The Future of Cars Is Here...

[Hitokiri]

The Chevy Bolt....Afford able, clean, and technologicall y ahead of its time.

http://www.chevrolet.com/bolt-ev-electric-vehicle.html

[theking]

The Chevy Bolt....Afford able, clean, and technologicall y ahead of its time.

http://www.chevrolet.com/bolt-ev-electric-vehicle.html

Yep. That and the Tesla Model 3. And if you want to pay alot more so you don't have to deal with commute traffic, you can put a good chunk of change down for this bad boy...Definite ly NOT "Affordable" for most consumers at this point...:

PAL-V begins pre-sales of its flying car – starting at $400,000


If you still feel like you were somehow “promised” flying cars based on Popular Science magazine covers in the 1960s then you’re in luck, because Dutch company PAL-V is now accepting pre-orders for its Liberty vehicle, which it calls “the first certified commercial flying car ever.”

[vl]

I think electric cars will be the need of the future.  For me, I have a daily driver and travel 30 mins round trip per day.  When I need to go out of town I usually get a rental because I avoid putting miles on the car I own, plus I just like driving new cars.  I think this would fit my lifestyle in the future if the price comes down.

[Hitokiri]

$30,000 (with the tax rebate) isn't that bad for a new car I think. That's about the price of a higher level sedan or coupe these days and with all the new technology n this car the price tag seems to make sense.

I think the issue is finding a charge station by you. I saw some in California when I visited about a month ago but you'll be hard press to find one in Wisconsin. That's awesome that the car gets a lot of miles per charge but how far do you have to go for the next charge? Can you charge the car from your own house?  I don't know.... 

What needs to happen is that car makers need to answer simple questions like these. It'll go a long way to selling more fully electric cars.

[vl]

$30,000 (with the tax rebate) isn't that bad for a new car I think. That's about the price of a higher level sedan or coupe these days and with all the new technology n this car the price tag seems to make sense.

I think the issue is finding a charge station by you. I saw some in California when I visited about a month ago but you'll be hard press to find one in Wisconsin. That's awesome that the car gets a lot of miles per charge but how far do you have to go for the next charge? Can you charge the car from your own house?  I don't know.... 

What needs to happen is that car makers need to answer simple questions like these. It'll go a long way to selling more fully electric cars.

The dealership will come to your house and install a 240v charger in your own home.  I'm not exactly sure what the costs are per mile, but I think the larger cost would be a replacement battery if that was to ever lose its ability to hold a charge.

[theking]

$30,000 (with the tax rebate) isn't that bad for a new car I think.

That's the key right there. Those that are interested, do it while it's available...

[nightrider]

The Chevy Bolt....Afford able, clean, and technologicall y ahead of its time.

http://www.chevrolet.com/bolt-ev-electric-vehicle.html

Still too expensive for the average person to buy especially when driving range comes into mind; limited drivable range basically categorize EV vehicles as a luxury.

[Hitokiri]

Still too expensive for the average person to buy especially when driving range comes into mind; limited drivable range basically categorize EV vehicles as a luxury.

What do you mean "limited drivable range"? As it states it can go 238 miles on one charge. Plus we have many hybrids today that are more expensive then this car and they're seen as just being regular cars. So why is this a luxury?

The Chevy Volt (the gasoline/electric hybrid) is said to run 93 MPG strictly just using the electric motor. That doesn't really make sense since we're talking about an electric motor that uses no gas but that's the only language people can understand these days. I have to imagine the Chevy Bolt does better then this.

[theking]

Keep in mind that besides the Federal rebate, there are also state and county rebates in some areas so that could knock another 5 grand off to make the price about 25k for the Chevy Bolt.

In terms of ownership cost, a couple of the bragging rights I see and hear from manufactures as well as EV owners are (1) their cars get over 100 MPG if the charge was converted to gasoline and (2) low maintenance cost because EV has less moving parts and fluids when compared to traditional combustible cars.

[nightrider]

Limited drivable range as in, no 3-5min recharge time at the station if a driver wants to quickly charge and continue toward next destination compare to a convention vehicle. Any person owning this vehicle are limited to 200mi range one way only, which basically means its grounded in a city with a 100mi range travel radius for the driver to be able to get back to start destination. There's no state to state driving option with this type of vehicle especially when it costs as much as a touring sedan and a sticker/tab fee of $300-500 yearly. For people who wants versatility this type of vehicle is a luxury they can't afford to fork out $30-40k. So the wise consumer would rather settle for a conventional vehicle rather than a EV.

As for the Chevy Volt, if I recalled correctly, it can run on battery power alone for 40mi before the gas engine kicks in. The combined mpg is estimated at 93 mpg as you pointed out but I've never driven one to log in real world driving conditions to confirmed if the rate is true or not. It is still a pretty expensive car to own and still gives drivers reasons to complain about power. Chevy bolt does better, but it runs on pure electric power the only benefits is that electricity is cheap. It would only cost about $8.4 for a full charge for a rated battery of 60kWh @ $.14/kWh assuming charging station is 100% efficient. Double the total distance on a single charge compare to the most efficient gas/dsl vehicle,  you can pretty much say that your power cost is about 60% less than regular gas powered vehicle. I don't know if a saving of $10-12 month on fuel cost justifies owning a EV.

[vl]

Also with the improved emissions of the small gasoline engines in the recent year, I'm wondering what the effects are on the environment when compared to an EV.