GM announces the 'Volt' - very impressive, like the bogus ethanol idea

NVDL: Someone left a comment on my blog saying (on the subject of South Africa's electric car) that 'they are cleaner than gas-powered cars even if that power is supplied via a coal plant. There have already been some studies examining this that you can look up.'

I'm not going to look it up. The math is simple. Think about how much pollution is involved in an ordinary vehicle using petroleum. Now think about the energy involved in building new engines and brand new cars using completely new materials and designs, and then powering these cars on 'clean' energy. Well how do you think electricity is generated? By the dirtiest fossil fuel of them all - coal. And the batteries? These typically have a lifespan of 2 years and are in itself toxic to the environment.

My argument is that we shouldn't be trying to find ways to continue our motoring culture. We should make other arrangements. More trains, more public transport - fewer cars, less net energy consumption. Capiche?

Yahoo: The Volt will have a driver-configurable liquid-crystal instrument display and touch-screen-style climate, information and entertainment controls, GM said. It will also include standard Bluetooth wireless connectivity for a cellular phone and music streaming.

GM hasn't announced the Volt's pricing, but it's expected to cost between $30,000 and $40,000.

The Volt is due in U.S. showrooms by November 2010. The director of GM's Adam Opel AG unit said in Germany on Tuesday that Opel wants to put an electric car based on the Volt's technology on the European market in 2011.

Lutz said in an interview that the car won't be ready sooner because of the complexity in building an entirely new powertrain.

"This is all-new technology, a lot of very complex software on the interaction between power electronics, piston engine and so forth," he said.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Wagoner showed off the production version of the Chevrolet Volt, which will be able to go 40 miles on a single charge from a home outlet. He said GM has been testing the car's new lithium-ion battery packs and is confident in their performance. "General Motors' second century starts right now," he said as Vice Chairman Bob Lutz drove the four-passenger sedan onto a stage at the automaker's world headquarters. GM said the Volt will cost about 80 cents to fully charge at a rate of 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is about the national average. After that, the batteries will be recharged by a small gasoline engine that allows the car to travel hundreds more miles. GM said the engine will be able to run on E85 ethanol, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. "It's proof that the century-old General Motors is alive and well and that it intends to lead in reinventing the automobile," Wagoner said.