Interview with Mary Barra

[markinnaples]

Just in cast they're not: #GM #marybarra

[Charley Lillard]

Maybe once every 10 years am I driving 6 hours straight unless it is in a old car on a road trip. How often does everyone drive over 400 miles or say 300 miles to account for the range depleting things you mention. My guess is a 300 mile range will cover 95% of peoples yearly driving.
As to travel cost due to taxation you are paying gasoline taxes every time you fill up.

[70 copo]

Good point. For short trips when there is no time pressure yes.

For most working class people time is money and everyone is is a rush all the time these days. GM comes up with a battery that will recharge in under 10 minutes they will have a winner.

[Charley Lillard]

300 miles is a short trip ? I'm saying most of the time people are not even driving 300 miles per trip. How many miles do you drive to and from work each day ? Do you do that 5 days a week ? My guess is you can drive a electric to and from work each day, run errands etc and simply plug in at night when you are sleeping. My guess is most working class people drive much less than 300-400 miles each day so simply plugging in at night should be fine.

[70 copo]

Zero. Retired.

I consider 300 miles a pretty short trip. That is only 4 about hours in a car. Pretty easy to do actually if you are going to swap meets every weekend here around the east coast.

The point I guess I am trying to make here is most families have two vehicles and both of these have to go to work as well as longer trips. It is all about convenience and being time efficient. When you are off and you have to be someplace nobody wants to screw around they want to get there and get back.

A guy I used to work with had a Bolt to get to work and he got it only because he had a ton of points on his GM card and his accountant told him to take advantage of the $7500 dollar US Government tax incentives offered towards the purchase. He also had a Hemi Ram, and a CTS for everything else.

[Jeff H]

How do we recharge our EV at night when there is no sun to generate solar energy? I only put 6000 miles on my Tacoma in the last 2 years so an EV regular cab pickup would probably work for me if somebody decides to build one.

[Charley Lillard]

Hey Jeff...My guess is you can add Tesla battery storage to your homes solar power and get the cars charge off of the batteries at night :-)

[Charley Lillard]

I live in the country and have a 550 gallon gas tank here at the house. We really enjoy not having to go to a gas station and deal with the crackheads that seem to be everywhere. Having a electric vehicle that you just plugged in at home would also spare you from having to go to the gas station. Also wouldn't need to worry about oil changes. Maybe a two car family has one of each with the non electric used on those long trips when needed.

[TomP]

I would run out of range several times a year and think i'd only ever have to do that once to learn never to try again. I make a couple 16 to 18 hours at a stretch drives. No way would I tolerate breaking that up into extra days or being stuck in some remote town twiddling my thumbs for hours and not being a third of the way there yet.
On last summer's trip i'd have been really up the creek if I was in an electric car and was still plenty concerned driving a gas one after a shortcut in northern California ended with a blocked road 100 miles in... and had to backtrack the same way that extra hundred then find a gas station which involved trying several towns and running down to less than 3 miles of range left. The egg under the gas pedal driving style is perfected when you have 34 miles of gas left and the next closest place to get it is 35 miles away.

After getting gas I still had to detour to a road that meant an extra 200 miles of driving to get to where I was going 20 miles from the blockade.

As it was the long detour meant driving triple digit speeds to get there.

My brother used to have a propane powered Dodge van. Not a conversion a Canadian factory built one. He tried to drive to Mexico, he had a list of all the propane stations the whole way. Since there was not enough range on I5 south of Stockton he had to take 99. He had no problems getting propane until then, the next station was open 9 to 5... he gets there after 4pm and it is just a tool rental shop and the pump was in the back through a 3 foot wide door. He had to take the tank out which took him all of Friday night into the next morning. Laying in the dirt using minimal hand tools and the bumper jack to get enough space to get the tank under the rocker panel.
Then the guy who fills propane wasn't there Saturday, they weren't open Sunday so it was Monday morning when he got it filled and Monday late afternoon when he had the tank back in the van and turned around for home.

[JoeC]

Tesla V3 Supercharging adds 75 miles in just 5 minutes

the future does not look good for new fossil fuel vehicles

"Many countries are now banning new vehicles that run on fossil fuels like gasoline, diesel or liquefied petroleum gas. Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, and the Netherlands have announced plans to ban fossil fuel cars starting in 2030; Britain, France, Taiwan and California will ban them in 2040; and Norway in 2025. Paris, Rome, Madrid, Athens and Mexico City will ban diesel vehicles in 2025."