See the USA in a Chevrolet ... er ... Volt, at 40 miles per charge?
Chevie Volt assembly line
shut down due to poor sales. 1300 laid off and receiving unemployment checks.
GM blames Rush Limbaugh. 3/5/12 This shutdown happened one day after Obama gave "them" a non-commercial boost.
Eric Bolling, financial reporter, test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors.
For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine. Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles. It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.
According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity.
It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.
The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what I pay for electricity. I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh.
16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.
$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery.
Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine only that gets 32 mpg.
$3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile.
The gasoline powered car costs about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000. So Obama wants us to pay 3 times as much for a car that costs more than 7 times as much to run and takes 3 times as long to drive across country.
REALLY?
Added Note 1. The Chevie Volt is under-performing in sales. Consumers are not buying it. See #5 below.
Added Note 2. In addition to the GM bailout, we, the US Taxpayers, are paying out a $5,000 subsidy on each and every one of these Obama cars that is produced and sold.
Added Note 3. Electric car batteries are NOT lifetime-of-the-car batteries. They must be replaced periodically. Car batteries are not cheap.
Added Note 4. It costs more in "energy" to produce electric cars than is saved in driving them. This creates a net energy loss based on current technology. Compare this to the price history of hand calculators, cell phones and TVs.
Added Note 5. Electric cars emit more pollution than do gasoline powered cars. Heard on the radio.
Added Note 6. GE just mandated that its field reps must drive Chevie Volts. If reps elect not to do this, they must provide their own car and gasoline, out of their own pockets. The head of GE is the head of the Obama job creation team. February 2012
Added Note 7. A certain eletric car battery, if drained, must be returned to the factory for replacement at a cost of roughly $40,000. Heard on the radio 2/23/12
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