. I dunno, he may be a genius and has lots of money, but I’m starting to think he may just be a little off kilter and trying to push his own world view regardless of reality.
I think you would burn more gas with a “pure electric, plus backup gasser” than you would with the Volt. In the first scenario, you have to take the gasser anytime you might choose later to exceed the range; with the Volt, you only burn gas if those tentative plans actually come to fruition.
At this point in the game, a pure EV requires a backup ICE. As a packaging solution, putting both the EV and the ICE in one rolling chassis is a heck of a lot more space-efficient! Also, you only carry insurance on one vehicle, don’t have to use garage space…a whole lot to like with the setup.
The Volt would save my bacon because I KNOW I would forget to charge up a Leaf right when I needed to go 40 miles, or had an unexpected need crop up when I was away from home (and the gasser backup). Sure, it’s more expensive, but it’s a practical car that would solve all my transportation needs, not just some of them.
I’m starting to think he may just be a little off kilter and trying to push his own world view regardless of reality.
That’s really an unfair mis-characterization of what’s going on. The launch was delayed to try and make sure the rocket would work. Launch delays are routine in the rocket business. NASA delays launches all the time, from Shepherd’s first flight all the way up to yesterday, when it decided to delay the first launch of the SLS for an entire year.
In fact, launch delays to review the spacecraft’s systems are a good thing. If NASA had delayed the Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia launches until potentially disastrous failure modes that they were very well aware of could have been fixed, they wouldn’t have killed 17 people. That SpaceX is choosing to delay despite the potential bad press and negative public opinion actually displays greater maturity and better policy than NASA is known for.
Launch delays are normal for the US racket business. I would be surprised if there was no delay. The Japanese H2, on the other hand, has been on time for the last 18 launches. Phenomenal.
I think of the Volt as an EV/ice hybrid where most hybrids are ICE/ev hybrids. The concept makes a lot more sense to me than a car that weighs nearly 5000 pounds in order to carry enough batteries to make it 200 miles.
@texases You are correct about that forgetting to plug it in. I have done that a couple of times with the Volt. But it is nothing more than an irritation. Did not have to change any plans. Did not have to talk the wife into letting me borrow her Camry. I think it is the best concept going until we get to that hydrogen powered car. If we get to that hydrogen powered car …
BTW I’ve been seeing that Volvo is bringing out a slightly different concept. The XC90, a crossover that will seat seven. ICE driving the front wheels with an electric motor driving the rear wheels. 25 miles of electric driving. The times are a changing!
Yes, it may be an unfair characterization of Elon and I appologize if it is. Its just that my intuition meter is starting to go off signaling something not quite as it appears. Being seen as ahead of his time and a genius businessman but still not making any money on the cars and the bean counters claim that even when he does consistently make money, the ROI will be less than 1%. In addition, selling cars is not just selling the drive train, but in a couple years the styling will be stale and need updating at a major expense. Like I said, may be unfair but lots of smart people thought Bernie Madoff was a genius financial wizard too. As long as the investor money kept coming in everything was fine, but when it stopped, he was bust.
Just an impression in the back of my mind but seeing all the infra-structure building of charging stations in China in order to break into that market just made me wonder if at some point he doesn’t plan to just make more money on the charging stations and future possible fees than on the cars. Plus we still have the age old grid problem to deal with. Just sayin’ is all. I’m just not ready to join the cult.
I gotta believe 80% of the population wants to be a benefit to society. How many of us wake up thinking we want to harm society today? Stalin thought he was a benefit to society too but that’s another story. Just saying it seems like a lot of money is being thrown around with promises of great success but maybe the business plan is not as solid as it sounds. After all what hardened CEO would break ground for a million square foot facility in three different locations at the same time just to save development time? Just not the way it happens. Site selection is a major step, then design and construction begins. Then of course the answer was vertical integration to reduce costs and insure a ready battery supply, but then open sourcing patents and systems that they paid dearly to develop in the first place and give away any competitive advantage? The whole thing is just not adding up to a long term business plan. Not to be too hard on the guy and I really don’t know much about him but the alarm bells are just starting to go off.