Even better would be to ditch the ICE and get a full EV drivetrain installed. I'm sure that Tesla would be more than happy to help them do it. And no, I don't want a RAV4-EV.
I would be surprised if the CA rebate sold one additional ev or phev. It will move some ev sales from other states, but that hardly helps spur r&d and investment of batteries, plug in technology, or ev's. CARB in general has been a force to delay phev and ev. They have even made it much more expensive and difficult to do conversions in that state. Purchasers of plug-in cars will get tax credits - Business - Autos - msnbc.com The federal law was indeed majorly crafted by gm to subsidize the volt. Battery size for the rebate by toyota to get money for its planned plug-in hybrid. But in all it wasn't written against other companies and spured the leaf, ford ev and plug-ins, and hyundai plug in and evs. If we had good incentives they would be more productive and less expensive. At least this one did some good.
You are perhaps imagining that GM wants people to buy the Volt??? GM wants the Volt to fail so they can go back to spending our government money building SUVS so people will buy more gasoline. This is a very smart way to reduce sales: Skip the AT-PZEV rating so the car does not get the CARB discount. Winglet: Maximum speed 3.7 mph; Segway: Maximum speed 12.5 mph. I normally walk about 3.4 mph. That's not race-walking, it's just my comfortable walking pace. Why the flunky bunny would I have any interest in a Winglet? I've always thought the Segway was cool, but way overpriced and of no real use to me. I'd like to try one, though. Zap makes a stand-up electric scooter called the Zappy. It's got three wheels and no self-balancing. I was really scared I'd fall over.
Smaller than bicycle, fit under the cargo floor, extend EV range and can reach no cars can go. They just need to increase speed and range. It would be awesome.
My daughter and I took a tour around Austin on Segways. It was a lot of fun, and left me impressed by the device. Before their time and currently expensive, but truly forward looking technology.
My shoes are smaller yet and can take me anywhere the Winglet can go, and many places the Winglet cannot. My shoes can take me as fast as the Winglet, if I push myself, and if I allow myself to go slightly slower, I'll bet my shoes can take me farther than the Winglet can go on a charge. In short, the Winglet is utterly, completely, useless. I have no use for a Segway, but at least it looks like fun, and can go faster than my shoes.
1. GM doesn't spend our goverments money, that is done by people that get elected to office to our goverment. Try google and put in USA goverment. 2. GM still builds and sells SUV, just like Toyota, and pretty much everyone else. Whats your problem with this? 3. If you have a problem with large gas eating suv's, the real problem is Americans that buy them, not GM because they sell them. Open your mind some.
Our government gave a sh!tload of money to GM when GM's incompetent management drove the company into bankruptcy. Now GM is spending our government's money (our money) as fast as it can so it can get another bail-out as soon as possible. GM is engaged in a PR campaign to try to convince the American people that it is offering a choice. But GM does not really want to offer the American people a choice. It wants us to buy nothing but gas-guzzlers. So the Volt is a PR ploy, made to look like an efficient option, but priced so that nobody will buy it, and even then it gets lousy gas mileage after the battery runs down. When I left the country to study Spanish in Mexico in 1995, there were very few SUVs on the road. When I returned in 2001, the roads were infested with them. GM was the leader in a massive advertising (propaganda) campaign to convince the American people that SUVs, being bigger, were safer. This is a lie, but the people bought it. At the same time, GM was the leader in getting the government to classify SUVs in such a way that they would be exempt from certain safety and fuel economy rules. People who buy SUVs when they need neither the passenger-carrying capacity nor the towing capability are STUPID!!! But GM was instrumental in creating the public perception that SUVs were somehow better. Add that to GM's long history of screwing the country, and, yes, I blame GM for much of the energy and transportation fiasco plaguing us today.
1. So GM is trying to waste maney to get another bailout. I think your wrong and I don't see how that would happen. 2. I think americans are to blame for buying large gas guzzling SUV's, not gm for making them. Trucks are big in sales no matter what. So why do some Toyota trucks(Tundra) gets 25% less mpg than pretty much any truck gm makes? Does that make Toyota worse than gm? Dodge Chrystler has the worst mpg for all their cars trucks. So GM paying great wages for over 50 years is screwing the country? They did good things too So to pretty much sume it up. Your saying we do anything gm wants. So if gm ran commericals saying their new 5mpg suv was cool and it comes with a needle full of aids we all would be driving to the doctors in our 5mpg suv to be treated for our aids infection? Cause GM has complete comtrol of the market and people. ALRIGHTY THEN....
It was a loan, not a "give-away" - in addition, they have already paid back that loan in full, with interest.
Dec 15, 2009 · Automaker plans repayment of $6.7 billion by June, although that reflects only fraction of $50 billion of federal help it received. money.cnn.com/2009/12/15/news/companies/gm_repayment/index.htm Apr 23, 2010 ... In fact, GM did not repay the loans with money it earned from selling cars. Instead, GM repaid the TARP loans with money it withdrew from ... www.foxnews.com/.../did-general-motors-really-repay-taxpayer-bailout/
50 Billion USD would have employed a lot of people in clean grid infrastructure work for a *long* time. What a waste
Whoops - looks like the US Treasury still has $40 billion tied up in GM that is effectively stuck until GM "goes public" again. Looks like that will happen, though. The govt has funded billions into the clean-tech industry through the DOE Loan Guarantee program (appx $19 billion, to be exact). Department of Energy - Fact Sheet: The Department of Energy's Loan Programs More funding will be on the way, too.