I too drive an electric car. There are other options to a tow. Just knocking on the nearest door has always worked for me. Explain the situation, offer to pay for the juice, and have a book to read while you're charging. I have yet to have anyone accept payment, but I would be happy to pay. A lot cheaper than a tow truck.

Running out is a rare occurrence. Even the local Stop & Shop was happy to help once. There are electrical outlets everywhere. Just ask permission and offer to pay.

What sort of moron would calculate the miles per gallon of an electric car? It would have to be a very stupid government agency.

Sure, I am aware of the weight disadvantage of lead acid batteries. I am also aware of the current cost and technical disadvantages of Lion.

GM could build the Volt tomorrow. The concept doesn’t require any battery development. They could even use lead acid batteries.If the plug in range is 30 miles instead of 40, is this a reason not to build it? Is a $1000 battery pack that has to be replaced every 5 years or 50,000 miles really inferior to a $20,000 battery pack that would last for 200,000 miles? GM keeps coming up with reasons for delay which make no sense.

They have had this vehicle on the drawing board since 1999. They are frittering away yet another opportunity to be a world automotive leader. One has to wonder why.

The car they build could be aimed at the niche markets (as is the Hummer) and be wildly successful. They seem unwilling to build anything until it can have all the performance characteristics and serve the same market as the Buick. The niches made up of: the save the earth group plus the early adopters of any new technology, plus those who want to save fuel plus those who like the idea of an electric car plus those who are tired of the costly maintenance of ICE cars plus other groups I haven’t thought about could insure that GM’s production for the first few years would be sold.

Stop creating new excuses and start building cars.

Right. Such a terrible car that the owners were sueing GM to try to buy them. The cars they crushed were already built. GM would have invested nothing to sell them except lawyers cost to draft an "as is" bill of sale.

They had buyers with cash in hand. Whether the cars were good or bad is irrelevant to the discussion. They could have been sold. GM chose to remove them from the market. Personally I think it was to avoid making the other crap they were (are) selling look bad.
storm