29 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Sparky Cars”

  1. Someone should have pointed out that COAL was powering the electric car when gas wasn’t to the guy who kept insisting that using less gasoline was a good in and of itself therefore justifying the development and expense of electric cars.

  2. Rush’s Clint Eastwood commercial remake is much better than the original.
    The Volt makes the Edsel look the car of the century.

  3. The Volt makes the Edsel look the car of the century.
    Posted by: Ken (Kulak) at February 7, 2012 5:30 PM
    Indeed.
    If memory serves me correctly, about 50,000 Edsels were made over a two or three year period – and they all eventually sold. And that’s when the US population was only about 175 million.
    Contrast that with volt sales and today’s US population.

  6. The Volt is nothing more than a very expensive golf cart. Buying one of these is akin to shutting off your lights during Earth Hour,except that you’re out a truck full of money,and the neighbourhood kids know who to target around hallowe’en.

  7. Now,now.Let’s be fair.It’s not Gubermint Motors fault they forgot to give Bob a 10 mile long extension cord to power it on coal when it wasn’t running on evil gas.Twits doesn’t even begin to describe the idjits who are suckered into these “cars”.

  8. Is that for real? So someone walking at 3mph would easily defeat the (electric only) Chevy Volt in the 24 hours of Le Mans?

  12. In new York the volt is likely Quebec/labrador hydro or nuclear powered as much as it is coal powered.

  13. I can sell him a 200lb tank of compressed phairy phart gas to attach to his Volt that will allow him to drive guilt free forever.
    Pls contact me for pricing and also deals on a couple of slightly used bridges I have for sale as well.
    You can trust me, I’m Green.

  14. The comparison is made in the video to the Nissan electric car, I haven’t seen any news coverage of how much they’ve taken in subsidies from Japan.
    anyone know?

  15. Never mind the stupid car,who was that gorgeous brunette with the long legs on Fox News? I don’t remember a word she said but I sure enjoyed watching her say it!
    Speaking of cars,the local manager of our creamery in Manitoba was a big fan of the Edsel and bought a new one every year they were produced. I was just a kid,but I thought they were a beautiful car.Don’t know what they had under the hood,but it sure sounded powerful,big V-8 for certain.
    They went a hell of a lot further than 25 miles on a tank.

  16. JMM, I believe there were 110,000 Edsels sold.
    Posted by: Dystopian Optimist at February 7, 2012 7:09 PM
    Could well be. Makes the point even better, doesn’t it?

  17. In new York the volt is likely Quebec/labrador hydro or nuclear powered as much as it is coal powered.
    The national grid in the lower 48 is all interconnected. Coal provides about 50% of the total electricity so any electric car is about 50% coal powered unless it’s charged by a stand-alone solar array.

  18. The Volt has made the Edsel a winner.
    Worst car ever. Most expensive piece of Union made junk ever. All due to stolen tax monies given to green robber barons. By the way Clint East wood will never live down that commercial he was suckered into.

  20. Difficult to comprehend the workings of an enviro fanatic mind who favours wind and sun generated electricty and consumer electric golf carts in the same breath. Better to skip the middle stage and go for straight wind powered cars. Rumour has it Dalton McGuinty already has a team working on his next big Green idea, should be ready in time for the next election.

  23. They didn’t mention that the Volt battery construction process is so polluting it’s done in South Korea.
    The Leaf first generation battery is air cooled which will shorten its useful life to some yet to be determined extent.

  24. The purchase subsidies are what drives me crazy. GM being government owned, that one has less to do with Electric cars and vice versa. Although I am pretty sure this was a condition of the bailout.
    Point being companies build experiments all the time, part of being a company.
    I thought Ford’s approach was better, and will probably win. Which was to ride the “S” curve on internal combustion a little further and get more mileage and power out of it. Ultimately, one day, there will be electric cars….just not yet and not on a mass produced basis.
    Reminds me of the battle between Intel and Sun(and others) on CISC vs RISC chips. Intel was criticized for continuing to live in the CISC world and RISC had all these benefits that were going to just blow the doors off the computer world.
    Bottom line, Intel kept finding, and continus to find ways to extend the benefits of its CISC architecture. Ultimately technology and needs have caught up to blur the lines so that CISC and RISC are distintictions without a difference now.
    Electric has its advantages but what drove the mania was the idea that we would not have access to fossil fuels (period) and that the cost was going through the roof. All that may be true in the long long run, but forcing “strategic “change like they tried is either incredibly wise or incredibly stupid but in all cases extroidinarily expensive.
    Ford’s bets on Ecoboost, Direct injection etc has added power, extended mileage and reduced weight…and ideally cost in the long run. As well there is probably more to be gained out the technology. Internal combustion is still on the neck of the “s”, electric power for ehicles is still at the base of the “s” and hasnt turned the corner yet.
    And none if this is meant to denegrate the really interesting engineering that the GM engineers and designers accomplished. For all the slagging of the Volt there is some good work in there. However, from a product perspective it just isnt there yet. Thnak goodness they are limititng production and containing their investment, ok its contained on a sprawling ranch rather than a little pen, but it isnt free range like other things they have done.
    Shame, I love …the idea of an electric car….but the practicalities arent there yet.

  25. For a warm climate with lots of sun and geography that traps pollution like urban California, electric cars make good sense. For a vast cold harsh climate like Canada, electric cars don’t make much sense at all. Our transportation solutions don’t have to be one-size-fits-all.

  26. Stephen, I always liked the very high efficiency of the electric motor also. The problem is the battery, and there’s simply no solution in sight, or even possible.

  27. I’m concerned that this darned Volt has the potential to sully Detroit’s sterling reputation.

  28. The Volt gets 30mpg. My crew-cab gets 20mpg and is about as big as three Volts. The VW TDI gets -50mpg- and costs less than the Volt.
    If you have a Volt and want to really gets some mileage, rip out all the complicated electric crap, shoehorn a VW TDI engine in there, add some water injection and you’re golden. Best part, you won’t have to replace the friggin’ $20,000 battery in five years.

  29. Which means that the Volt in my copy of Forza 4 on my Xbox gets better mileage than the real thing. And no, I s**t you not – they put the thing in the game, next to Ferraris and the Bugatti Veyron. (The Leaf is in there, too.) It must be there so gearheads can slam it into the wall over and over at the Brickyard at Indy.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation