President Obama tries out the new Chevy Volt

Source: Examiner

President Barack Obama had a chance to check out the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle during a visit to the Compact Power battery plant in Holland, Mich.

LG Chem, the parent of Compact Power, is making the battery cells for the Volt.

The Volt has a reported range of about 340 miles and is powered with electricity at all times.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/x-42287-Chicago-Green-Technology-Examiner~y2010m7d17-President-Obama-tries-out-the-new-Chevy-Volt

I would love to get one. I hope they sell enough to realize they can make money with them. Then they can work on improving them.

The parent company is based in Korea. There's a difference.

people here routinely decry the fact that the profits go back to Japan.

Maybe that doesn't apply, here now that Obama has blessed the plant. ;-)

Tesha

We never see the full results of corporate profits in America anyway. Much of that money gets burrowed away among the investor class.

The article does not say.

"For up to the first 40 miles, the Volt is powered solely by electricity stored in its 16-kWh lithium-ion battery, using no fuel and producing no emissions. When the Volt's lithium-ion battery runs low, an engine/generator seamlessly operates to extend the driving range another 300 miles on a full tank of gas."

Are there any true electric vehicles (priced in the middle-class range) out there?

Unlike hybrids, it's driven solely by it's electric motors. The 40 mile range covers the average commute length in the US, so most people could use it solely on batteries. However to account for longer trips, it also can charge off gas, at which point it's still far more efficient than a typical gas-driven vehicle.

That comment is made when it is being compared to vehicles like the Prius. The Volt is a "series" hybrid that is full time electric drive, the internal combustion engine's function is to provide only electricity, not mechanical motive power. The Prius is primarily propelled by the pistons turning gears to turn wheels - it really is a big difference.

The series hybrid configuration the Volt represents is a huge step forward because of the increased efficiency of electric drive over ICE driven gears. The more we get on the road, the cheaper the batteries will become and the greater the all battery range we can afford to build into future EVs.

For the explanation.

I did not know that the electric drive was more efficient.

I was so upset because I have been looking to buy an electric vehicle for my next purchase. I do restrict driving, but I wanted to try to get away from most petroleum-powered transport if possible. No it is a question of whether I will be able to afford the car....

An electrified Nissan Versa subcompact hatchback. Slightly more affordable, but with a range of only 100 miles.

The stimulus money ($99.6M according to the story) that has actually, you know, CREATED JOBS and put a forward looking face on US domestic energy policy!!!!!

GODDAMN IT ALREADY....WTF IS WRONG WITH DEMOCRATS????

Stand up and shout down the fucking knuckle-dragging Republicans and fight their arson-like fires with the flames of a megaton nuclear blast already. Damn the media...and damn Obama if he does not wake the fuck up and start FORCING THE ISSUES!!!

The one thing that the POTUS has that no one else does is the bully pulpit and non-stop press coverage of sound bites....well, start flooding the nation with examples (NOT PLATITUDES OR MORE WHINING ABOUT HOW THE BIG BAD REPUBLICAN MINORITY IS NOT PLAYING NICE!!!!) of what HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED!!! Get out there every single day and hammer on them. Drop the ball back in their court with White House Press Conferences and Presidential Addresses to the Nation - in prime time and until the situation in the economy stabilizes and unemployment starts moving away from more jobs in foreign countries and no real recovery in America. The last recession NEVER recovered for many people and this current Great Recession is killing off HUGE SWATHES of the Middle Class AGAIN...it is simply unconscionable to stand by and be intimidated by thugs in the face of the dire consequences to the nation that are slowly unfolding as our society splits into one with a permanent underclass of poverty-stricken masses and a ruling class of near-royal status monetary elites!

If the mid-term elections turn out badly and we end up with the calamity of a Speaker Boehner (getting out of the office on Fridays with plenty of time to hit happy hour and get soaked) then the majority of the responsibility for this falls on the Dems themselves for failing to highlight what good things have been STARTED....

WE need to be talking about:

LESS WAR - Iraq is off the headlines but STILL sucking up tons of federal funding to contractors and military bases even if major combat operations are off the newswire; Afghanistan is a sinkhole of resources - both human and monetary - of near-biblical proportion when compared to the relative threat to the entire nation that is represented there NOW...its time to bring real grown-ups (not pseudo-grown-ups who are perpetually afraid of being called "soft on terror") to the policy debate about how to LEAVE THERE NOW!,

MORE EQUITABLE TAXES (return to the Eisenhower-era progressive tax code for a start at balancing the budget - or provide tax cuts ONLY on a per-employee hired and retained basis...no more of this nonsense that taxing the rich hurts job creation because those motherfuckers are NOT creating jobs even in good economic times with tax cut money, they are - and have been for 30+ years - hording the wealth and buying political cover to keep it!!!)

MORE STIMULUS - the future of the country is dependent NOT on reviving the dead corpse of the consumer-based, service-oriented "economy" of the 1990's and 2000's - the future IS based in generating NEW MANUFACTURING BUSINESSES AND INDUSTRIES such as the EV Project and further work on the electric grid and alternative sources of power. The fossil fuel era is closing, rapidly - and unless we wish to replay what happened to the British Empire when the age of coal gave way to the age of oil, we need to begin throwing EVERY DOLLAR we can squeeze out of the wars and reformed taxes to make this industry happen.

The investment of tax dollars in efforts that pay back the American public in ways that benefit everyone for years to come - such as the innovations of the space program in industry or the widespread benefits of the internet? - is precisely the way out of the mess that was created by gutting the middle class and sacrificing social programs and spending on the altar of the "free markets".

THREE POINTS - run on THIS as a platform in the mid-terms and MAKE the pukes defend their record of time in power during the run-up to our current mess...for the better part of TWO DECADES we TRIED REPUBLICAN IDEAS...and now after LESS THAN TWO YEARS of half-assed attempts to fix the resultant mess, we have a Democratic Party scared to defend itself and scared to point out the real villains that are trying to get BACK in the seat of power....ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why do I have to constantly watch the Dems be Charlie Brown to the Reps Lucy?????

He went there because the media HAS to cover the President - and his trip publicized the car, the technology and the fact that this is part of what the stimulus went for.

Don't you get that the media is not our friend and won't cover must Democratic statements. This was an issue when it was put in the stimulus budget - Senators and Congressmen spoke of it - but if their words are not covered by the media - how many hear. Now, you even have Republicans trying to pass a law forbidding highway signs that mention that projects are funded by the stimulus.

All they want heard is that Obama "promised" 8% unemployment if the stimulus passed - though Obama "promised nothing.

bush couldn't even ride a Segway Scooter without crashing. For a while I wondered if he has ever driven a car in his silver spoon life?

There's lots of cars in the $30-40,000 range. That's the near-luxury segment, so we're talking entry-level Lexus/Infiniti/BMW/Mercedes/Audi and the top end of the family car segment. Of course, they'd sell even more if they can get the price down into the twenties, which would put it right in the sweet spot of the family car market.

There are still people buying cars -- just not as many as 4 years ago. I dropped $36,000 on an Audi A3 TDI back in February, and I did look at the Lexus & Ford Fusion hybrids while making my choice. It came down to aesthetics in the end -- I really liked the Fusion, but it was just too ugly to live with.

Instead I'll have to wait years until they become less expensive. Maybe in 10 years I can buy a used one from this first batch.