Comments on: Volt Birth Watch 67: NYT Says The Volt is IT

By: M1EK

M1EK — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:35:21 +0000

detroit1701, how do you sleep at night? Given that you’re clearly a GM shill, it can’t be on top of a pile of money with many beautiful ladies.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/article/1010861_prius-versus-hummer-exploding-the-myth

The automaker has, in fact, only been purchasing significant amounts of nickel from the Sudbury , Ontario , Inco mine for its batteries in recent years, while the environmental disaster the headline is referring to largely occurred more than thirty years ago.

And that ore is at the core of a semi-urban legend that leads to dumb headlines like “HUMMER Greener than Prius,” and others we’ve seen recently.

Toyota says that nickel has been mined from in Sudbury since the 1800s, and that “the large majority of the environmental damage from nickel mining in and around Sudbury was caused by mining practices that were abandoned decades ago.” Out of the Inco mine’s 174,800-ton output in 2004, Toyota purchased 1000 tons, just over a half-percent of its output. The plant’s emissions of sulfur dioxide are down 90 percent from 1970 levels, and it’s targeting a 97-percent reduction in those emissions by 2015, according to Toyota.

By: jkross22

jkross22 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:24:34 +0000

What? The NYT reports inaccurate or unsubstantiated information??

By: ZoomZoom

ZoomZoom — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:17:36 +0000

Man, you keep putting links to New York Times articles in TTAC articles. You can’t fool me into reading that stuff, no matter how many birth/death/plastic surgery/suicide watches you can get from a single NYT article!

It just can’t be good for one’s brain, so much exposure to NYT writing and editing. But I’m happy to let your neurons take the hits…

And I’ve shaken Kevin Bacon’s hand, at a sound check for “The Bacon Brothers” band. So there!

By: detroit1701

detroit1701 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:01:09 +0000

There is no “technology gap.” GM is well aware of the technology that drives Toyota’s HSN, and certainly could replicate it today. For better or for worse, it is trying to leapfrog the current technology. The Prius, with its necessary quirky looks and environmentally devastating nickel metal hydride batteries, is not the long-term solution.

By: limmin

limmin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:52:07 +0000

WHO takes any newspaper auto journalist seriously?
Are they experts on anything automotive??? Most of them probably edited the Lifestyle page while sipping lattes before their editors threw them some keys and told them to “review that there car”.

WHO reads newspapers nowadays anyway?
And WHERE is RF getting all these cool graphics to accompany his columns?

By: kjc117

kjc117 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:32:32 +0000

This type of journalism really pisses me off. The author knows nothing about hybrids of the auto business yet writes definite statements about the future.

The Volt hasn’t been seen yet. The Volt is now 5 months past Lutz’s due date. Also, the author doesn’t know the plug-in Prius is being tested at UC-Berkley?

Lithium Ion batteries are the future? Lithium ion batteries are the present. THe problem is getting them applicable into automobiles.

Another NYT/WSJ hack job.

By: cheezeweggie

cheezeweggie — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:28:49 +0000

With GM’s track record, I’d put my money on Toyota perfecting anything electric.

By: ferrarimanf355

ferrarimanf355 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:06:34 +0000

I do know that there’s a sequel to WKTEC in the works titled “Revenge of the Electric Car”. I’m hoping that Chris Paine gives GM some equal time on the Volt, but it ain’t gonna happen…

By: leighton

leighton — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:54:07 +0000

This hype bubble is a manifestation of good ol’Merican appeasing of the investors and public perception.

Poof! Toyota and Honda conjure up advanced hybrids and clean diesels. Only then the US companies, caught off guard staring at their WSJ standings, say “We have something too, but we just need money and time to catch up.” Meanwhile, they get leapfrogged.

Talk is cheap coming from US car makers. And, now, so is their stock.

By: Rday

Rday — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:06:17 +0000

Always amazes me that so many people know so much about a car that hasn’t even been produced yet. Who knows what the looks will be like? It is just still vaporware until they have a real prototype working model and can give us all of the specifications. I have a hard time believing anything that GM says, since their PR department seems to be running the marketing programs.
I guess we will see. But GM has much to prove and not alot of time to prove it.

By: Dynamic88

Dynamic88 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:59:16 +0000

But for a mass-market solution in the here and now, [the Volt's] the one to root for.”

My money is on the Prius. It won’t be difficult for Toyota to add a plug to the Prius and make it a PHEV.

I do hope the Volt works out for GM. They could sure use a winner. But they are already behind Toyota and Honda in hybrid technology.