Monday, June 09, 2008

GM lost $39 Billion in 2007

It's a good thing they canceled that electric car program back in 2003. Who on Earth would ever want to buy an electric car?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, electric cars are not GM's issue. The limited range of the electric car killed it. As a result, folks had to buy two cars - electric for local travel and gasoline for longer trips. The result was that the electric car was a toy for the wealthy and celebrities - not a realistic option of ordinary consumers. My apologies to Martin Sheen for that level of candor on this issue.

GM is hurting because they made lousy gasoline cars - unlike Toyota and Honda - and struck abysmal deals with the unions long ago.

Subleum said...

"The limited range of the electric car killed it."

Well, that was true with the EV-1, but battery technology has come a long way since then. The EV-1 Gen2 battery allowed for a 150 mile range on a charge. a 2-3 hour charge would give 80% range (120 miles).

In contrast, the Chevy Volt, to be released in 2010, the so called "next generation" electric, has a 40 mile range. Why even bother? This, from the company that built a 80 mile range electric car 10 years ago (the EV-1)!

New supercapacitors are promising (although there's skepticism in the scientific community) a 250 mile range on less than a 5 min charge. Perhaps that's where the future is. Either way, GM is only looking at huge, Dino-fueled cars.