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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (353270)	10/2/2007 10:40:36 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573921

mindmeld, The Tesla's estimated cost per mile is 1 cent. The Volt's was a little more expensive, but not much more. So from a consumer perspective, if GM does what it says it will do and brings the Volt to markets for under $30K, then the problem is solved. Not completely solved, but certainly well on the way to solution. All electric cars break the link to oil (well, only pure electric, but cars with supplemental gasoline generator are still a giant leap forward). Then, it is a question of the schedule on which power generation moves away from burning fossil fuels. Once there is a mainstream market, cheaper car models can follow. Things are looking up for nuclear, though. There have been 30+ applications for new nuclear facilities in the past few years, a more than ten-fold increase from the decades past. Yup. The only problem is still the length of time from application to construction to completion - even though it has apparently been drastically shortened. But what I hate about conversations like this is that closed-minded people have used arguments just like yours to avoid doing anything. Doing something wrong is certainly worse than not doing anything. For example, I have seen a few Priuses on New York's Long Island. Long Island is a place where a perfectly operational nuclear plant is sitting idle. For some 20+ years. These Prius drivers are feeling good about themselves for "doing something" by shutting down the power plant, and for doing something by buying Prius. I am sure they proudly call themselves environmentalists, when if fact they are complete morons. Doing nothing (leting the plant go on line) would have save billions, not paying premium for Prius would save them a handful of dollars, and the end result would have been sharply lower CO2 emissions. So caution is certaily in order, especially toward the loudest of the alarmists. Automobiles represent a much lower hanging fruit than nuclear power plants. So I say let's keep going for it. All electric automobiles have a benefit of time to market - or so it seems. These all electric cars have been coming to market for decades but are still not here. And when they do arrive, I would not expect the cost benefit to be overwhelmingly in their favor, at least not right away, and at least not while price of electricity is tied to price of natural gas. It is one thing to come up with a prototype made out of exotic and expensive materials, with batery technology that is "almost" there. It is another thing be able to manufacture the cars with clear cost benefit in their favor. The car with clear cost benefit advantage will sell itself (given styling is right and the expected comforts are there), will almost sell itself, but without such advantage, it will be just fanbois driving them, with no impact on mainstream market or CO2 production. BTW, I am hoping that GM does not screw up this time. I also hope that GM concept of all electric prevails over parallel hybrids like Prius. Joe