Rocketboom: The Electric Volt Car

[fjmari]

Steve - I thought that the first couple of questions were actually legit and elicited good responses. I would have eliminated Nancy asking the questions and assembled together the interviewee's answers (as it pertained to your original intent for the video) covering up the jump cuts with b-roll.

[floobertuber]

Oh dear. Nancy Hogan, the short bus is about to leave. You'd best hop on board, ASAP.

[beancube2008]

What we should look for is 98% electricity and 2% fuel assistant vehicle. Sun light on most open roads can be collected to drive compressed water steam turbine to generate electricity to recharge batteries. Collect condensed water back to tank for reuse. At night and the battery is low, it then use gasoline burning stream to push the turbine to recharge the battery. Some people don't even drive at night; gasoline would be used only in cloudy days. It can use plug-in recharge as another option.

[FluxCapacitor2008]

If we can get over 40 mile range with plug in battery power this will get the ball rolling and with keeping the gasoline motor in play we will have less pushback from the government (lost gasoline tax revenue) and the oil lobbyist. This is a big pill for them to take and we need to start somewhere and the technology has to be developed on an industrial scale.

[FluxCapacitor2008]

Chrysler is working on an EREV for 2010 that has a small high efficacy Fiat 2 CYL motor GEN set that will power the electric drive and charges the batteries at the same time for long trips over 100 miles. This is the way to go they need to decouple the gas motor from the drive train and start the motor only when needed.

[FluxCapacitor2008]

I would not be found dead in a foreign car but you go ahead, I live and work in America and the automotive industry is one of the few industries the middle class has left that profits stay in the US, thats just me. But I agree that we need an EV from one of the big 3, an EV without all the bells and gadgets that drive up the price. It looks like ford will have an all EV Fusion in late 2010 for fewer than 28K.

[Deanzsyclone]

LOL, Nancy was a WHACK JOB....LOL

[setite]

Also remember that this car can still use gasoline. And EPA preliminary results have the Volt at a whopping 100mpg. This car is not for everyone of course, but the volt is a step in the right direction.

[setite]

There is also a 3000$ tax credit plus up to 2000$ for cars with 10kwh or more, which the volt has 16. So you have a 5000$ tax credit, plus 5-15$ dollars saved in gasoline over the life of the car loan. Also since this doesnt use a combustion engine for its propulsion and the battery this ships with will have an estimated life of 10 years, it's fair to say that, barring any mishaps with faulty engineering, the monthly, yearly maintenance costs on this car will be much less.

[setite]

If you have a 20 mpg car, you are paying, at the present, 3.5 dollars a day in gasoline. Most people will charge their car during off peak times, a.k.a night time(while they sleep) and as such will be in the 40 cents a day column. So they save 3.10 a day. It's not much, at 1131.50 dollars a year. And thats if gas doesnt shoot back up to 4.00 a gallon, at which this car would save you 2775 which is 13870 over the course of 5 years.

[setite]

omfg that lady scares me

[GenericGene]

We are at a time in history 100 years down the track where the excitement of Nikola Tesla, Wright Bros, Karl Benz, Henry Ford and his mass produced Motor Car, Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, Thomas Edison and his wonderful inventions & others that paved the development of the 20th Century has been reinstalled into the hearts and minds of those engaged in the development of technology passing into the 21st Century.

[emforty2]

he said it will send a message of GM being Green?? ha ha

its llike the devil saying i will save your soul ??

[Metallik695]

she is about to slap the shit out of him

[Oz9110]

There is some odd comments in here about a revolutionary car and a car company is taking big steps towards our future, an American one at that. Will your electrity bill go up? what none sense is that, yes but not at the staggering rate as fossil fuel. Will there be Carbon foot print beside commuters exceeding 40 mpg, yes very minimal. Why are people in this blog so pestamistic about an achievement that should be recognized? Could you imagine what this will do to OPEC, wow devastating.

