OCT 06

I haven't heard of that before, is there a benefit to the consumer?

Looks cool though, and I like the ev range and price.

When the cost of leasing batteries is amortized, what will be the cost per mile? Will that relagate any economic benefit of electric (vs. gasoline) a null point?
We need ecogeek to give us some analysis of owning batteries vs. leasing.

I require a range of 100 miles while maintaining a speed of 60mph over hilly terrain with the heater or ac, radio, and wipers running. This car is close but I bet the specs aren't there yet.

hybrid, shmybrid. This little car looks kickass for an electric, and is tantalizingly accessible to North Americans in the foreseeable future! It looks like a wacky version of my Toyota Yaris, which is great. I could drive this car down my street and only have a few people look twice.

Some questions:
- safety regulations... i do know that there were some questions regarding the quietness of electric vehicles...
- also- misquote- all sites and Pininfarina themselves, refer to it as a "supercapacitor" not ultracapacitor...
- also, just to re-iterate, there are NO official quotes on price.... just speculation.
- what would it cost to maintain solar panels?
- and i can't find ANY reference to leasing the batteries, just one obscure comment on a few online blogs... the official sites of both Pininfarina and Belloré both do not make reference to this...

still, this is a very real step into a tangible shift of serious eco-automotive production.

And the GM volt is the best the US can come up with! IF, and I mean IF the specs come out close why would the most of us ECOGEEKS pay for a nearly twice as expensive GM volt with it limited mileage. Oh because it can run on gas. Thats not what I've been waiting for. It just makes me hate US auto industry. They should have learned from the 70's oil embargo... Instead they marketed new and improved styling, faster, bigger more powerful... blah blah blah... for years and years. Until now the auto industry has been telling us thats what the American consumer wanted. No, it what the auto industry has wanted to sell the American consumer and did a great job marketing it to us. Well NOW we want electric cars!!! where are they... Oh Japan and Europe.

So the big three are about to collapse because nobody wants a Hummer, Ford F350 or Yukon and the best gas mileage is around 35 mpg. So now they see their sales plummet over 40% because their cars cost too much to buy and too much to run.

Expect them to ask the government for help, because they failed at bring the American masses an alternative 5 years too late... I say let them fail... Its the free market right?

I'm going pay a few $$$$ more and have a B0 shipped to the US just on principal.

The downside to all electric at this time for the majority of Americans, is that besides the 40 miles a day in commuting, we like to use the car to go to Grandma's house 350 miles away, or other "weekender" trips that fall outside the current all-electric range.
That's where the increased cost of a car like the Volt makes some sense, but it would be nice if the gasoline powered generator only added $5000 to the price of the Volt, not $20,000. For that, I could buy both an all electric commuter, and a used Honda Insight for $8,000 for those weekend trips.

a great idea for the ev industry would be to include free access to a rental car for maybe 10 days per year. then consumers would have what they really need, an efficient vehicle for commuting and an inefficient vehicle for those very few times where they really need something else.

Doc Rings good point and Nicster hit the nail on the head too. We live in a country where people buy an F350 on the chance they will need to haul something. Plus the its a throw back from the macho big truck, small member thing. But its true!

Whats needed is a change in habit and mindset through mainstream marketing... change it from love everything NASCAR, big, fast, powerful to smooth, sleek, quiet and energy efficient. Make big loud stupid cars and trucks what smoking has become in advertising. Because thats what going to have to happen to change people attitudes.

The whole silent car and blind people issue. The need for everybody to have cars that make noise so that 0.1% of the population can hear them. WHAT!!! NO! I think the blind should have to get some kind of sensor to let them know a car is near. The whole notion that street noise and hwy noise is a good thing makes me sick and when our society has the ability to have cars that make no noise we add speaker under the hood to simulate NASCAR also makes me sick. This is why I live in the country. I wouldn't mind living within a city if it didn't have all the noisy cars and traffic issues. Mass transit, bikes, walking, green space. Less roads! Ok, that was my last rant.
No noise! :)

If you combine ultracapacitor with batteries you can charge them within 5-10 minutes and off you go. That's the way.

Thing is there are a lot of EVs coming out that will inspire us to go Ooh la la!

@Doc Rings This seems to be the most sensible view, an EV in its present form is good for most commuting and around town trips.

I have some sources telling me that this is an american designed system. Little known project by Johnson Controls.

Keep an eye out for a chery version of it as well.

It wouldn't surprise me if a few lesser known companies like these prevail in the next 5 years.

MIltowny,

I presume you confused the JC joint-venture with Saft (an old french based batteries producer) and Batcap, the battery arm of Bollore and the supplier on this car.

JC-Saft is going slowly into production too, they signed some agreement with Mercedes and others. But it is a different technology.

My understanding is batteries last 4 years while cars can roll for 10 to 15. Trying to amortize the batteries would make the lease payments and the residual value of the car separate. If more sustainable battery technology comes out later than the risk to the leasing company is separate... I think that model makes sense for finance companies...
Amazing that most EV batteries is still coming out of Japan...

Try driving one of these undersized cars on our freeways, like the smart car ...very dangerous in wind.No thank you.

The car would have to go AT LEAST 250 miles on one charge before it's even an option for people living outside a city. Yeah, there's still a bunch of us left, thank goodness.

And at $23,000 , gas would have to go up to something like $8 per gallon before it even comes close to saving me any money over my 30mpg Hyudai.

What happens when all these batteries ware out? How are they going to be disposed of?

Why are the autos companys so slow in making a all electric Car, are they in bed with the big Oil people or what? it is all in the electricial systems they can put a nice generator in each wheel and give it a range of over 18 hundred miles i did and i am making 3 per day for 19 hundred dollars, thanks nckdf