War On Electric Cars: BigOil Smugly Says: "Let the Free Market Decide"

When monopolies rule the "free" market, that's when a statement like "let the free market decide" takes on a very insidious edge...

No, I think that BigOil is a little too big for its britchen. Electric cars were repossessed, stacked up and smashed when they once again tried to make a debut in 2000. People were even arrested when they tried to keep those cars that they PAID FOR IN FULL...that they owned! How "free" does that market sound to you? Having the police come and take away your private property, without a civil suit to determine that even. Sounds more like the SS than a "free market" manuever..

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQh6Nd50hWY&feature=player_embedded"]EV1 Gen1: Recalled - YouTube[/ame]



Backroom "Agreements" with California officials that remain secret to this day? The recall being reportedly about malfunction when in fact it was about fine print in a document public officials drew up with BigOil/Auto manufacturers? Forced siezures of vehicles from very satisfied customers?

Wow, nothing like the "free" market.

Yeah, I think the electric cars are needing a little "witness protection" until they can get off the ground. BigOil and AAM can thank itself for mandating government help for the electric car. They made the playing field unbalanced in the "free" market.

 

In fact I would say that the more BigOil and its bloggers protest the electric car and post headlines like "electric car EXPLODES!" and less obvious hyperbole aimed at derailing public trust in it, means the MORE they fear the electric car will succeed. It's a directly proportional relationship.

 

Electric cars are no threat to big oil..

 

Ain't that the truth.

These cars won't even last long enough to get down to the "buy here/pay here" level of affordability for the poor.

Most Americans will still be driving gas powered engines for decades to come.

 

And there is plenty of worldwide demand for oil..

 

Really? Even when people are developing and perfecting systems that can charge them from solar panels on their rooftops?

You expect me to believe that market analyists working for BigOil are Jim-Dandy with the idea of throngs of people having electric cars that they get "fuel" from the sun from? Imagine all of LA juicing up their commuting rigs with solar panels. Don't think that comes as a threat to BigOil?

Think again. It does. Old monopolies die hard [speaking of battery-powered..lol..]. And they don't just lay down and die easily.

 

How many Chevy Volts, do you, your siblings and close relatives currently own?

When your entire family has converted please let us know.

 

$44,900? 100 miles between charges? They won't sell many outside of the real urban areas. It's about 80 miles from where I live to downtown LA This means I would have to find a charging station to park it for 6 hours. It would also mean my car would be adding to the electricity load during peak hours. In So Cal, the electrical grid is so overloaded that on hot summer days, we have rolling blackouts. Speaking of hot summer days, how far will the Coda or any electric car go on a hot summer day in traffic with the Air Conditioning running? Who's going to pay $45,000 for a car where you can't use the A/C if you want to make it home? FAIL! I forgot to add, solar power doesn't work at night just when the demand to charge electric cars would be high.

 

The same number as that of horse & buggy drivers around the turn of the 20th Century who owned automobiles. Very few I'd imagine. But I do have several friends and relatives that own the hybrid Toyota Prius & are very happy with them.

Are you saying you want the foreign markets to run away with the electric/hybrid market while the US flounders and drives around antiques?

 

Did the government give buyers $7.500 to help pay for the automobiles?

No because Americans bought the cars because they wanted to not because some idiot in the White House is forcing them too.

 

50% of the US population lives "REAL URBAN AREAS"!

Many of them never leave it.

Why do they need to drive gasoline cars AT ALL?

 

Oh look, it's a picture of a typical Los Angeles freeway at 7:00AM on a Sunday.

I was passing through LA once and made the mistake of pulling onto a main freeway onramp on a Saturday afternoon. I nearly died of a panic attack. It's not an experience I recommend for the faint of heart.. What LA would do well to have is a monorail system installed elevated above the medians on all their highways, and along the margins too. Disney envisioned this for that city. He demonstrated it at his famous amusement park. Seattle has a demonstration monorail too. I wonder why these never were expanded? BigOil? Your thoughts?

 

you are correct

It's about time the federal government begins to tell people what they can and can't drive and what they must buy.

I am sick and tired of Americans having free choice.

 

Again I ask

how many Chevy Volts do you and your relatives currently own?

What % of all vehicles owned by you and family members do the Chevy Volts represent ?

 

And I'll tell you again, many of them drive the Toyota Prius. None of them so far the Volt, this early in the game.

And I'll ask you again: would you rather foreign competitors for the electric/hybrid cars corner the market while the US tries to peddle antiques to a world changing over to hybrid electrics?

