I agree, Dennis. This doesn't look promising unless that are some technical breakthroughs to lower the cost of building the Volt. It doesn't look like high-volume consumer purchasing is going to save the day.
I suspect that the $40k retail price was chosen as the price they could eventually reach if development and volume go as per plan. Considering that the public has been reticent with $7500 off that number I think this will be a problem.
That statistic that Volt is losing $49K per car is quite shocking, Dennis. Obviously, that can't be sustained no matter how high government subsidies may be.
Mixing battery technologies seems to have the potential to reduce costs without hurting overall performance. Aren't marine deep-cycle batteries lead-acid ? The lead-acid seems like the answer to acceleration, while the lithium-ion is there for range.
Considering the announcement today that the Volt is losing $49K per car I have to wonder if the $12k for a battery pack is any closer to reality than the $40k retail price.
Now this is a good engineering story. As we have debated hybrids and EVs, the issue has always been cost. The answer to the battery issue has always been lithium ion. This is not a technology I would embrace because of the cost.
By approaching the problem of cost rather than starting with a technology to apply, the EPS is solving the problem. I also like the hybrid lead acid and lithium ion idea. It is similar to a concept used in disk drives where a small solid state device is paired with a spinning drive to provide both speed and large storage at a lower cost.
I never thought I would hear about lead-acid batteries again. Traditionally, the chemistry isn't very finicky, but the cycle life is poor and the energy density is terrible. One bright spot in the chemistry is that the cells are easily recycled, with something like 97% of depleted cells being recycled.
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