Comments on: GM: Plug-in standards necessary to encourage consumers to buy electric-vehicles

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:33:06 +0000

Are we NOT in America? We have standards for electrical plug already. 110 and 220. Just use what we have. You buy a Volt. Take a trip and every place you stop you need to recharge. IF where you stop has upgraded their electrical grid!!!.. Use what we have. DO NOT ADD MORE EXPENSE TO AN ALREADY OVER PRICED PRODUCT.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:33:06 +0000

By: GMfan87

GMfan87 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:18:32 +0000

The prius was an unproven technology before toyota started it in the 90's…I agree that they have over-publicized the volt. However, they needed that. They needed to catch the eye of the average american, and try to get rid of the stigma of being a car company that just produced big gas guzzlers. The volt was their ticket away from that persona. As for the technology, I've talked to an engineer working on the voltec platform and have heard first hand that this technology does exactly as they claim. Apparently there's a market for it too since the wait list is 30,000+ as of last fall. Granted that is an unofficial wait list, but even if 50% of those the pledged buy one, thats 3 times as many Volt sales, than the prius sold in its entire first year! So apparently the hype helped there as well. So in short the publicity was, IMO, a necessary (though annoying) evil…

Isnt the Dale comparison just a little dramatic there…?

By: zermatt

zermatt — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:28:31 +0000

What I dislike about the Volt has to do with how GM has handled the publicity of the concept. The technology behind the Volt is an unproven engineering concept, yet GM has staked their entire recovery (or sucking up effort with Congress/Greens) on something that they haven't been able to prove will even work. Most manufacturers prove the concept is viable prior to making a big deal about what is in store for the future, but GM is unable to contain themselves.

GM needs to slow down the publicity machine and get to making the car work. You cannot buy a dream any more than you can buy a Volt.

I like to think of the Volt as the modern day Dale, a famous Green fraud from the mid 70's.

By: GMfan87

GMfan87 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:40:44 +0000

why do you have such disdain for the volt? theres got to be something you like about it.

By: zermatt

zermatt — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:50:49 +0000

What Kissel is really saying is: “We have throw up this smoke screen about industry standardization because we are so far behind and over budget on the development of the Vapor. Lord help us if the Government ever figures out we are squandering taxpayer money on this POS. The way we are spending taxpayer money on the Vapor, we make Bernie Madoff look like a petty thief!”