I was talking with a guy who retired from General Motors a few years ago. He says that he was in management and I must admit, he did seem to know a lot about the plans of General Motors.

He says that he still keeps in touch with some of his friends who worked there as well. His friends have been telling him that General Motors is in the process of bringing back the electric car they had several years ago, but it will be new and improved. What that means exactly, I am not certain, but from what I gather from talking to him, we will be seeing the General Motors electric car back in production within the next couple years.

Does anyone who works for General Motors know anything about this? Can you confirm it, or was this guy just jerking my chain?

GM still has incompetent management and though they are getting into the electric market they arent very serious, they are holding back in the hopes they can get the government to pay for development and they can keep their profits. Bush already told them to suck on it, but maybe the next president will decide to waste a few billion on american automobile superiority and let GM mismanage that also.
Their designers have no idea what they are doing, their Volt design looks good but consider it the Vega of electric cars, it will fall apart because its not designed around being electric. their fuel cell skateboard design of a few years ago was an awesome idea but it scared them because its too different.
The EV-1 is not the miracle that was claimed ( one of my Tofu eating friends had one and swears it was the greatest car ever, but then he rides his bike 10 miles to work ), whenever we went anywhere he was always worried if he could make it back before the batteries died. You havent lived until you drive back from Disneyland at 2 am at 25 miles per hour and very dim lights! He likes it more every year as he forgets the details.
from greencarcongress.com:
GM Targets EV Production in 2010; Running Volt Prototype This Year
6 March 2007
Reuters. GM has set a target for production of an all-electric car in 2010, according to GM product chief and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz during media previews at the Geneva auto show. A running Volt (earlier post) prototype is expected by the end of 2007."

I think the concept of an electric car sounds good, but unless the source of charging power is green, it makes little difference on the envirionment.

People that live near a wind farm may have a green electric vehicle.

People who live near a coal burning plant won't.

Not burning gas, just to burn more coal is silly.

I had a friend that could drive coast to coast without rechargeing at a very small cost for Ele. but the extenison cord was very costly

Some of the hybrid cars are selling very well these days. For example, I have heard the Toyota Prius has a six month waiting list if you want to buy one. I think the time is right for the American auto makers to get together, get their collective heads out of their posteriors, and come up with a decent battery powered car. It they could come up with one that could go about 200 miles before recharging their problems would be over because they would be able to sell as many as they could manufacture. That would be wonderful because it would keep our auto makers in business and keep all those jobs. Perhaps what they need is some new management to get the ball rolling. Maybe I should offer my services.

Even if I fall flat on my face that's OK because they will no doubt give me a really large severance settlement. :D

I hear $900 million is a going price...leave or take a mil..:lol::p

I hear $900 million is a going price...leave or take a mil..:lol::p
I am pretty sure I could manage to live on 900 million, it would cramp my style a little, but I think I could learn to adjust. I might need a little help from my friends though, preferably my lady friends. :D

I think the concept of an electric car sounds good, but unless the source of charging power is green, it makes little difference on the envirionment.

People that live near a wind farm may have a green electric vehicle.

People who live near a coal burning plant won't.

Not burning gas, just to burn more coal is silly.

Electricity from coal is still cheaper and less environmentally impactful then the internal combustion engine.
Coal electricity is also the cheapest source of power and can be made to be clean. It cost to do it but it is still the largest energy resource we have in this country or the world for that matter.

Some of the hybrid cars are selling very well these days. For example, I have heard the Toyota Prius has a six month waiting list if you want to buy one. I think the time is right for the American auto makers to get together, get their collective heads out of their posteriors, and come up with a decent battery powered car. It they could come up with one that could go about 200 miles before recharging their problems would be over because they would be able to sell as many as they could manufacture. That would be wonderful because it would keep our auto makers in business and keep all those jobs. Perhaps what they need is some new management to get the ball rolling. Maybe I should offer my services.

Even if I fall flat on my face that's OK because they will no doubt give me a really large severance settlement. :D

The hybrids are more fuel efficient but the drawbacks are they are considerably more expensive to purchase and work on. They also are high voltage and most mechanic don't want to mess with them because of the danger. At the price of them you're going to have to drive them beyond the normal life of a vehicle to ever have a chance of the extra miles per gallon being enough to recoup the extra price payed.

Electric cars could well be the biggest solution to oil imports but until we make strides in battery technology development we will never achieve a large electric car market. They will stay a novelty until then.

Keltic.... Here's some facts I gathered on Hybrids here locally....

The local taxi company has almost exclusively moved from Crown Vics to Toyota Prius'... I spoke with one owner, who told me his cab was essentially on the road 24/7, with 2 or 3 drivers covering the shifts... His typical gas bill with a Crown Vic was between $40 and $48 per day....Get THIS..!!! The Prius typically was between $8 and $10 for the same time period..!!!!

So, if you do the math, with a saving of around $30 per day, and 30 days per month, that frees up around $900 in savings to service the cost of the vehicle, etc... That doesn't even account for any earnings the cab makes...!!!

WOW..!!! It doesn't take a Genius to figure out that THAT is a GREAT deal..!!!:o:yes::wow:

Keltic.... Here's some facts I gathered on Hybrids here locally....

The local taxi company has almost exclusively moved from Crown Vics to Toyota Prius'... I spoke with one owner, who told me his cab was essentially on the road 24/7, with 2 or 3 drivers covering the shifts... His typical gas bill with a Crown Vic was between $40 and $48 per day....Get THIS..!!! The Prius typically was between $8 and $10 for the same time period..!!!!

So, if you do the math, with a saving of around $30 per day, and 30 days per month, that frees up around $900 in savings to service the cost of the vehicle, etc... That doesn't even account for any earnings the cab makes...!!!

WOW..!!! It doesn't take a Genius to figure out that THAT is a GREAT deal..!!!:o:yes::wow:

Has he had the aftermarket option of more batteries and the ability to charge them with a plug in cord. Also just the switch from a large car like a Crown Vic (Not great millage when beboping around town to the smaller compact car would attribute to most of that savings. The real kicker will be when the batteries and electric motors start to wear out. That's when the pocket book starts to take a drastic hit. Even then I can see where the hybrid would have the advantage. Its those of us that don't drive our cars around town all day long that it may not payoff for but that's still debatable. Hopefully without all the hate and disgust that goes with the political debates.

Electric cars could well be the biggest solution to oil imports but until we make strides in battery technology development we will never achieve a large electric car market. They will stay a novelty until then.
I understand what you are saying and I agree with you, sort of. I think it is more of a "catch 22" than anything else. What I mean is, I agree that battery powered cars will never be popular until the battery technology gets much better than what it is right now. But the problem is, companies won't put millions of dollars into research and development of a product (in this case batteries) that has no market, or at best, has a very small market. If there were a whole lot of battery powered cars running around then companies would be much more inclined to spend the money in order to develop the battery technology because there would be HUGE return on their investment. At least that's the way I THINK it would work. Maybe you are thinking along the same lines, or maybe you see it differently.........I would be interested in hearing other thoughts on this issue.