Tell me sec. Do you support the forced recall that BigOil rigged with CA officials behind closed doors of the 2000 ev 1 as described in the OP?

And if you do, how "free" is that choice of the thousands who begged, pleaded and on one occasion were arrested trying to hang onto their cars that were forcibly taken from them?

 

Obama has already thought of that.

So our genius gave taxpayer money away to build electric cars in Finland.

The greens are driving me nuts.

They know nothing about the private sector and think that if government throws enough money at an industry it's going to bloom like Marigolds in the springtime.

 

hmmm, I suggest you pose the question to your family and friends who own a Prius as opposed to a Ford Escape Hybrid or Fusion hybrid

I also appreciate your honesty that 0% of all vehicles in your family are the Chevy Volt

 

How far will the Coda or any electric car go on a hot summer day in traffic like your picture with the Air Conditioning running?

 

Hybrid electric cars will always go farther for less gas in any type of weather than an antique pure gas car.

 

Hybrid electric cars will always go farther for less gas in any type of weather than an antique pure gas car.

Ever felt a car roof on a day hot enough for AC? Hot enough to burn your hand. I wonder if a mini refrigerant system could be devised to run off that heat?

How is it ACs work again? Oh, that's right. With heat and circulators. Engineers?

 

Monorails are too expensive per mile to operate as commuter vehicles.

 

Wow, another blanket statement without a source cited. I'm shocked.

Not.

Heat is a given on metal on a Summer's day. We presume the sun is shining or at least there is significant UV on that same hot day:

Way back when the old automobile had gas lamps for headlights. They've made a few improvements since then. Since the global market is clamoring for hybrid and electric cars, why not have the US cash in on that instead of listening to the old chorus line of "electric cars won't work and here's another reason why..""

As if engineers didn't exist to fix bugs big and small..

 

You know, I will drive the car that is the cheapest for me and my family in the long run. The last time I went looking for car to buy, the hybrid cost $7k more than the old car, and didn't get enough fuel economy to make up for the price of the car. The price of gas would need to be $5/gallon or more to make up for the initial cost.

But that was to get my money back in 5 years...when I would have to replace the battery, and then the clock starts over.

But either way, if it wasn't for the government forcing gas to be mixed with the WORST ethonol product, I would still be getting 5-10 more MPG than I am right now.

The government is more into the persuasion of which cars we buy more than oil or the car companies, and quite frankly, when the car companies decide to get real about producing a better car, I will decide to buy a new one. I don't buy GM cause of their crap cars, thank God for Honda.

Just so you know, we will run out of materials for the batteries way before we run out oil. Get the government out of our energy restrictions and we would have the best car internal cumbustable engines running on the cleanest fuel in no time...hydrogen.

 

There is simply no demand by potential customers for them. There is no infrastructure for them whatsoever. Back in 2008 I was looking into CNG cars and I live in the mega-metropolis known as the SF Bay Area. Only systems set up for CNG vehicles were for large corporations like, ironically, Chevron who had fleets of CNG vehicles and on-site fueling stations for their fleet. Likewise, there is no cross country infrastructure for electrical hookups or CNG stations.

Until there is a demand, there will be no infrastructure to take advantage of potential purchasers. Worse, distance is still the huge limiter for electric. Charges take an overnight, so you can't simply pull up and recharge the batteries.

You can make an astonishing 35 miles in a Chevy Volt:

I wonder how good that estimate is if you are in traffic for an hour? How many of these wonder-cars have to go to petrol during their commutes to work each day.

Tank is ~10 gallons and gets 35-37 MPG. If you drive long distance in this car, the 35 miles you get from the charge at the beginning saves you roughly $2-$2.50 for the trip.

Wow! I need to rush out and buy one of these $39,145 cars so I can save $2.50 on some of my trips. I won't be saving the planet, however. Still burning coal or petrol down at the plant that is sending me my electricity.

I'll reconsider when they make a decent truck that can actually haul off a battery. Yes, I'm laughing.

 

in countries other than the USA VW offers a BlueMotion diesel in the Golf which gets 83 mpg on the highway and 60 mpg in the city

It's clean diesel. Can we get those here? Nope, we get liberal enviro whack jobs adding $7500 more taxpayer subsidy to GM and the Volt for a car which won't go far on electric.

I'll take 83mpg highway without having to stop and charge for hours. The VW even blows away hybrids but we can't them in the USA

gotta love the enviro whack jobs