GE To Buy 25,000 EVs, Starting With the Chevy Volt 301
DeviceGuru writes "In what's claimed as the largest-ever single electric vehicle commitment, GE plans to acquire 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015. The buying spree will initially involve 12,000 GM vehicles, beginning with GM's Chevy Volt in 2011. By converting most of its own 30,000-strong global fleet, and promoting EV adoption among its 65,000 global fleet customers, GE hopes to be in a strong position to help deploy the vehicles' supporting infrastructure, including charging stations, circuit protection equipment, and transformers. In contrast to the all-electric Nissan Leaf, the Volt implements a small gas engine, which can recharge the vehicle's battery to extend its range beyond the 100 mile limit of all-electric cars like the Leaf, leading some to question the Volt's EV credentials."
Re:GE=Georgia? (Score:4, Informative)
That's because Georgia is GA, not GE.
Re:GE=Georgia? (Score:1, Informative)
GA is the Georgia the American State, GE is the accepted abbreviation for the former soviet nation Georgia. Google it.
Re:Tax credit (Score:4, Informative)
From www.mychevroletvolt.com : "The First 200,000 Chevrolet Volt’s qualify for $7500 in federal tax credits (After which there is a phase out schedule)."
So this consumes rebates from a limited pool that may have gone to individuals. I don't necessarily have a problem with that: first come, first served I guess. I like that GE is doing this to jump start infrastructure sales rather than a one time tax benefit.
Re:GE=Georgia? (Score:4, Informative)
Georgia the nation has a GDP of $20 Billion, General Electric has a revenue of $157 Billion. Odds are the government of Georgia could not afford 25,000 Chevy volts.
Everyone knows who GE is, no one cares about broke Soviet Bloc nations.
Anonymous Coward (Score:1, Informative)
GE is a huge supporter of the Obama administration and the Obama administration is desperate to prove that its takeover of GM and its pushing of "green jobs" wasn't just a bunch of unconstitutional meddling driven by a hunger for political power. The incestuousness of this is appalling. It calls to mind something that Benito Mussolini once said, something like, 'For the State, everything. For that outside the State, nothing.'
Re:I agree, the chevy volt is not a EV (Score:5, Informative)
Under normal, battery-charged conditions and under 70 MPH, the gasoline engine does not run at all.
For most folks who commute less than 20 miles per day (80% of the population, according to GM), the vehicle will always be on the battery.
Sounds like an EV to me.
Re:UPS, fedex, city buses (Score:3, Informative)
The ideal would be to do it when you retire vehicles and have to replace them anyway. Those fleets have pretty high turnover.
Re:I agree, the chevy volt is not a EV (Score:3, Informative)
"Depends on where you are. In the Scandinavian regions, there is a huge tax break for electric vehicles. However, a Chevy Volt would not count as an electric vehicle there because it has an ICE that comes on automatically as part of normal operation."
ONLY if battery power is exhausted. You can have 100% gasoline-free operation if you don't travel more than 40 miles per charge.
Re:Bring back Neutron Jack (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I agree, the chevy volt is not a EV (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong, there is a planetary gear between them. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/automobiles/17VOLT.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Chevy%20Volt&st=cse [nytimes.com]
At least do a little research for making ridiculous claims.
Re:Bring back Neutron Jack (Score:3, Informative)
Re:UPS, fedex, city buses (Score:3, Informative)
I would have thought that with constant stop-and-go driving, regenerative braking would be a huge win. The article says it's a 35% fuel savings. But apparently even that isn't enough for them to switch all their new vehicle purchases to hybrid.
Nukes (Score:5, Informative)
electricity demand could increase significantly
Hopefully people will wake up to the benefits of Nuclear Energy. It is in fact our only hope for future energy demands.
Re:I agree, the chevy volt is not a EV (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.motortrend.com/features/editorial/1010_unbolting_the_chevy_volt_to_see_how_it_ticks/index.html [motortrend.com]
With pictures for you.
And here is the line from the article I gave you, it was on page 1. So reading might be something you could try doing:
the 4-cylinder gas engine does provide some assist to the drive wheels.
Re:Bring back Neutron Jack (Score:3, Informative)
NG is currently commercial price is $6 / 1000cubic feet [doe.gov] for 1 million BTU's worth. Diesel is 2.39 [eia.gov] for 130,500BTU.
so Diesel price is around 2* more expensive at commercial. Retail price (NG to your home) brings that down to Diesel 15% more expensive.
Re:Tax credit (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Nukes (Score:3, Informative)
In the USA, fear-mongering will ensure that new nukes aren't built for quite a while, if ever. It's gotten into the political system, and it is now almost impossible to get a new reactor built -- the red tape is unbelievable. This, despite the much less risky nature of modern designs. Even if one was built, the huge up-front costs of all that regulation makes them not particularly cost-effective - they end up making expensive electricity.
So you'd better hope for improvements in photo-voltaics and battery (and/or ultracapacitor) technologies, because that's the only path that isn't straight-jacketed by the loons in the various legislatures. They even make it difficult to put up a darned windmill.
The good news is that photo-voltaics, combined with storage (like pumped storage) can supply our current needs, as well as our needs for a considerable time into the future. In the meantime, we have a little breathing room, and perhaps, just perhaps, we can solve the fusion problem. That, my frosty friend, might just be the holy grail of power generation.