Chevrolet Volt / Opel Ampera is my/OUR future car ?? yes or no ??

reply to post by Sunlionspirit


We buy most of our Lithium from China. They set the price. When I buy batteries for my bike, they cost about 600 us dollars and last 3 years. I have to order from China and China cannot transport these batteries by plane, that's illegal with any lithium based battery because during transport they have a habit of catching fire. So it takes months to get my batteries and they are more pricy due to the type of shipping used.

My battery is a 48 volt 20 AH battery. On the bike it can go 20 miles between charges ( carrying at least 200 lbs) at speeds of 25 mph. I beat most cars to their destinations, can carry tons of stuff ( I weight 140 lbs) and have plenty of power to get around town.

If you ask me, more people should drive Electric Bikes and forget the electric car thing if they can get by without it.

The USA can produce these batteries.. they know how - no problem - it's just that they are costly. Cheaper for the battery to be made in China then shipped here

Originally posted by roguetechie
reply to post by Sunlionspirit

 

I am not at all impressed with the opel... have you looked into the Loremo? that to me is an AMAZING vehicle that I would LOVE to own! It's also much cheaper than the opel or the volt. (maybe as much as 50% cheaper) It gets BETTER mileage has better acceleration.... and would be MUCH MUCH better for the environment (weighs less than HALF of what the opel or the volt weigh).

I am very active in working to develop various technologies and what I see from big business honestly saddens me. With the resources they have they could do AMAZING THINGS.... The Volt and the Opel, they are not amazing, they're not even that great for what they are! They could have been done better lighter faster cheaper and more environmentally friendly by a HUGE amount!

I don't feel like we are going to get the results we want by accepting things like the volt and the prius and the opel rather than holding out and FORCING them to give us something TRULY GOOD!!!

We must ALWAYS REMEMBER that every dollar we spend is a VOTE! Every time you spend money on something like the prius or volt or opel you are saying it's GOOD ENOUGH and that if they keep building them we will keep buying them! When it comes to business the ONLY WAY to get real change is to be UNWILLING TO ACCEPT anything that isn't good enough. As soon as you buy something you are telling them they don't have to do ANY BETTER THAN THAT

This is why I campaign so hard against things like the volt and point out things like the LOREMO and the APTERA! There is plenty of proof out there that they can DO MUCH BETTER. Especially when you consider the amount of resources they have at their disposal compared to the people BUILDING BETTER STUFF IN THEIR GARAGES AND BARNS!

nice !! never heard about the Loremo, WAW ok !
looks great ! will read about it !
but always the same :much too expensive !
but I see we agree about things must change in the future ! other cars, other batteries, but still Corvettes
( Vettes ) to play with when we need testosteron in our body !!!!
God save the HorsePower !! God save the smell of gasoline and oil ! the rumble of the V8 Vette !

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
reply to post by Sunlionspirit

 

We buy most of our Lithium from China. They set the price. When I buy batteries for my bike, they cost about 600 us dollars and last 3 years. I have to order from China and China cannot transport these batteries by plane, that's illegal with any lithium based battery because during transport they have a habit of catching fire. So it takes months to get my batteries and they are more pricy due to the type of shipping used.

My battery is a 48 volt 20 AH battery. On the bike it can go 20 miles between charges ( carrying at least 200 lbs) at speeds of 25 mph. I beat most cars to their destinations, can carry tons of stuff ( I weight 140 lbs) and have plenty of power to get around town.

If you ask me, more people should drive Electric Bikes and forget the electric car thing if they can get by without it.

The USA can produce these batteries.. they know how - no problem - it's just that they are costly. Cheaper for the battery to be made in China then shipped here

edit on 28-3-2011 by JohnPhoenix because: addition

that is why we/you in USA and Europ have to push much more money into research ! research is the future of our industries !! always be on top of research but that costs money and $$$ greed people do not like to put money into stupid research ..... pitty.

What's the difference between burning gasoline in my tank to burning coal at a power plant?

My electric bill is high enough, so unless they guarantee a free way of charging those cars, I won't buy one.

Also, the price tag needs to come down about 10k. Actually, it's a chevy, make that 15-20k.

And for those that know nothing about cars (which is anyone who buys a Volt.... or a chevy for that matter......

The Volt gets 37mpg. That's right.... 37 mpg. Not that high when you're spending 45k dollars on a "electric" car. The Volt goes approx 30 miles using electricity, after which it's gasoline motor starts up and gets 37 mpg with a 9.8g tank.

My Scion gets 36 mpg on average, fully loaded, cheap light weight car that retails for 16k starting. I drive 30 miles each way to work, 45 miles each way to school, electric cars for me and the vast majority of Americans are inefficient and pointless.

If the Volt could go 100+ miles on a charge, it might be worth it, imo .. might be.. but as it is, they are expensive pieces of !%@! that people buy because they either want the newest trend/toy and or are complete idiots. Or both.