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posted by cmn32480 on Monday November 09 2015, @06:04PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday November 09 2015, @08:47PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 09 2015, @08:47PM (#260916)

    I won't pay $40K for 200 miles range, but I will pay $20K for 100 mile range. Since most of the cost is buried in the battery this sounds achievable. I'm not interested in spending $20K to do something I don't need to do, in fact, something I actively don't want to do, which is sit on my butt for 200 miles.

    There is a lot of marketing fuzziness going on. Do they mean 200 mile range and the battery dies from excessive depth of discharge after 100 cycles? That'll be a pretty expensive 20K mile battery. Or do they mean 200 miles is a shallow enough depth of discharge that I could realistically get 200K miles out of it? My point is my commute never exceeds 40 miles but if a 50 mile battery would be dead in 100 days then I'd much rather buy a 100 mile battery that'll live 1000 days.

    Don't forget the fixation on nothing changing that many anti-ev astroturfers insist on. I suspect lots of marketing money will go into making the power connector look like a gas pump, and a little aerosol dispenser that sprays toluene on you when you connect the charger so it smells like a car.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 09 2015, @10:49PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday November 09 2015, @10:49PM (#260963)

    I won't pay $2K for 10 mile range, but if I could get a 3 mile range for $600, that might be something to take the kids to school in. Bonus if it's legal to drive on the sidewalk. Meanwhile, we're just pedaling instead.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @11:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @11:53PM (#260983)

      You may be interested in an "electric bicycle". They are scooter style, have a 48V Lead-acid battery. In the US they are limited to 750W, in Canada 500W (I can out-power the Canadian version up a hill).

        I don't consider them bicycles because it (at least the model I tried) is impossible to pedal at more than a crawl. The pedals are simply there for classification reasons. Not being able to pedal causes some range anxiety.

      • (Score: 2) by WillR on Tuesday November 10 2015, @02:14PM

        by WillR (2012) on Tuesday November 10 2015, @02:14PM (#261247)
        Scooter styling and lead-acid batteries are both mistakes on an e-bike. Unfortunately those tend to be the only choices you see in stores over here.

        If you're willing to do a little tinkering, ordering a Chinese conversion kit (e-bikes and adding electric assist to conventional bikes are huge businesses over there) and putting it on a cheap craigslist bike is probably a better choice.
        • (Score: 2) by Daiv on Tuesday November 10 2015, @04:32PM

          by Daiv (3940) on Tuesday November 10 2015, @04:32PM (#261316)

          After doing all kinds of research, I'm convinced the absolute best, easiest add-on kit is the Ridekick http://ridekick.com/ [ridekick.com]

          Everything else becomes so expensive or complicated, you might as well buy an actual e-bike. I'm also not sponsored or an owner (yet), but I have spent an absurd number of hours researching this.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2015, @05:15PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2015, @05:15PM (#261332)

            Looks like ridekick would not work well in snow.

            One day while cleaning my rusting chain, I said: "should invent a bike with an pure electric drive-train".

            It is like 10 years away (I have figured out it is not completely impossible).

            • (Score: 2) by Daiv on Tuesday November 10 2015, @07:31PM

              by Daiv (3940) on Tuesday November 10 2015, @07:31PM (#261394)

              I don't work well in snow, so I never even considered "must work well in snow" to be a requirement of any bike I've ever bought.

              Thanks for bringing it up for me to think about.

              Nope, still never going to be a condition I'll consider. Of course, you brought up one condition that affects nearly none of the potential users so sorry about your niche requirement. Good luck with your revelation and journey to bring it to reality.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @11:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @11:51PM (#260982)

    > Do they mean 200 mile range and the battery dies from excessive depth of discharge after 100 cycles?

    No.

    > do they mean 200 miles is a shallow enough depth of discharge that I could realistically get 200K miles out of it?

    Yes.

    > I suspect lots of marketing money will go into making the power connector look like a gas pump, and a little aerosol dispenser that sprays toluene on you when you connect the charger so it smells like a car.

    Yeah, you have a firm grasp on reality.