[deckofficer]

I used to work in oil exploration and can assure you that the oil companies will not sit still during the launch of the Volt. I predict gas will be around $5.00 a gallon prior to the launch but will drop to whatever price is deemed low enough to kill off interest in the Volt. GM is being really brave betting the farm on the Volt, but it takes a major player like GM to pull this off. Scaling up production on a new battery technology could cost GM a billion dollars over 4 years that to make the Volt competitve, GM will absorb. After 4 years if demand stays high, GM will be rewarded. The public can not afford to be fickle on this matter and ignore the low gas prices. The public needs to know that they have no control over the price of petrol and do in fact have control over the cost of electricity. If power companies start to raise rates, then the public will buy and install solar panals and grid intertie inverters, it is really that simple. I live in Southern California and our rates are $0.15 per kw/hr, the highest in the nation. At this rate I'm getting a 9% return on my investment in grid intertied solar panals.

 

[Jason M. Hendler]

Oil companies are not threatened by vehicles which still burn petroleum, and they are not threatened by BEV's, which cost $100K and take 4 hours to recharge. Oil companies know that it will still cost you the same money to drive the same distance, as their prices have tripled from several years ago.

 

[deckofficer]

Jason,

As it stands now, we all pay for every mile we drive to the oil companies. I do have an electric truck but the numbers of us that currently drive electric is so small as to not matter. But if you do the math on what the Chevy Volt would cost in lost oil sales, then you would understand why the oil companies will do anything to stop the Volt.

US population age 21 and older 231,000,000
74% travel 40 miles or less per day 170,940,000
25% of this adopts a Volt 42,735,000
This group buys 10 gallons less per week
at a current cost of $3.80 per gallon $1,623,930,000.00
Lost revanue for a year is (drum roll) $84,444,360,000.00

You don't think Big Oil is going to get excited about a $84 trillion loss in retail sales?

 

[Cybereye]

Oil company welcome the volt

I don't think the oil company is going to bother to stop the Volt. In the past, they may have stop them. But now, I'm sure they are welcome the the volt. It not going to be easy to find oil. Oil company can redue the output per barrel of the demand and raise the value of the oil as "peek oil" extended the time frame. Cars are not the only one in the market that need oil. Cars may be the most intake from the oil compare to others that use oil. I do believe we are on the other side of the peek oil. OPEC is not saying anything about the oil reserves. Down the road in a few years after the volt is out, OPEC will keep saying that there is enough oil supplies around and cut the produces of oil. Heck, OPEC may complain the EV cause too much supplies of oil. While OPEC is trying to find more oil or members to join force. Some oil company may start to change thier goal as energy company, not oil company. That is my view in the next 6-10 years.

 

[deckofficer]

Cybereye,

You are correct about the oil companies renameing themselves as energy companies as they are doing this now. But like I said in the first post, they would rather have the energy be oil as they control that product from the well to the tank with no competition. There is too much competition in the production of electricity. Even the consumer can be a producer of this energy source. This is good for us but is total madness to the oil companies.

 

[DaV8or]

US population age 21 and older 231,000,000
74% travel 40 miles or less per day 170,940,000
25% of this adopts a Volt 42,735,000
This group buys 10 gallons less per week
at a current cost of $3.80 per gallon $1,623,930,000.00
Lost revanue for a year is (drum roll) $84,444,360,000.00

You don't think Big Oil is going to get excited about a $84 trillion loss in retail sales?

Those are some pretty optimistic numbers. 18% of the adult population is going to run out and buy a $30-$40k Volt just because it saves gas? Not going to happen. No model of any car has ever had this kind of sales success. We only sell about 16 million vehicles total per year in this country. That's everything, cars and trucks. Oil companies need to adapt, but they don't need to quake in their boots.

 

[Cybereye]

The oil company gave up the fight. There no way to force global of people to not think green. The goverment is even talking about carbon credits in US. The whole carbon credits crazies think it going to fix global warming crap. The oil company gave up the fight and as Deckofficer said the oil company renameing themselves as energy companies to make there image as green.

 

[Jason M. Hendler]

Jason,

As it stands now, we all pay for every mile we drive to the oil companies. I do have an electric truck but the numbers of us that currently drive electric is so small as to not matter. But if you do the math on what the Chevy Volt would cost in lost oil sales, then you would understand why the oil companies will do anything to stop the Volt.

