Re: (ET) gm car

["Pieter Litchfield" <plitch attglobal net>]

Well don't condemn GM too soon.  There isn't any infrastructure out there,
little public acceptance (except here).  I think they were leased because 
GM
didn't want to have owners "stranded" down the road, giving the perception
that GM was acting unethically by selling a product that it wouldn't
support.  At least with all the leased vehicles off the road, we can't say
GM unfairly abandoned us.

For the moment, it appears that hybrids are gaining acceptance.

Does anyone know of a study that attempts to quantify all the costs of
building and operating a vehicle?  Manufacturing, raw materials, fuel, fuel
transpiration,disposal, etc?  I love my ET, but I'm not convinced when all
is taken into account that it is an economic choice.  For example, while 
the
vehicle itself is "clean", the power plant that made the Kws to charge it 
is
not.  But it can be or a cost.  IInterestingly, the pollution from the
mid-west falls where I live, so my advocating for more electric vehicles
could have a real personal "cost" to me.  Anyway, that Kw must be
transported on the grid with losses, transformed (producing heat) to charge
the battery, and stored in a medium that produces a chemical reaction
resulting in a bit of gas discharge. In addition, the batteries contain 
lead
which has a disposal cost encountered every few years.  And we have barely
scratched the surface of costs. So what are the "true" costs of producing
and using an ET (or any EV) compared to, say, a John Deere of comparable 
HP?
No taking sides, just curious.

----- Original Message -----
From: "William Korthof" <wkorthof earthlink net>
To: "Neil Dennis" <wombat dssinternet net>; "Elec-trak"
<elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 8:41 PM
Subject: Re: (ET) gm car


> Yeah, by hook and by crook GM is yanking away
> each of the EV1 electric cars from the "owners"
> as quickly as they legally can. It's a shame GM
> stopped EV1 production (a long time ago!). But
> it's also disappointing that they refused to allow
> anyone to buy an EV1 (lease only!) for _any_
> price from the start to the end. Many thousands
> of EV1 wannabe "wait list" EV customer were
> turned away as well, and now every single EV1
> ---1000+ or so---is being taken off the road.
>
> Boy am I glad GM is so enthusiastic about
> building technology for the future. not.
>
> /wk
>
> At 06:59 PM 3/11/03 -0500, Neil Dennis wrote:
> >An announcment in the news tonight, GM is recalling their electric car
> >and going out of the business.
> >
> >Kinda a downer {)-{
> >
> >wombat
>