Question: What would the Chevy Volt in SUV format do to OPEC and other energy markets?

[uponit7771]

You got it!!! and that's why the Bush admin is trying to choke out GM RIGHT NOW!!

There's no reason GMAC shouldn't be given the money its needed.

NONE

[Kalyke]

1. The best-build hybrid on the road today is a Ford.

They're at least trying - but Americans need to get over the 1980s mentality that American cars aren't as good.

I know they are fantastic cars. I own a Ford - and so does our president-elect.

[eleny]

5. I own a Ford and love it

It can take the controversial E85 fuel. But down the road corn won't be the only source. One company is even using algae to make bio fuels and E85 can be made from any cellulose.

Change can be accomplished if only the road block wasn't our own government, imo.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

7. Does it run on diesel too? nt

[eleny]

9. No, but our Ford pickup does

[Bill219]

22. Is there an article showing this ranking?

[uponit7771]

2. Yeap, GM's quality officer was from Toyota matter of fact. The Volt would be a shock to Big Oil

[eleny]

6. _

:hi:

k&r

[razors edge]

3. Whos next, Exxon?

After the bush admin threatened to shut down the economy if they didn't get your children's college money, they pocketed the cash and shut down loans anyway.

You really believe giving the big three will save American jobs? Ask GM why they are building new plants all over the world and shutting them down here.

I don't know about you, but I prefer to get dinner and a movie before being fucked.

[uponit7771]

4. The CEO of GM is a tool but killing GM would kill the volt & that would be cutting off our noses to

...spite our faces.

[eleny]

8. As I suggested in another thread - the gov't pays the big 3 to build Volts

and then the gov't sells them to Americans.

Too bad our gov't isn''t interested in solving the problem. Hands are too busy lifting our wallets to write and sign good legislation.

[razors edge]

10. Why don't we just

buy the plants they close, lease them out cheap to companies who then retool to build light rail.

That puts the people back to work, cuts down on pollution and petroleum consumption.

Seems cheaper than buying another over sized corporate boondoggle that needs to go to the dustbin of history soon anyway.

[uponit7771]

11. That would happen EVENTUALLY and kill a hole state quickly

[razors edge]

13. I live in Toledo,

and from here it don't look like this terminal patient is coming off the vent.

Uncle Sugar can't help these people by helping their bosses continue to perform badly. The only thing guaranteed in life is change.

[eleny]

12. Because for right now, that won't help keep millions on the job

For me, this isn't a way to help executives. It's to help keep all the people working in the auto industry on the job.

I'm not against light rail, though. A line is being built with stations that will be 1 1/2 miles from our home. But that rail won't get me to the grocery store and to medical appointments. I'm retired, have some health issues and I need a vehicle to get around. Nope, a bike won't do and I can't walk the distance. But I have gotten my fuel consumption down to under 200 gallons of fuel a year. Not too shabby an effort but easy because I combine trips every time I go out and I say "no" to myself very often. I refuse to give in to the lure of impulse driving.

:hi:

[razors edge]

16. I hear you,

I drive a total of two miles a day on a good day, so rail wouldn't help me much either. It was just a suggestion of what to do with these idled plants, instead of recommending they build tanks and bombers.

We have a lot of other needs to deal with that could be built here instead of overseas. Wind mills and solar panels come to mind.

We have lost our edge in a competitive world. We need to concentrate on the future and let the past go. The auto industry didn't think about the future, they didn't build cars people wanted to buy, they didn't save for a rainy day, they failed.

I think if we are going to invest our children's money in their future, we better do it a way that pays dividends to them, not us. The sacrifice is ours to make.

[eleny]

19. I agree with you

And we decided not to have kids. But I don't believe in abandoning the younger generations.

Here in Colorado, everything on the ballot that called for slightly higher taxes for education needs went down in flames. Hubby and I voted for them all. It was a truly disgusting thing to see how the majority turned their backs on education.

Even a measure asking for about 1 penny tax on every $10 to go to help the developmentally disabled was rejected. But the measure to allow more gambling? It passed. I'm not against gambling but, oh, the irony.

[Occam Bandage]

14. Not much. It would be a $50,000 vanity car, with few produced

but with long waiting lines, having no non-negligible impact on domestic oil consumption nor on GM's profit margin.

[uponit7771]

15. The first year of course, the 5 yr I disagree totally especially if GM is MADE to put the money ...

..towards things like the volt and other hybrids.

[Occam Bandage]

17. By five years out, we're back to GM's biggest fundamental problem:

that their production costs are far higher than foreign manufacturers'.

A Volt SUV may or may not be under early-stage design currently. However, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, and Daimler are all currently working on plug-in electric vehicles as well; the Prius plug-in will reach markets within six months of the Volt. By the time a Volt SUV has been on the market for five years, I guarantee that Toyota or Nissan will be selling them as well. Moreover, they'll be making them more cheaply, and quite possibly higher in quality. You can't wish away the fact that American manufacturers are at a disadvantage of several thousand dollars per car on employee wages/benefits and contractor costs, nor that American supply chains are more costly than Japanese. The Volt is not going to be the savior of GM any more than the Hemi was the savior of Dodge--at best it will be a temporary PR advantage buying them a few years of operating at slightly lower losses.

As for the impact on fuel consumption? Given the likely $15,000-$20,000 tacked on to the cost of plug-ins, probably negligible; they'll be niche cars like the Prius is until there's simply no other type of vehicle on the market. As for the necessity of GM? Well, even if they were to go out of business tomorrow, Toyota would still deliver a plug-in hybrid by the end of 2010, so I'm not sold on the theory that Bush is trying to kill GM to keep them from making a plug-in hybrid.

[bunnies]

18. Not a whole hell of a lot.

The power plants will need the oil to produce that much extra energy.

[olkaz]

20. Right. The check is in the mail.

Failure after failure after failure after failure....

[olkaz]

21. dupe

[blue_onyx]

23. I think I remember hearing the Saturn Vue....

will get the Volt technology a few years after the Chevy Volt comes out (around 2012). The Saturn Vue is a very nice looking vehicle (IMO) and could do really well if given this technology.