1st Chevy Volts leave Detroit-Hamtramck plant and head to dealers

[LuckyTheDog]

Windshields were scraped of snow, wheels were strapped into place and 45 Chevrolet Volt electric cars left for East Coast dealerships Monday.

The five red Cassens Transport trucks that headed to the New York City and Washington, D.C., areas marked the first shipment of Volts to leave General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck plant. GM said it expected 160 Volts to ship this week to initial launch markets, which also include Austin, Texas, and the state of California.

Read more: 1st Chevy Volts leave Detroit-Hamtramck plant and head to dealers | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/20101214/BUSINESS01/12140364/1st-Chevy-Volts-leave-Detroit-Hamtramck-plant-and-head-to-dealers#ixzz187gJa12B

:headbang:

[walldude]

1. Saw one a few weeks ago. Much nicer than I was expecting

too bad I'll never be able to afford one...

[Motown_Johnny]

11. I saw one on the road last week (I-696 near Gratiot)

I had seen them at the auto show every year since they were first announced but this is the first one I saw on the road.

A nice dark red with a manufacturer's plate. I wanted to catch up to it and snap a pic with my camera phone but it was doing over 75 and there was to much traffic for me to try and play that game.


I'm a big fan. Not only of the Volt itself but of the fact that we are taking a step forward (small as it may be) toward electric vehicles.

[PoliticAverse]

2. More coal...

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html

[doc03]

3. ? n/t

[PoliticAverse]

5. The point being

that the biggest portion of electricity in the US is generated by coal.

45.3% Coal
23.9% Natural Gas
19.2% Nuclear
6.4% Hydroelectric
1% Petroleum
4.1% Other Sources

So that while electric cars sound nice, at the present time they really don't necessarily mean clean energy.

[doc03]

6. I sort of thought that was your point. According to your

figures 99% of The fuel used for the generation of electricity is produced right here in the USA instead of being imported. That looks like a pretty good reason to buy an electric car to me.

[Motown_Johnny]

14. not all of our petroleum is imported

so less than 1%

[PoliticAverse]

16. I think electric cars are the future...

but I think the issue is a little more complicated than many proponents allude to.

How would people feel about them if increased electric demand is satisfied through
the building of more nuclear power plants?

Or if the electricity is generated by coal that's strip mined or coal ash residue
is dumped in your neighborhood?

[LuckyTheDog]

9. Debunked nonsense

Even if all the electricity was generated by coal, electric cars would be far cleaner than gasoline cars.

[Motown_Johnny]

12. +1

[DainBramaged]

21. Question: breath gas powered car exhaust or breath emissions from an electric car?

Answer; what emissions from an electric car?

[IDemo]

20. There must be a Firefox plugin to generate these replies

Every single news item or blog post about electric autos results in an immediate rebuttal by the But_EV's_Mean_Coal_Power_Which_Means_Dirty_Air crowd.

Numerous studies done by and for the Department of Energy have shown that, even in areas relying primarily on coal power, an electric auto will generate lower amounts per mile of CO2 and almost all other pollutants than an equivalent internal combustion vehicle. The benefits in places with nuclear, hydro and wind are vastly improved.

See: Argonne GREET, Debunking the Myth of EVs and Smokestacks, 12 Myths About Electric Vehicles

[jimlup]

4. I'm holding out a couple of years.

Let's wait until they've worked the bugs out of the preliminary models.

[Initech]

7. I'd love to get a Volt but they're way out of my price range

[FLAprogressive]

8. Hopefully as more people buy them and as the technology becomes cheaper to produce, cost goes down

[LuckyTheDog]

10. That's the plan

I am old enough to remember when hand-held calculators cost $300.

[DainBramaged]

19. Big green numbers with little rubber feet

Texas Instruments tag line from the 70's for their calculators......

[Motown_Johnny]

13. I saw a Jeep with the same concept at the Auto Show a couple of years ago

so maybe there will be copy cat vehicles if the Volt is successful.

[PoliticAverse]

15. Yes cost will come down...

Obviously they are priced so high partly because they aren't sold in large quantities.

The problem is they probably won't really take off until range between charges is increased and
charging is made faster and more available.

[LuckyTheDog]

18. Range is not a problem with the Volt (nt)

[Aristus]

17. The electric car naysayers make me think of people taking their first look

at the Wright Brothers Flyer. They shake their heads at the rickety canvas-and-guy-wires box kite with an engine putt-putting by at 20mph and say: "Yeah, but what can you DO with an airplane?"

Every fledgling technology in history had bugs to work out. That doesn't invalidate the technology itself...