Recent Comments:
GM teams with utilities to develop electric car charging infrastructure {Engadget}
Jul 24th 2008 1:35AM Maybe I'm just too uncool to follow the GM bashing trend, but you have to realize some things that don't make it into your narrow field of entertainment news where facts don't really matter: in 2007, GM's commercial products reduced the carbon footprint of north america more than all of the Prius owners combined.
Yup, GM makes fuel cell buses that have become very popular in green cities. The amount of fuel that these vehicles save is more than all of Toyota's little jems combined.
Perhaps it is you who is hitting the bong my friend. Don't forget to exhale after the second chamber has depleted, because all of the GM executives have taken a pay cut with the plant closings and they have withheld the latest quarterly dividend payouts to boot.
Thirdly, GM makes lots of fuel efficient vehicles. They have more hybrid models than any other manufacturer. They have the more small block small and medium vehicles than any other manufacturer. They have the most fuel efficient SUVs and pickup trucks in the market place. I don't see where you get off complaining about them.
Maybe you don't like the Hummer, because it is a ridiculous gas guzzler. Did you know that an Audi station wagon is on the governments worst gas guzzler list, and it has the same fuel economy as the Hummer H2? Do you even know off hand what the H2's fuel economy is, or do you just go the easy way, with the masses and make the exaggerated remarks that are widely believed?
I hate to sound like a GM fanboy, but it's nice to defend the big guy when the perception of him couldn't be further from the truth.
Java homebrew devkit for the PS3 emerges, nobody cares {Engadget}
Jul 23rd 2008 10:35AM What's wrong with JAVA? I can understand your comment if you're talking about javascript, but Java runs some of the most powerful systems in the world. Your bank probably uses Java for your online banking and the Banks take security and performance very seriously.
GM teams with utilities to develop electric car charging infrastructure {Engadget}
Jul 23rd 2008 1:34AM @Ill Trooper
Do you have any sources other than "Who Killed the Electric Car"?
It might be hard for you to understand this, but when you spend $1 million/car on a project, you don't kill the project because big oil wants you to. GM does not have to answer to big oil, GM is much larger than they are and has sued most of them at some point or another (inform yourself cornball).
I know that documentary is very persuasive at convincing people that General Motors thought the Electric Car was a bad idea so they got rid of it. Frankly, I do consulting for the automakers and I'll tell you straight up that GM wanted that program to be successful, they had been researching it for a long time and obviously spent a ton of money.
They have been researching fuel cells for the past 10 years, something Toyota only started 2 years ago. Toyota desperately wanted to trade GM their hybrid-drive system for GM's fuel cell technology, because they know GM is way ahead of them on this.
You're absolutely right, GM did not want to sell their $1 million dollar EV1s at the end of their lease. That was the agreement they had with the lease holders and they kept their side of the deal. Although they did turn some people down for new leases, GM did not have enough of those people to continue the program. Instead of selling the 300 cars they did make, they crushed them. This might sound wasteful, but those 300 cars would be useless soon enough without parts to support their maintenance. Keep in mind that hundreds of cars get crushed by every manufacturer each year in similar programs and tests.
The reason GM deserves your money is because they have been doing more work to make a sustainable electric car technology for longer than any other car company and investing a ton of money in it. Just because they don't have a product yet doesn't mean they're a bad company, it just means they're working on a long term solution. Note: They currently have more hybrid models than any other manufacturer. I'm sorry that one director's opinion has jaded your opinion of a highly underrated car manufacturer. I know you're waiting for GM to die, but it won't happen in your lifetime... keep an eye on them during this year and next, they have tons of cash on hand and they've got a huge lineup of great products.
GM teams with utilities to develop electric car charging infrastructure {Engadget}
Jul 22nd 2008 4:03PM @tbone
I'm not sure what my analogy has to do with your argument; my analogy was a reply to ill trooper and my comment was an explanation of why a market didn't exist for electric cars at the time, and how much they cost to produce. GM had planned to continue the program, but they barely had enough people interested to take leases on the 300 cars... there was not enough demand to keep the ball rolling (less than 500 people indicated they were interested in purchasing such a car).
The unfortunate thing about big companies is stock holders, if something isn't making money then the stockholders get mad and that idea and/or the person who green lighted it go away. You can't blame GM, they produced the product. The public didn't take enough interest in it, and how can you blame them when we hadn't seen "An Inconvenient Truth" yet and gas was $1.50/gallon... why would anyone car? The car was ahead of its time.
I remember seeing this car at Epcot Center and everyone thought it was cool, but at that time the idea was thought to be a gimmick that would soon go away. Even two years ago I wouldn't have thought (production) electric cars would be on the road next summer (Mini).
GM teams with utilities to develop electric car charging infrastructure {Engadget}
Jul 22nd 2008 3:11PM @cesium
Electric warehouse equipment (fork lifts...etc) have machines that perform the battery switch/charging for you. If this could be standardized, the same could be applied to automobiles.
Disney's $249 remote-controlled Wall-E up for pre-order {Engadget}
Jul 22nd 2008 3:04PM Does anybody else occasionally think "Dugg" and then remember you're not on that site?
GM teams with utilities to develop electric car charging infrastructure {Engadget}
Jul 22nd 2008 2:49PM I think it's more of a strategy to build a cheaper Volt. Right now, the plan is to include a 1.4L turbo engine that would only run to recharge the battery when no other charging method is available. If there was decent charging network, maybe they could offer a cheaper version without the gas engine.
GM teams with utilities to develop electric car charging infrastructure {Engadget}
Jul 22nd 2008 2:42PM If we built more nuclear plants it would cost a lot less. Even with terrorism, we could build slightly less efficient plants that DO NOT run on weapons grade fuels and are very stable in the event of a terrorist attack. Warm water output and storage of spent fuel are the two main concerns with nuclear, but we've got lots of coal plants and there is much more to be worried about there.
GM teams with utilities to develop electric car charging infrastructure {Engadget}
Jul 22nd 2008 2:37PM That's like watching Bowling for Columbine and blaming Columbine killings on Lockheed Martin. The program cost them $300 million and they produced 300 cars... ($1 million/car). At the time, gas was less than $1.50/gallon it was not feasible to mass market the car.
GM teams with utilities to develop electric car charging infrastructure {Engadget}
Jul 22nd 2008 2:33PM GM stock is highly undervalued right now... buy?
