Jenkin’s column today July 2, 2008 What is GM Thinking (currently available here) bemoans various aspects of GM’s forthcoming plug-in hybrid, the Volt. GM claims it will be available in 2010.
(a previous column, also about Volt A Volt out of the Red, April 23, 2008 made both some derogatory statements about the Volt, as well as some truths about CAFE — to wit: high gas prices render CAFE meaningless)
Now, don’t get me wrong, GM is a deeply troubled company who had made not only bad business decisions (counting on cheap gas forever; they made far too many, too heavy trucks-as-passenger-vehicles for far too long), but we’re living with the results of the SUV orgy. A national hangover of tens of millions of these vehicles that once generated excess profits for GM and now simply consume excessive amounts of fuel, as well as emit excessive amounts of pollution. Or as Jenkin’s put it previously: “Though it’s popular to sneer at the Big Three, they raked in many billions correctly judging a consumer appetite for large SUVs and pickups, including millions of pickups purchased by cosmetic cowboys who drive them to their office jobs”.
Holman used to repeatedly bash Toyota over the Prius. E.g his columns Nov 30, and Dec 14, 2005. These criticisms sounded witty at the time when gas was, what?, well under two bucks I suppose.
Back to today’s column, he writes “Some reports claim the Volt will get 50 mpg in this mode, but that’s hallucinatory:If using a gasoline engine to power an electric motor were so efficient, the streets would be full of such vehicles. (Our guess: The car will be lucky to get 15 mpg under gasoline power.” This is a rather odd assertion, and who is the “our” that he refers to? Why would the Volt get only 15 mpg running on gas? For crying out loud, a 5000+ pound Tahoe hybrid gets 20.
Good Roundup: Here are some articles about hybrid vehicles