Festiva vs. GM Volt

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1633/hyped-hybrid-the-chevy-volt-gets-average-mileage-for-a-hybrid/

The Festy appears to basically beat out the Volt if you drive it much beyond the electric-only range. Of course, the Festy has the added advantage of negligible acquistion cost and none of that nasty stuff like airbags to go bad, and you can fix anything else that goes wrong yourself.

[DriverOne]

I think that it'll be another 40 or 50 years before electric cars become mainstream. These things have been in and out of the news since you could throw a few batteries in a car and drive it without gas. I believe that was the 70's?

[wybnrml]

These things have been in and out of the news since you could throw a few batteries in a car and drive it without gas. I believe that was the 70's?

Mid-Late 1800's and early 1900's electric cars were very popular!

[econoaddict]

I would take a festy any day.
If you buy a volt it takes about 19 years before you see any payback.
the true cost of owning an electric car

Also keep in mind these figures are not taking any repairs into consideration

[mattman]

lets see 20 sumthin grand or more for a car that will give 100miles on a 8 hour charge then runs on gas getn marginal mpg or pick up a festy for 2 grand or less get 40+ mpg and drive it forever ....festy 1 volt zilch O

[skimsucka]

electric cars will never be good unless someone finds a magic battery that can charge fast and last long. i cant believe they waste so much money on developing them as if the world doesn't already used way to much electricity

[Gforcefd]

I really believe we will always depend on some sort of hybrid and not pure electric vehicle. As Skimsucka stated the batteries just arn't good enough. I am hoping one day to see all cars running a hydrogen hybrid system, and filling stations being powered by wind and solar to creat the hydrogen. That would be nice...I can dream

[Safety Guy]

Battery technology is supposed to be catching up. Unfortunately, I think most of that work is being done in China.

Once batteries become lighter and more efficient (thus more effective) they can be mass produced and become cheaper, ushering in practical electric only cars, and making hybrids even better.

Right now, I think Tesla Motors has the right idea: make all out electrics that the rich can afford and buy because...they can! Keep doing that and slowly aim towards lowering the price point so more middle class folks can think about buying one. I have no problem with the rich folks helping out with "real world R & D" and paving the way for cheaper technology.

From that Consumer Reports initial impression article, I'm not sure the Volt will be all that great. We'll see.

We should have been concentrating on making more efficient fossil fuel based cars (gas, diesel and natural gas) twenty or more years ago. Then we'd be sitting much prettier now with CAFE standards already up to where Obama wants them to go. Instead, we forgot the "lesson" of the 1970s "energy crisis" and kept regressing.

Now we're playing catch up as if all this "oil crisis" stuff is brand new or something.

Karl

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

With the Tesla's limited range (I read it's only 90 minutes if you drive it hard) and long recharge time (if you can even find a place to plug it in), it's more something you park in the driveway to impress the neighbors. Kind of like having your groceries delivered by HomeGrocer.com in Seattle during the dot-com runup -- you got rotten peaches, but the neighbors thought "Wow, he's made it big-time!"

[Safety Guy]

Exactly! Nothing better than letting those who can afford it pave the way and solve a lot of the little everyday problems that inevitably come up.

It's like just about anything else that's new: guns, car models, computers, etc. Wait a year or two so the bugs get worked out and the technology (and familiarity with that technology) improves.

With electric cars, however, it will probably be more like another four to ten years before they become really practical and affordable.

I can wait!

Karl

[mattman]

i like the diesels take the VW lupo they wont bring it to the U.S. an with a 5 speed it gets a possible 88 mpg was reading about it in a diesel mag the othernight its jus about the size of a festy with a turbo 3cylinder motor but the big three an most of their backers have blocked its importing here jus like they axe every good small car idea that has been here ..jus look at honda in the 70's they had the civic hatch cvcc 1200 an 1300 cars that averaged 35 - 40 mpg ....flash to today 30 some odd years later an they cant even make cars that get better mpg then the 70's or in some of them worse ...our lil festiva's 35 to 40+ mpg 88 thru 93 axed for safety concern an from what one ford rep said ..it would have been to costly to redisign the interior to add airbags to the festiva thats why they intoduced the aspire ....yet how many countries still got the festy with no problem ....its all about the oil an the big wigs making their $$$$$$$$ ...look at gas prices currently there is no oil leak or shortage there is no threat on the supply the U.S. has some untapped reservs that are alot larger than the arab nations we buy from but 3 bucs a gallon for what when i got my first festy 91 i paid 87cents a gallon to fill it up ....arrgghh!!! the whole thing gets me fired up ..i am all for alternate fuels an the research but the fact remains that as long as BIG OIL has their hands in the governments pockets all we will get is things like the volt 8 hours to charge 100mile range then back to gas ...i love the tesla its a great concept but limited still .....ok im sorry i kinda ranted an rambled on i jus woke up an im grouchy ....lol

[mattman]

i will say look at the diesel mags their is a old lincon in their i cant remember what the guys name is but he built a electric car a 60's lincon 2 tons of car with a small turbine to keep the battery charged so it uses diesel but only small amounts an powerd by battery i think it said he gets 800 to 1000 miles beween fill ups cuzz the turbine only runs to keep the battery charge up ....way kool idea ill try n find the mag an post which one later

[sketchman]

I guess you could build the little generator engine and gear it to always work in its most efficient RPM when it's running. So, as long as the generator never directly powers the car and so would have to work harder to keep up, you get the most energy from the least amount of input all the time.

Maybe 2(or more?) separate "banks"(don't know the proper term here) of batteries so one is always discharging when the other is charging. So the generator is always operating at peak efficiency no matter the terrain or driver demand.

Hmm. I see a project forming.

[mattman]

great idea sketchman

[Safety Guy]

Like a "diesel-electric?"



Karl