HAHA: GM executives believe that electric vehicles are the future

[MetroMPG]

Oh, the irony:

[We] believe in the ultimate electrification of the automobile,” Lutz said...“We believe that’s where it’s going...what started as a fuel cell project is now an electric vehicle project.”

Report: GM May Introduce Series-Hybrid Prototype
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006..._gm_may_i.html

[omgwtfbyobbq]

[Silveredwings]

Yea, I saw that.

In other words, the money for pointless pork H2 projects is running out, time to start making cars...but talk is cheap.

[MetroMPG]

Here are the PNGV results (only half-joking):



If you believe the line in Who Killed the Electric Car, US investment in high-efficiency & electric vehicle research in the early/mid 90's spurred Honda and Toyota into action.

[Silveredwings]

History repeats. The consumer VCR came from Japanese companies, Sony & JVC I think. So did the camcorder. Yet both ideas were first offered to an American company who rejected it for having no market. At least $500 billion later, there's no looking back.

[The Toecutter]

Speaking of govt/auto industry consortiums, whatever happened to the PNGV projects? Millions and millions of dollars sunk into it and where are the results???

The results have been shelved, never to see production. Midsize cars like the GM Precept, Ford Prodigy, and Dodge Intrepid ESX2 did 0-60 mph in ~11 seconds, sat 5 adults, were each about the size of a Ford Taurus, and got around 80 mpg. The cost penalty to make them would have only been a few thousand dollars over conventional cars. We could have had 80 mpg midsize cars that did 0-60 mph in 11 seconds, that were in the $20,000 price bracket, in the 1990s. This is a 3-fold improvement in fuel economy for a practical midsize car, without any major sacrifices entailed on part of the buyer.

That was the PNGV project. The auto industry built the prototypes, they worked, and then the industry never sold them to the public. They pocketed the rest of the pork money they had left over. $220 million taxpayer dollars down the ****ter.

[The Toecutter]

They not only pandered to that crowd, they created it.

The simple fact is that SUVs/pickups have much higher profit margins. Therefore that is what the auto industry wants you to buy, regardless of whether you really want it, and this is what they make as that is what shareholders want them to make. It's little surprise why SUV sales have plummeted in recent years once $2.00/gallon came, but the auto industery hasn't learned. Now they're simply asking the government to keep them afloat with welfare handouts, courtesy of Joe Taxpayer.

[Ted Hart]

Originally Posted by The Toecutter

They not only pandered to that crowd, they created it.

The simple fact is that SUVs/pickups have much higher profit margins. Therefore that is what the auto industry wants you to buy, regardless of whether you really want it, and this is what they make as that is what shareholders want them to make. It's little surprise why SUV sales have plummeted in recent years once $2.00/gallon came, but the auto industery hasn't learned. Now they're simply asking the government to keep them afloat with welfare handouts, courtesy of Joe Taxpayer.

$o...what el$e i$ new? Ever since the first pretty shell was strung on a string and was offered in trade for something else "owned" by someone else... there has been trouble! From robbery to advertising("Look what we got for you!" -Madison Ave.)...it's all a big game! You earn it, you got it, you want..., they got, you pay, "they" invest, build more "its", sell...sell...sell!
Henry Ford (the elder) said "Small cars, small profits! Big cars, big profits."