US population age 21 and older 231,000,000
74% travel 40 miles or less per day 170,940,000
25% of this adopts a Volt 42,735,000
This group buys 10 gallons less per week
at a current cost of $3.80 per gallon $1,623,930,000.00
Lost revanue for a year is (drum roll) $84,444,360,000.00

You don't think Big Oil is going to get excited about a $84 trillion loss in retail sales?

Compare your calculations using gasoline prices from before 9/11, and compare the delta. I think oil producers have allowed production to plateau, so that prices rize and their revenues stay high, ahead of reduced consumption. In other words, they've already adjusted their business model for a world that will reduce petroleum consumption.

 

[deckofficer]

This is a case that I hope I'm wrong and that the other posters are correct. It can't be argued that we are all a product of our experiances, good, bad, and indifferant. Our preceptions are also shaped by our experiances. I was a dedicated ICE motorhead before I went to work for Noble Drilling and the oil companies. If anyone is interested in what I learned in this industry I will share my experiances. Food for thought, why did Cheveron Oil purchase the patent rights to Nimh batteries over a 10 a/hr rating if not concerned about BEVs. This was the battery used in the 2nd generation EV1, Toyota RAV4 EV, and the Ford Ranger EV. Why did Big Oil sue California over the ZEV (zero emission vehicle) mandates? Everyone seems to be discussing Peak Oil, believing that it has come. From 1997 to 2002, every producing well I was involved in drilling was capped and refered to as "money in the bank" by whatever oil company we were under contract to. That is 5 years of my life discovering new oil fields that were never put on line. After leaving this industry I am still a motorhead but instead of carbon based performance, I'm into electron based performance. I drive an electric truck and a electric scooter that can beat my Vette to 40 mph.

 

[omegaman66]

1. Which big "oil company" has oil in their name. I don't think they gave thereselves that name or have any say in us call them oil or energy companies.

2. ExxonMobil, Texaco, Chevron etc do not control enough of the oil market to amount to a hill of beans. They purchase more oil than they pump. It is OPEC than has total control of gas prices.

3. Oil companies can not kill off electrification of cars.

4. The elimination of gasoline demand isn't a problem for big oil. Biggest threat to big oil is for energy to get so expensive that the world economy crashes and nobody can afford any of their products.

 

[&eye]

42,000,000 Volts sure would be great! but Chevy is only going to be building them in small quantities. if there are 1 million of them before 2015 i'll be VERY surprised.

also, less than half of the price at the pump goes to oil/energy companies. more than half of it goes towards taxes.

also also, ENERGY companies do more than pump oil. they are heavily invested in coal, natural gas, wind, solar, etc. in my opinion, energy should not be a profit making industry. but it is. only the consumer who takes it upon themselves to produce their energy off-grid (currently VERY few of us do) will be able to recharge their Volt without consuming the product of a major energy company.

 

[Texas]

in my opinion, energy should not be a profit making industry. but it is.

Funny that I was thinking the same thing the other day. It sounds crazy at first but let me explain. Who owns America? Americans! Sure people can buy land and the natural resources that are buried there but here's the difference... The sun shines every day all over our land. The wind blows as well. If you take all the renewables that arrive on OUR land every day and divide it up evenly by the number of Americans, what do you get? A lot of Volt miles!

I know I know crazy talk in this age and time.

 

[kmb1966]

1. Which big "oil company" has oil in their name. I don't think they gave thereselves that name or have any say in us call them oil or energy companies.

2. ExxonMobil, Texaco, Chevron etc do not control enough of the oil market to amount to a hill of beans. They purchase more oil than they pump. It is OPEC than has total control of gas prices.

3. Oil companies can not kill off electrification of cars.

4. The elimination of gasoline demand isn't a problem for big oil. Biggest threat to big oil is for energy to get so expensive that the world economy crashes and nobody can afford any of their products.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but didn't the EV1 battery technology get purchased from Chevron/Texaco? What happened?

 

[omegaman66]

There is nothing stopping anyone from producing cars run by lead acid batteries, NI metal hydrid, or li-ion. As a matter of fact ALL of these types of batteries do have various types of autos powered by them. So regardless of whether they bought the technology it isn't stopping anyone else from building any electric vehicles.