[LatteLiberal]

That woman is right. Electricity will cost 10 times more then gas if we go electric. Theres no nighttime capacity to recharge. The answer is more drilling and take over Iran and Saudi Arabia before the Chinese do. And nuclear power doesnt need any subsidies like solar power. Nuclear power is so cheap you dont have to meter it. But liberals refuse because they want to make money on solar. They use solar profits to fund homosex, art, abortion, veganism, satanism and environmentalism.

[bjhorton2005]

?! wow you might need to see somebody..

[jwil2570]

The retarded woman represents the entire fossil fuels industry. It's very entertaining.

[bjhorton2005]

Wait I get it, sarcasm. LOL sorry, sometimes I have a hard time grasping that.

[LovePontiac]

Crazy lady is actually right. I'm not bashing the Volt in any way but its likely to cost ~$40,000. Something like a Cobalt would be way cheaper to own, even with the fuel costs.

[setite]

The car costs around 40k. So yes, as opposed to most cars a commuter buys which are half that, at first it seems nuts. But at current electricity costs, the car is supposed to cost 40 cents a day to charge. 80 cents if you charge during peak hours. At 80 cents thats 300$ a year. If you drive less than 40 miles a day, which 3 out of 4 americans do, you will technically never have to buy gas.

[trevorlsciact]

lmao at that woman hahahahaha

[morality101]

I think the crazy woman was really an actor sent by Big Oil!!!

CW "Gas prices is going to go down.

"Demand for electric cars will go up"

CW "Of course they are like like housing costs go up"

CW "Electricity goes up"

CW "Who you fooling? Who's he fooling?"

CW "Electricity costs a lot of money."

CW "He ain't fooling nobody. Electricity costs a lot of money."

CW "Electric cars cost American consumers a lot of money."

[swankrecords]

She needs help. Verbal feces on our species.

[spiderofdoom]

She was drunk. Surely people can only be that dumb drunk.

[veramentegina]

the woman was annoying as hell. i rather wanted to hear about the car. asking intelligent questions is one thing, but letting this looney with incoherence interfere is another.

[whisperwarehouse]

I had to google nancy Hogan after watching this! I'm a big Rocketboom and Garfield fan. I was wondering if nancy was a plant! She bring a good point, even if somewhat incoherent! :) I think we know what she's trying to say! I think her inclusion in the piece was a good way to bring that point (plant or not).

[wardrone8]

Electricity price(somewhat), Electric car price, Gasoline price will all be high. I wish I could say that the cents paid for electricity will be worth it. However, you kind of make up for it by paying so much to get this fancy electric car. God forbid that you are stupid enough to go and buy a hybrid like this Volt cause then the little gas it takes will cost just as much as gas does now; maybe more.

[jaime21985]

I loved teh Nancy Hogan part... Great!!!

[stevegarfield]

TamaraMedia and DStyle86 - that part of the report was actually less of an interview by me and more a recording of other reporters asking questions. I was recording what was happening and the woman showed up, so I kept filming. It's called real life, and as commenters on Rocketboom have said, you probably would not have seen that exchange on a network news show. That's what makes Rocketboom great.

[TamaraMedia]

I so wish he would have gently told this woman he was doing an interview, and she could pose her questions after he wrapped up. I have been a reporter for 13 years, you can do this with class, but firmly.

She made this piece more farcical than informative, and it absolutely ruined it for me and left me annoyed. More shots of the car, less crazies.

[DStyle86]

Damn hecklers... Was she hired by Rocketboom? :D I don't understand why Garfield just filmed that stupid conversation instead of asking her to leave: He was making an interview ffs!

[NathanSt]

wtf! who's this woman?

drunk?

she;s funny/tragic I guess

[foureyedmonsters]

That women makes my stomach feel weird.

But I love German standing his ground for the new battery technology. Good stuff.

[seecatzuriel]

..well done

[vveerrgg]

awesome!  Nancy Hogan wow... Great interview Steve!