I think I recall they reported that their Leaf cost them $28K. I'd have to look at the article again, but I think that did not include the $7500 government-incentive rebate.
Thanks for the article, Chuck. It dovetails with what I've been seeing. This reminds me of the 70s, with all of the hand wringing over oil shortages. Yet every time the price spikes for an extended time, we start finding new sources -- or new extraction methods. The Saudis have been worried about this -- as well they should be. They were hoping they could keep oil at $80 in hopes of warding off all this exploration, technology development, and efficiency development
I moved within 5 miles of my job, so I didn't care what my fuel economy was (didn't matter anyway, since the car didn't have time to exit open loop mode, so bad mileage no matter what car I had). Then my job moved 35 miles away. Now I commute 60 miles each day and bought a FFH (gas-electric hybrid) to compensate (it also offsets the carbon footprint of my Mustang ;)
Take care in assuming the people in the survey represent consumers in general. They are members of Consumer reports (as am I), and tend to be of a more liberal bent (as I am not). It's not accurate to extrapolate to the american pool of consumers from this survey.
As soon as I saw that diesels were so far down the list I chuckled (it implied that the respondents were more being politically correct and "Green" than frugal).
I live in California where fuel prices are generally the highest in the country. I have a long commute (70 miles each way), so I recently loked at all of the alternatives and choice a VW diesel wagon. It serves to fill two key needs I had...room to haul stuff and fuel efficient. I am approaching 20K miles in 9 months, and my combined MPG is around 43-44 mpg. Today on my way into work I got 53.9 mpg. I generally get about 600 miles/tank easily. Why today's clean diesel cars are in such low demand in the US is a mystery to me. By the way rjnerd, diesel is never combined with ethanol, but it is often combined with biodiesel. Speaking of Ethanol, the recent corn crop crisis will shoot corn-based ethanol prices thru the roof. Ethanol should never have been based on a food stock such as corn, but rather another other agricultural plants. Flex fuel vehicles are a shell game done by the auto makers to artifically raise their CAFE levels, because realistically, almost no one that owns one fuels with anything other than straight gasoline. Even regular gas vehicles can tolerate the usual blends of gas/ethanol that are more commonly available, so what is the point of "flex-fuel" designations?
walking and city busses are becomin more and more popular as homelessness is increasing exponentially, as unemployment eventually ends, making the unemployment look better, but does not help those without a job, while barrys stimulus mostly goes to sources who continue to export our jobs to slave nations, like china where the worker makes 3.8 cents that an american worker makes---since 2001 when we began free trade with chine 42,000 of our factories have gone there, or 2/3rds of our factories, and the slave goods super stores have shuttered most small family businesses, as witnessed by the way things are. Its never ever discussed in the newsmedia but restoring import taxation while restoring american workplace would appear to be the ultimate answer, but the lobbies, do not writeup the laws like that, their clients won't allow it
I'd just cut my driving to the bone and pay the price. Arden has it correct and it should be a bit self evident to technician/engineer types unless you're driving outrageous distances per year. There is such a thing as "destructive demand". Every time gas spikes up, it destroys a certain amount of demand that will not come back.
considering all actions, and executive orders sinca barry got into his position, future america doesnot look too good, if you are in the common american group currently occupying 80 % of domestic jobs which pay near or below minimum wage, and it looks like the census bureau, appointed by barry from the ranks of acorn whoes 2008 election fraud put him into office, will insure his continued dictatorship
I love to drive diesels in Europe. It peeves me that Chrysler puts a diesel in the car I drive (Caliber) but ships them all overseas.
Also, natural gas is a near-term alternative. Due to a NG glut, big trucks are switching over and that means more filling stations. Plus I have NG piped into my house.
My second car could be an electric but how do you deal with those ten below zero mornings when you need a defroster? Waste heat is good for something.
Hybrids are fine if you do a lot of city driving, but it wouldn't pay me back.
And at $7 a gallon, I'd force my wife to learn to drive a manual tranny.
There is a saying about motorcycle riders that is very true: It is not "if" you will get into an accident; it is "when". I rode a motorcycle to work for years until a motorist didn't see me (despite an always-on headlight) and crossed in front of me. I was on crutches for weeks and have permanent scarring and nerve damage. Each of my friends and coworkers who rode motorcycles have been in accidents, some hadn't survived.
My advice, don't be tempted to use a motorcycle to same money; your life is more valuable than any savings you may realize.
independent industrial studies have shown, gasoline distilled from liquifed coal becomes cheaper than gas from petroleum, when oil reaches 34$ a barrel. obama who forsees america powered by electricy from solar and wind, which currently supply around 2% of our power, as neither energy source instrumentation has operated as planned, his second choice is electric cars, whereby electricy is currently supplied by coalfired power plants he plans to close. while it seems he has not thought the plan through unless we reduce our consumption by 87 %. Its like the EV plan he supports with taxpayer money, jobs created offshore, mostly, just has not been able to happen, if you read plugincars.com. the logical approach gasoline from coal is prevented from fruition, by the petroleum lobbie, capable of bribing the EPA in not allow coal-gas---the logical thing to do is fire obama and his 300 czars, and make the epa more ethical, not being influenced by the petroleum lobbie, but since obama came inti power through the 2008 ACOrn Election Fraud, whereby he put the acorn splinter groups in charge of census, which includes voter protocol---now the idependent consortium have classed usa's democracy as th 6th most corrupt democrcy in the world--- dictatorships hold elections similar to obamas plan to continue his destruction of our nation, nothing short of; civil war, or martial law, will see a responsible government in our nation.
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
On April 21, NASA launched a novel project, putting into orbit three satellites that employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system.
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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I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
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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