Bob Lutz told me before I talked with Mark that the Converj/ ELR should have been on the road by now.
The ELR is perfect for the well heeled who have a high responsibility quotent.
Perhaps the most beautiful American Automobile in many decades. I'd rank it right up there with the one designed my my Friend Gordon Buehrig... the 20Grand.
Holding it back for too long is like shooting youself in the foot.
Yes these cars are conceptually like the WWII submarines... run by electric, built by Electric Boat with motor generator sets in the back and they essentially have unlimited range.
GM's designs are vastly superior to Elon's although he deserves some credit.
GM is not dipping it's toe in the water at all... it's almost up to the knee.
You have to credit Lutz with all this and for those who want to whine and cry about government involvement you should whine and cry about Ed Whitacre who may have known how to build incandescent light bulbs but had absolutely no idea what the hell a Car company is and what makes it go.
Rattner did not know what he was doing in putting ED in charge because important product has been delayed as a result of Ed's cavalier and ignorant attitude. How frequently do you change lightbulb designs? Have they changed yet?
That is something worthy of upset!
And today it was announced that GM has sold more cars in China than the US this past month.
Good point, tekochip. It's often said that it's best to be second. Let the trailblazer make the mistakes. But it's important to be right behind that trailblazer, otherwise you might be left behind.
Professor Michalek and the other contributors, who wrote the paper that was published by the National Academies, were very clear in saying that the Leaf has no emissions from the tailpipe. Their point is that when you weigh the emissions from the battery manufacturing process, and add those to the utility powerplant emissions, the pure electric vehicles don't do as well as hybrids.
No, Architect, I don't think Mark Reuss was joking when he said "electrify and educate." That said, it might not necessarily mean that GM is planning a headlong dive into pure electric cars. He could have been making a reference to powertrains like that of the Chevy Volt, which has gasoline on board, and isn't a pure electric. The reason that some of the experts believe GM is "dipping a toe in the water" with the Spark is that its U.S. sales will be in California initially, whereas companies like Tesla and Nissan are making a broader effort.
Not to mention that donating to the right party ensures taxpayers continue to pay if your R and D goes bankrupt! Nothing like free markets (as dictated by the state and federal government) to stimulate sales <sarc>.
A key sticking point in the business model of electrical vehicles is the resell value. When the owner goes to trade their vehicle after several years of use it is very likely that the battery will require replacement. How could the seller expect to get a decent sales price for the car when any future buyer would also have to splurge for a new battery? I'm not sure about the rest of you but I always look for a good trade-in on one of my older vehicles prior to buying a new one.
Tesla Motors plans to roll out a “compelling, affordable electric car” that will sell for about half the price of its high-profile Model S by the end of 2016, company chairman Elon Musk said last week.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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