GE to buy 'tens of thousands' of electric cars

[jpak]

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/29/autos/GE_electric_car/

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Electric will order "tens of thousands" of electric cars in about a week, the conglomerate's chief executive said Friday.

In a speech in London, CEO Jeffrey Immelt said the purchase would be the largest of its kind in history. But he did not specify exactly how many vehicles GE would buy, nor what brand of electric cars would be included in the order.

GE spokeswoman Leigh Farris said the company will release more details on the order at a later date.

General Motors' Volt and Nissan's Leaf electric vehicles are due to hit the market late this year. Ford, Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi are also expected to roll out battery-powered cars in the coming years.

<more>

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. ...and destroy them?

Again?

[jpak]

2. That was GM - not GE - and GM is producing the Volt

FYI

:D

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. I'm sure they were involved somehow!

:blush:

[niyad]

7. did you ever watch "who killed the electric car?" will make you sick, volt or no volt.

[txlibdem]

4. Tens of thousands... that's a pretty big number

What if every big corporation did the same thing? EV sales would see a big bump.

[kristopher]

5. It is possible that they can use those EVs to reduce their costs of energy.

Not only direct savings in the cost of electricity over petroleum, but if they are equipped with V2G capability they can sell power for balancing the grid to the local utility at a substantial profit on the stored power. Studies show the it is perfectly feasible for early adopters (those who buy before V2G equipped EVs make up more than 5% of the vehicle fleet) would on average make about $3000 by participating in such programs.

I'd be willing to bet this is part of the calculus used by GE in their decision.

[txlibdem]

6. Savings in fuel expenditures, yes, but also maintenance costs as well

I used to work for this tiny little computer store with about 8 employees. The owner was a really great guy and he did everything he could to make us "happy worker bees." He would occasionally cook a 10 gallon crock pot full of chowder or chili or whatever and bring it in for a surprise free lunch (this guy should have been a restaurant owner, he was an amazing cook!). Anyway, he bought 4 vehicles for the technical repair staff to use and, long story short, he really spent a bundle on maintenance for those vehicles. If electric vehicles with 100 mile range were available back then it would have saved a ton of money.

I've been trying to find some hard numbers for just how much a business would save in maintenance costs and I guess there isn't a set number. It depends on how many miles their vehicles get driven each day, how many stops and starts, terrain, etc., as to how much a vehicle costs a business to own. I think I worked it out that, over the life of the vehicle generally, a business will pay as much for maintenance as the initial purchase price of the vehicle. For commercial delivery vehicles that's no small potatoes.

[kristopher]

8. The maintanence cost wouldn't be that much.

I certainly don't spend the equivalent of the purchase price of a vehicle on MX.

The Dept of Transportation maintains stats for vehicle operation that includes all inputs. It is used to derive the reimbursement rates for drivers using the personal autos for business and writing off the costs on a per mile basis.

Together with insurance, fuel and repairs the MX inputs to the formula might equal the capital costs.

[txlibdem]

9. I was lumping repairs into maintenance expense

Is that not a proper accounting technique? I took one accounting college class in 1980 so it's a little fuzzy... :hi:

What I meant was that maintenance and repairs will, over the life of a commercial vehicle, equal or exceed the vehicles purchase price. Some businesses use that measure to determine when to get rid of a vehicle and replace it with a new one (at least that is my meager understanding of it in practice).

Case in point is the computer shop I worked for, one of the fleet vehicles sat unused because it turned out to be such a lemon (he bought it used, not new) that it was costing him more to keep it on the road than just paying the mileage charge to the repair guys/gals. Repair costs are a significant factor.