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Have a look at this Twice article.  Does this just seem dumb to anyone else?   I  already have the internet on my phone, my laptop etc.  Why would I want to pay $500-$600 for installation and then $60 per month to make my car into a mobile hot spot?   Does anybody really expect to have 2-3 people in their Neon pounding away on theirlaptops while they cruise down the street?   Anybody at Chrysler ever heard of an EVDO laptop modem, or an iPhone, or a SmartPhone, or a PDA phone,  or a UMPC, or heck, just enjoying the ride and an opportunity to chat with someone.

Better yet, how about Chrysler gets off their fat lazy ass and produces a car with better than 10MPG.  It’s nice that everything Chrysler makes has a Hemi,  I like Hemi, but what about Electric, or Hybrid, or something sorta 21st century-ish.  Chrysler wake-up, ….(crickets chirping). 

Check out this Reuters article on the Chevy Volt. A Volt enthusiast is showing off an impressive waiting list of people ready to buy the Volt now. GM knows that this car is going to be hot, yet they are indicating (no official prices yet) that the Volt will be about $40K, when people are clearly looking for something around $25-$30K. The Toyota Prius MSRP is between $21K and $30k depending on options. Also GM claims that when they do roll out the Volt they will do it slowly. Yeah, let’s go slow so that Toyota can catch up. Typical GM. The engineers are designing a great car, but the witless managers and marketing types that are so afraid of exposing themselves as frauds they try to protect themselves by rolling it out slowly for too much.   Seriously guys, $40K is not going to cut it, and don’t tell me it’s the battery cost.  If it’s $40K then that is a mistake that was made on day one of planning what this car should be.  So make it $30K, even if you need to throw out the “On-Star” , the bun warming seats and take a loss.  Then make as many of things you can, as fast as you can.  Cause when Toyota comes out with a $30K plug-in Prius before you can capture the market, you are toast.

It was not too long ago that the the only Challengers you could see were still owned by the factory. The last two weekends though a couple have appeared at the Pavillions car show in Scottsdale owned by real people. Bunches of pictures of these cars my forum site,
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Tonight was interesting because an owner of a vintage Challenger parked next to the new model

I am old enough to remeber the first gas crunch, the rationing, lines, and Americans first brush with soaring gas prices, that would be back in 1973.

I also take note that Chrysler has introduced or is introducing some of the same models they had back during the first crunch. Hemi Charger, Hemi Challenger, some talk about a new ‘Cuda, and what the heck stuff a Hemi into anything we make with wheels.

Nice going guys, you could not have timed it better.

I stumbled on to an interesting article, (if you are a tech head) on how you might go about calculating an equivalent MPG for an all electric vehicle.  The author compares the cost of the electric car vs. a standard gas car.  The electric seems to win even though the author uses a highly inflated value for electric power.  The author chose $0.15/KW/HR.  Where I live that’s the on peak highest rate.  The rate goes down to about one third of that for off peak, which means the electric car wins by even more, see link below.

http://energyzarr.typepad.com/

I did respond to the author with a few other things that only make the picture worse for the gas car. Here is a copy of my reply.

 JUMP TO FORUM

Seen at the car show tonight, some may consider this heresey,  I think its cool. The bed is just big enough for a six pack of beer.
I am not associated with the group that created this, I think this is their web site -

Aesthetic Creations

More photos of this in the FORUM section.

GM plans to pull the plug on its plans to revamp its line of SUV’s and trucks because of the low demand for these vehicles.

What do you do with a reactive company, one that can’t look past next weeks budget, one where the leadership is completely lacking and the word innovation only appears in executive salary schedules.

I know this is supposed to be about trucks, but GM had the future in its hands with the worlds fist mass production electric car, the EV-1, but instead of developing and refining the concept they crushed them, see result above.   Heck, they should have been on generation 5 by now.   They should already have had a fleet of electrics and hybrids to offer but decided Escalades and Hummers made more sense. 

Nearly a decade ago Toyota took the first brave, almost foolhardy steps to introducing a gas electric hybrid.  Toyota is npw the world best selling brand for a reason, they spent billions, looked to the future, and crossed thier fingers.  

What GM is missing is this, sure truck sales might be down at the moment but trucks are not going out of style, and now IS when they should be shoveling development money towards trucks. 

Ask your HVAC guy, landscaper, dry waller, plumber, electrician, contractor, weekend quad rider, boater, RV’er, and any one else who works or plays with a truck if they are going to be OK with a econo box car.  Heck no, and these professionals and sports enthusiasts are going to be looking for the “next generation”, fuel effiecent,  work/ play vehicle, from some manufacturer.  I am afraid that manufacturer is not going to be GM, because they are reacting to what happened, they are in terminal catch up mode.  And this decision is just another nail in the GM coffin. 

But then again, I could be wrong, what do you think? 

Mazda is showing off some new concept car designs, these things always seem to get watered down by the time, if ever, they reach market.  It is often easier to sketch something totally cool then it is to actually make a practical product.  Still, an awesome design.

(Orignally published at CNET)

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-9969798-48.html

Bosch and Samsung are getting together to develop hybrid batteries.  The best thing about this alliance is the money that can be provided for research, the venture as a whole will get about $500 million over the next 4-5 years.   I think batteries are key to the future of automotive technolgy, whether they be used in hybrid or pure electric vehicles. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSEO3739020080616

A NIssan GTR with manuf. plates was on display at the Pavilions car show in Scottsdale.  It was night when I spotted the car so it was hard to get good shots, go to the forum for bigger images