I do suspect the price of kilowatt hours to remain stable in the coming years (unlike oil) so there is some reason to believe electric cars DO/CAN make (cents) sense.
$$$ to replace the Volt battery pack?
After owning a GM volt (let's say for 5 years) I am assuming it would be time to replace the lithium ion batteries. AND HOW MUCH WILL THIS COST?
1 - 6 of 15 Posts
The Volt can't afford to be a good looking DOG.
Hopefully the boys at GM will know the Volt not only has to turn heads (and turn a profit) this vehicle is paradigm shift to a radically powered car has got to be one really "smart" move on the part of the worlds largest automaker.
Hopefully the boys at GM will know the Volt not only has to turn heads (and turn a profit) this vehicle is paradigm shift to a radically powered car has got to be one really "smart" move on the part of the worlds largest automaker.
"cost of autos today"
During the days of Jurgis Rudkis (I might have misspelled the name) a character in Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle ... unions were needed to stop the abuses of greedy business owners and sweat-shop owners. Today, it seems that greedy Labor Unions have totally screwed up the car business. I mean, there are people graduating from college with a Master's degree that won't be seeing $56 per hour, and yet a guy with a GED can work for GM and make more money than a person with a Master's degree by doing "non-brainy" repetitive tasks for GM, Ford or Chrysler.
But that being said, I think there is some fault at the management level. They have approved the designs of some really crappy small American cars like the Chevy Monza and Chevette. The Monza, when they decided to put a V6 engine in it, they didn't realize in order to do an oil change, a motor-mount had to be dislodged in order to remove and replace the oil filter. The Chevette... the driver didn't sit exactly behind the steering wheel. The steering column was about 6 inches too far to the right and as a result, the driver sat way far to the left. Those were only two of the issues with these crappy cars. I owned a Chevette in the late 70s, and it also got TERRIBLE gas mileage. The VW Rabbit got TWICE as good MPG, ran faster, had more efficient use of interior space and felt like driving a sports car. I was the "patriotic American" driving a Chevette that felt like driving an overloaded grocery cart on cobblestone roads. I think a good CEO would be a guy who once a month, shows up on the assembly line, gets greasy, and does someones job for 8 hours. Then and only then might the CEO see there are some design issues that might need to be changed. I wonder if the CEO of GM knows how to change a spark plug or do an oil change on a 1977 Monza?
Blunders are "a-plenty" concerning the "olden days" of US car business. I hope the labor unions will wake up and loosen their strangle-hold on GM, Ford and Chrysler and I hope the executives of these corporations will also realize they too are not earning their multi-million dollar perks because they have been asleep at the wheel in regard to churning out vehicles that American consumers want... Come on guys, this is America. We sent a man to the moon, won WW2 and we can't beat the Germans and Asians in designing and building cars? I hope the GM Volt kicks some serious butt in regard to foreign made cars.
About 20 years ago, I read an article in one of the news magazines (probably in US NEWS & WORLD REPORT) that stated one of the reasons cars made in the US cost more than foreign made vehicles was the labor cost. The article shocked me when it suggested that employees doing basically unskilled tasks like installing bumpers all day long were getting $56 per hour (factored in the perks) and the job required no higher than a GED. The article also stated Union employees were granted a slew of breaks during their shift. The article said cars could in essence be "log jammed" on the assembly line while the employee was off on a break reading magazines. God only knows what these Union people make in the year 2008, because the article I read was about two decades ago.I am in shock at the cost of autos today. Or is chevy going to be realistic with a great product at an affordable price?
I find it amazing that Europe has been producing fuel efficient cars for years. We just woke up... and are now playing catch up. We are bombarded on TV with ads of autos getting 30mpg....what a joke! No wonder the auto industry is in the toilet! Wake up guys!
During the days of Jurgis Rudkis (I might have misspelled the name) a character in Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle ... unions were needed to stop the abuses of greedy business owners and sweat-shop owners. Today, it seems that greedy Labor Unions have totally screwed up the car business. I mean, there are people graduating from college with a Master's degree that won't be seeing $56 per hour, and yet a guy with a GED can work for GM and make more money than a person with a Master's degree by doing "non-brainy" repetitive tasks for GM, Ford or Chrysler.
But that being said, I think there is some fault at the management level. They have approved the designs of some really crappy small American cars like the Chevy Monza and Chevette. The Monza, when they decided to put a V6 engine in it, they didn't realize in order to do an oil change, a motor-mount had to be dislodged in order to remove and replace the oil filter. The Chevette... the driver didn't sit exactly behind the steering wheel. The steering column was about 6 inches too far to the right and as a result, the driver sat way far to the left. Those were only two of the issues with these crappy cars. I owned a Chevette in the late 70s, and it also got TERRIBLE gas mileage. The VW Rabbit got TWICE as good MPG, ran faster, had more efficient use of interior space and felt like driving a sports car. I was the "patriotic American" driving a Chevette that felt like driving an overloaded grocery cart on cobblestone roads. I think a good CEO would be a guy who once a month, shows up on the assembly line, gets greasy, and does someones job for 8 hours. Then and only then might the CEO see there are some design issues that might need to be changed. I wonder if the CEO of GM knows how to change a spark plug or do an oil change on a 1977 Monza?
