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from the can-you-plug-me-in,-i'm-a-little-low dept.
Shad Balch, Manager of New Product and Public Policy Communications at GM, has told the nice folks at Autoblog that:
"It's very safe to assume that this car is going to be here sooner rather than later," Balch said. "We've also committed that it's going to be a 50-state vehicle at launch. That's to show our commitment to the technology. Our hope is that it becomes a high-volume-selling car, and that it's not just for the coasts, it's not just for a certain income level, but it is a long-range EV that anybody can get themselves into. ... [This is] a good alternative to the luxury long-range EVs that are available now. It's something that people can see themselves actually affording to get into. That's the message from this car."
If true, this is great. The Bolt is predicted to have about 200 miles of driving range and cost about $30,000 after incentives (so probably around $37,500 if we only take into account the federal tax credit, but maybe more if they're including some amount for the most common state incentives).
The Bolt is set to be released in 2017, but the article does not address how Chevy will get around the bottleneck in battery production other EV makers are facing.
(Score: 2) by K_benzoate on Monday November 09 2015, @08:08PM
I heard an interesting idea from someone once, obviously flawed but made me think, that car makers intentionally make hybrids/EV look "unique" for the purpose of virtue signaling. It's entirely possible to make a hybrid look just like a normal car, but those models don't sell as much as the outwardly "green" looking ones. People want to show off that they're being environmentally conscious; harder to do if your hybrid Honda/Toyota looks just like every other one except for a tiny hybrid badge on the back.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @10:56PM
I heard an interesting idea from someone once, obviously flawed but made me think, that car makers intentionally make hybrids/EV look "unique" for the purpose of virtue signaling. It's entirely possible to make a hybrid look just like a normal car, but those models don't sell as much as the outwardly "green" looking ones. People want to show off that they're being environmentally conscious; harder to do if your hybrid Honda/Toyota looks just like every other one except for a tiny hybrid badge on the back.
Except for Tesla, a big reason why the Model S is so much more successful than other EVs is because it looks like a sports sedan in the class of a Mercedes or Jaguar and is quite powerful as well. The people buying them are the type who would be driving around this those cars instead, which also makes them the types who could afford something as high-performing as the Model S to begin with. It's a big part of why I see over a dozen different ones a week during my commutes but judging from vanity plates I'm seeing the same BMW i3 over and over again.