What’s Wrong With This Video?: Just Slap a Volt in There Edition

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10 Comments on “What’s Wrong With This Video?: Just Slap a Volt in There Edition...”

• 	Shogun June 29th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
  And this is a commercial from the ’90s?
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• 	Syke June 29th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
  Nothing really wrong in the ad. What was wrong is that all those eco-weenies who claimed they’d be interested in owning one weren’t. Once they saw the price. Guess ecological correctness has it’s limits.
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• 	David Holzman June 29th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
  it’s very low on info content. But this sort of thing works for about 80% of H. sapiens. So what’s wrong with it? That it catered to a very low common denominator. And probably did a pretty bad job of it. I’d say good on them for not airing that. If they had hired our own Bertel Schmidt, maybe they would have had a lot more sales.
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• 	andrichrose June 29th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
  Syke , I think you will find that the car was never offered for sale to the general public at any price !
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• 	joeaverage June 29th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
  Had they sold them – I mean actually put a pricetag on them – they would have had plenty of buyers. Lots of people wanted these cars and GM crushed them instead. Toyota SOLD their electric RAV4-EV at the end. They had started with a leasing program and in the end SOLD them. So did Ford. They SOLD the Ranger-EV. There is a RAV4-EV on Ebay right now. Will prob go for about $50K with 90K miles on it. There is a market for ~100 mile range EVs that are a normal size and a normal appearance. Not as much market for space pod looking things that only go ~25 mph and very short ranges. People don’t have much desire to own a toy but there are plenty of people who would buy a real car powered by GOOD batteries. I refer you to the patent encumberence that GM preformed with Chevron and the facts behind how they sued Toyota to make Toyota stop building EVs with the NiMH battery… Wikipedia has the whole story. Do I want a Volt? No. Do I want something like a VW Jetta wagon or Opel Astra or Civic with EV power only? Absolutely. If I need to go cross country then I’ll take our other car – the gasoline powered car. 100 miles range far exceeds both of our commutes – the wife’s and mine. Even pretty much gets us to grandma’s house too.
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• 	gslippy June 29th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
  The ad is just as vapid as most other car ads from any era – I think most of them are extremely uninformative; they mostly rely on feelings to sell product. Computer graphics and car-blown leaves don’t tell me anything about quality or performance. An EV car is OK if the expectations are set properly: * single fuel (unlike the duel-fuel Volt) * limited range (whether 40 miles or Tesla’s claimed 244 miles, you can’t instantly top up) * relatively low value, when compared to other IC-powered vehicles. “Value” = performance, purchase costs, maintenance costs, safety, vehicle utility, etc. per dollar.
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• 	djn June 29th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
  I actually rented one of these from Budget at LAX and drove it on the 405 to Torrance. I got concerned about the rapid batter drain and how to get it recharged so I swapped it for a normal rental car. Cool looking, drove great, but its low the ground profile was a little scary in heavy traffic on the 405.
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• 	lw June 30th, 2009 at 12:02 am
  The gmev.com website at the end still works.. Reroutes to the Chevy Volt page.. I’m impressed. I was expecting a great lease offer on an EV-1 at the site.
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• 	cleek June 30th, 2009 at 8:22 am
  joeaverage : June 29th, 2009 at 5:45 pm Had they sold them – I mean actually put a pricetag on them – they would have had plenty of buyers. Lots of people wanted these cars and GM crushed them instead. Toyota SOLD their electric RAV4-EV at the end. They had started with a leasing program and in the end SOLD them. So did Ford. They SOLD the Ranger-EV. There is a RAV4-EV on Ebay right now. Will prob go for about $50K with 90K miles on it Note that common denominator of all of the EVA programs is that they came to halt. Disposition of the leavings is an artifact of the respective corporate cultures, not a conspiracy as some would claim. Clearly there was/is a market for these mules — albeit at the scrap price. I believe that Ford simply signed the EV-Rangers over to the owners with a release from any and all liability.
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• 	savuporo July 2nd, 2009 at 6:21 am
  So what exactly has been changed since http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1#EV1_series_hybrid ? They quit tinkering around with turbines and stirlings and slap a piston generator in it. Thats all. Oh, and changing the battery from proven cheapish NiMH to unproven LiFePO4 as well. And this takes them 2011-1998, 13 years ??
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