Blunders are "a-plenty" concerning the "olden days" of US car business. I hope the labor unions will wake up and loosen their strangle-hold on GM, Ford and Chrysler and I hope the executives of these corporations will also realize they too are not earning their multi-million dollar perks because they have been asleep at the wheel in regard to churning out vehicles that American consumers want... Come on guys, this is America. We sent a man to the moon, won WW2 and we can't beat the Germans and Asians in designing and building cars? I hope the GM Volt kicks some serious butt in regard to foreign made cars.
Tongue Lashing (DaV8or)
I think you are being a tad harsh for those of us relatively new to this forum. I know for me, I recently joined after seeing a snip on a news segment, got excited, "Googled" GM Volt, came here and simply asked some questions. No, I haven't done as much homework as you "senior" members, I am a newbie. I am however a guy who drove a 1/4 of a million dollar electric van in a public relations and media capacity here in Texas in the mid 1990s. I probably know more about batteries than the average consumer who is interested in an EV, but I suspect 95% of people who are interested in a GM Volt, don't have any idea what a metal-hydride or lithium battery (or even maybe a lead-acid battery) is. That's the beauty of this forum... potential consumers get to ask questions and they shouldn't be flamed, chided or ostracized for asking a question that needs to be addressed. The fact remains, NOBODY HAS STATED HOW MUCH A NEW BATTERY PACK WILL OR COULD COST (that I am aware of) after the batteries have exhausted their (unknown) service life. It might be impossible at this juncture to even estimate the cost and labor to replace the battery pack, but still, this is a legitimate and intelligent question to ask as a potential consumer.
I know for those of us who have been following the Prius for a much longer time-frame (it is a REAL car and basically HAS a track record, unlike the Volt) the big issue is the longevity of the Prius batteries and the steep price to replace them (typically 4 to 5 years) and we "newbies" have been equating this to batteries in general. Typically, consumers know they have to buy a new battery in an "old technology" vehicle every 4 to 5 years. Our mindset then makes us wonder how much a slew of batteries would cost (basically in that same time frame) for a Prius OR a Volt. I know the batteries in the $200,000+ Dodge Electric Mini Van I had as one of my two company cars in my PR job for a large electric company here in Texas --- they had to be replaced after 2.5 years!
No, I have not seen ANYTHING about the 10 year life span, nor anything about costs. I also think for most of us on this site, we are reading posts in the Forum. We might not simply know where to look.
Maybe someone needs to simply post a new topic " BIG NEWS, LONG BATTERY LIFE FOR THE VOLT."
Here is one other topic, Obama wants to give everyone a $7,000 tax credit for buying a "hybrid." I assume since GM isn't marketing the Volt as "hybrid" technically would this exclude the GM product and favor the Prius? Has someone already answered this? or is it buried somewhere where only a "senior" member knows where to access it?
My main complaint is GET THE COST DOWN so thousands of these will be be roaming the streets. I'd rather flood the highways with an American product over the Toyota. And by getting the cost down, the Unions need to make some concessions and let their folks work in the real world, like the rest of us working stiffs who can't afford a $50,000 electric car, made by some guy with a GED making $60 an hour, getting paid to take breaks while slowing down the assembly line as he/she is reading a magazine.
I think you are being a tad harsh for those of us relatively new to this forum. I know for me, I recently joined after seeing a snip on a news segment, got excited, "Googled" GM Volt, came here and simply asked some questions. No, I haven't done as much homework as you "senior" members, I am a newbie. I am however a guy who drove a 1/4 of a million dollar electric van in a public relations and media capacity here in Texas in the mid 1990s. I probably know more about batteries than the average consumer who is interested in an EV, but I suspect 95% of people who are interested in a GM Volt, don't have any idea what a metal-hydride or lithium battery (or even maybe a lead-acid battery) is. That's the beauty of this forum... potential consumers get to ask questions and they shouldn't be flamed, chided or ostracized for asking a question that needs to be addressed. The fact remains, NOBODY HAS STATED HOW MUCH A NEW BATTERY PACK WILL OR COULD COST (that I am aware of) after the batteries have exhausted their (unknown) service life. It might be impossible at this juncture to even estimate the cost and labor to replace the battery pack, but still, this is a legitimate and intelligent question to ask as a potential consumer.