 

[Texas]

There is nothing stopping anyone from producing cars run by lead acid batteries, NI metal hydrid, or li-ion. As a matter of fact ALL of these types of batteries do have various types of autos powered by them. So regardless of whether they bought the technology it isn't stopping anyone else from building any electric vehicles.

I have to slightly disagree with your statement. The Nickel Metal-Hydride battery was invented by a genius of our time Stanford Ovshinsky, President and CEO of Ovonic Battery Co. There was nothing out there even close to matching the overall performance of his creation. Some say that's true even today! If indeed that technology was held back from the market then one could conclude that the BEV was delayed for a decade. If that was the case let's learn from that and be careful not to repeat history. We must be diligent on this and let companies and governments know that we are watching and are not going to go away quietly.

*** Saudi Arabia gives a 10 million dollar grant to one of the most promising battery scientists alive today. Yi Cui's radical silicon nanowire lithium-ion battery is said to be able to deliver 10X the performance of today’s cells. Yi Cui is now required to spend from a few weeks to 3 months EVER YEAR in Saudi Arabia conducting research. ***


Here is an article about it:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8809998?nclick_check=1

It might be nothing but perhaps keeping an eye on it would not be a waste of time.

 

[jscott1000]

Anyone else cheer each time you hear of increases in oil prices?

I get happier and happier everytime that oil gets more expensive. Big oil is digging their own graves.

By the time the Volt hits the market people will be so sick of big oil that a cost comparison will be irrelevant. The Volt could be the most popular new car introduced ever.

 

[Art]

Jason,

As it stands now, we all pay for every mile we drive to the oil companies. I do have an electric truck but the numbers of us that currently drive electric is so small as to not matter. But if you do the math on what the Chevy Volt would cost in lost oil sales, then you would understand why the oil companies will do anything to stop the Volt.

US population age 21 and older 231,000,000
74% travel 40 miles or less per day 170,940,000
25% of this adopts a Volt 42,735,000
This group buys 10 gallons less per week
at a current cost of $3.80 per gallon $1,623,930,000.00
Lost revanue for a year is (drum roll) $84,444,360,000.00

You don't think Big Oil is going to get excited about a $84 trillion loss in retail sales?

That's Billion not Trillion.

Even so it's a lot of money and the cost will be even more; if there is that much less demand price will collapse. If 50% of passenger vehicles were volts you'd see gasoline at the pump selling at $1.25 a gallon.

 

[Art]

I get happier and happier everytime that oil gets more expensive. Big oil is digging their own graves.

By the time the Volt hits the market people will be so sick of big oil that a cost comparison will be irrelevant. The Volt could be the most popular new car introduced ever.

I wholeheartedly agree.

A Volt would be worth an extra $3,000 a year to me. Yes, it would. It would be worth it when every two, three or four months, as I pulled in to get my 8 gallon fill up, to give Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the middle finger.

These two men have expressed the desire to see America collapse and at $100 oil each of these countries have huge social and political problems to contend with. Imagine their problems if oil collapsed back to $10 to $15.

This, the move from petroleum, is the single biggest national security concern we've had to face in over 50 years. If you want to show your patriotism, your love for America and our way of life, then get away from oil.

Cleaner air in Los Angeles too.

 

[Statik]

Oil companies do not car about electric cars.

The reason is simple. 'Big oil' still wants to make a billion fafillion dollars on their oil rigs, but capacity and utilization are at the peak...so it matters not, they want to abuse the system...not collapse it.

85.24 million produced a day (2006)
84.40 million consumed a day (2006)

Wordwide demand is conservatively pegged at 110 million in 20 years. It is almost impossible to bring this much new production online...I did say 'almost'

We reached the tipping point in the US decades ago:

7.61 million produced
21 million consumed

And that is why even Bush is pro-'less oil,' Texas oil men are guaranteed their profits. Now the US is in danger territory. They need way more oil than they produce and all those dollar bills are leaving the country to support the habit...the results you see in the trade defeceit and the dollar.

/too many people in the world

 

[zzyzzx]

I really don't think electric cars are a threat to big oil since there will still be enough demand for oil from China and India even if we all get electric cars in the US.