How do you think the "volt" will affect the US consumption of fuel...?

Question

Will we become less dependent on oil?

Will gas prices go down?

Will places of employment offer vehicle "plug-in" to their benefits package/parking area?

Answer 1

A few tree huggers will buy them, but with the proposed $40,000 price tag, you would be better off with a Cobalt instead.

With the high price tag your break even point will be a long time, similar to the break even point of driving a hybrid.  It won't take people very long to figure this out.

Because of the high price tag, there wont be sufficient numbers of them on the road to make any serious impact.

Answer 2

this is the car you should be asking  about

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allen-qu/22...

Answer 3

Look at a stock called VLNC , i bought this stock @ $ 1 , it makes the batteries for the hybrid cars and has been doing very well

Answer 4

General Motors would have to sell a whole bunch of Volt's to put a dent in America's oil consumption. Mind you, all the plastics in that car are produced using oil.

But, there will be less of a dependence of oil, depending on how many are sold.

No, gas prices won't go down. Americans have already started driving less, and gas prices keep going up.

It depends on how far away the person is driving per day. GM said that the range for the Volt is going to be 360 miles per charge up, so for most people, that won't be an issue at work.

The only thing that's going to hurt, is this: think of how many brown outs and black outs occur during the summer because of air conditioning use. Then add the charging of cars onto the already stressed grid. Without a modification done to the electrical system, it's going to cause more problems than it's worth.

Answer 5

To be totally honest. I doubt very much that Volt will sell many cars outside of California, especially in the Bay Area.

Because of that fact I doubt that it will have any affect at all.

Answer 6

It's not a sure thing that Volt will be successfully developed for mass prduction and mass consumption.  People have tried to develop electic vehicles before.  And they weren't very successful because of various technical problems.

The biggest technical problem that still needs to be overcome is how to make a good storage battery that is relatively cheap, reliable for a long time, and holds enough charge to travel reasonable distances at relatilvely high speeds.

GM has promised all of this.  But whether GM will be able to deliver on its promises is yet to be decided.

Answer 7

I think that we would become slightly less dependant on fuel, but the larger machines will still need it to power themselves. Electric only works on a smaller level right now. Gas prices may in fact go up if people don't use it. Although supply and demand works right now there will be less import if there is less consumption which may be followed by shortages if there is not a high price. The last question is a little further in the future, but I don't see why they wouldn't or perhaps parking garages would start offering it as an option for an extra price.