I know for those of us who have been following the Prius for a much longer time-frame (it is a REAL car and basically HAS a track record, unlike the Volt) the big issue is the longevity of the Prius batteries and the steep price to replace them (typically 4 to 5 years) and we "newbies" have been equating this to batteries in general. Typically, consumers know they have to buy a new battery in an "old technology" vehicle every 4 to 5 years. Our mindset then makes us wonder how much a slew of batteries would cost (basically in that same time frame) for a Prius OR a Volt. I know the batteries in the $200,000+ Dodge Electric Mini Van I had as one of my two company cars in my PR job for a large electric company here in Texas --- they had to be replaced after 2.5 years!
No, I have not seen ANYTHING about the 10 year life span, nor anything about costs. I also think for most of us on this site, we are reading posts in the Forum. We might not simply know where to look.
Maybe someone needs to simply post a new topic " BIG NEWS, LONG BATTERY LIFE FOR THE VOLT."
Here is one other topic, Obama wants to give everyone a $7,000 tax credit for buying a "hybrid." I assume since GM isn't marketing the Volt as "hybrid" technically would this exclude the GM product and favor the Prius? Has someone already answered this? or is it buried somewhere where only a "senior" member knows where to access it?
My main complaint is GET THE COST DOWN so thousands of these will be be roaming the streets. I'd rather flood the highways with an American product over the Toyota. And by getting the cost down, the Unions need to make some concessions and let their folks work in the real world, like the rest of us working stiffs who can't afford a $50,000 electric car, made by some guy with a GED making $60 an hour, getting paid to take breaks while slowing down the assembly line as he/she is reading a magazine.
DaV8or! Check the date of the original question.
It looks like an executive from GM read my post and decided to address a very legitimate concern on the part of a potential (and LOYAL Chevy owner since 1970, my first being a Z-28 for combo-present for graduation from High School and joining the Army, signing up for Nam) I still own a 1983 GMC Diesel Van... that chugs along (ugly as sin, but in the family since day 1).
I think this forum is helpful for people to post concerns because it allows GM an opportunity to determine potential marketing problems and GM can head this stuff off in advance. Lyle DID in fact catch a bad post I submitted last week about a really BAD Google glitch I had. I'm glad he caught it and removed my question there, because my original data from Google was corrupted.
I hope someone from GM read my grievance about the Chevette steering wheel NOT being placed directly in front of the driver (off set by 4 to 6 inches) and the fact the engine on the 1977 Monza V6 had to be dislodged in order to remove the oil filter... That's what got US car makers in a bind in the first place, not listening to the consumer, or checking their very own work and their own designs.
The folks from Japan LIKE to hear concerns, grievances and gripes... It gives their design people and management team an opportunity to head-off errors and make products that consumers WANT to buy and become loyal to.
This started NOT as a rumor or misleading information, but as a simple question 2 full weeks in advance of GM making the info available on 8-5-2008.
My original question was posted 7-21. In looking at this link you provided, it suggests the info was put out by GM or Lyle TODAY, 8-5. So what is the hollering about? My question was NOT mis-information. Did I or anybody else state what the projection was for battery life in the Volt? No, I asked if batteries were going to last more than 4 to 5 years.Doesn't anybody read what Lyle posts in his blog? Info straight from GM? This car is having a tough enough time making it to market without us starting mis information about it. Here read up: http://gm-volt.com/2008/08/05/gm-says-chevy-volt-battery-will-have-a-10-year-150000-mile-warranty/
It looks like an executive from GM read my post and decided to address a very legitimate concern on the part of a potential (and LOYAL Chevy owner since 1970, my first being a Z-28 for combo-present for graduation from High School and joining the Army, signing up for Nam) I still own a 1983 GMC Diesel Van... that chugs along (ugly as sin, but in the family since day 1).
I think this forum is helpful for people to post concerns because it allows GM an opportunity to determine potential marketing problems and GM can head this stuff off in advance. Lyle DID in fact catch a bad post I submitted last week about a really BAD Google glitch I had. I'm glad he caught it and removed my question there, because my original data from Google was corrupted.
I hope someone from GM read my grievance about the Chevette steering wheel NOT being placed directly in front of the driver (off set by 4 to 6 inches) and the fact the engine on the 1977 Monza V6 had to be dislodged in order to remove the oil filter... That's what got US car makers in a bind in the first place, not listening to the consumer, or checking their very own work and their own designs.
The folks from Japan LIKE to hear concerns, grievances and gripes... It gives their design people and management team an opportunity to head-off errors and make products that consumers WANT to buy and become loyal to.
This started NOT as a rumor or misleading information, but as a simple question 2 full weeks in advance of GM making the info available on 8-5-2008.
1 - 6 of 15 Posts
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