Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009
This is what bailouts do for GM... this is a company bound to fail....
Cnn: GM sees an electric, 2-wheel future
General Motors - under an end-of-May deadline to come up with a viable plan of operation - has joined forces with personal transporter maker Segway to develop a two-seat, two-wheeled, electronically powered vehicle for use navigating city streets.
Posted by mark @ 01:58 PM (1210 views) Add Comment
20 Comments
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1. paul said...
How about they build an electrical vehicle people could use for commuting, but fleixible enough not to need a drivers license for ...
2. rotten tomato said...
This is totally ridiculous. Clive Sinclair tried it too and miserably failed. The bare truth is unpalatable to the politically correct creed. And that truth is that electrical vehicles are not developed enough and too costly to be worthwhile. Same goes for solar power. Wind power is too unreliable and intermittent. They are gimmicks and expensive toys out of reach of the masses, who would be much better off if more funds were placed in nuclear fusion research, and also conventional nuclear power stations, as well as the ultra safe and small, PBMR reactors. However the rich like such toys, and having them makes them feel good. Very similar to the "let them eat cake" comment by Marie Antoinette. While the rich feel good, the rest of us will be depopulated and live a standard of life worthy of the 18th century. But the greens will be happy because we have reduced our CO2 output. (my personal feeling... shoot the lot of 'em). And I'm writing this while waiting for my gas guzzling car to be serviced :D
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4. Bear said...
Al Gore is worth £100,000,000, and owns an oil company.
5. mountain goat said...
Electric cars would be good in cities to reduce toxic emissions. But CO2 emissions pointless if gas or coal are being used to generate the electricity. Check this video on how GM missed an opportunity to get ahead with electric cars.
6. mountain goat said...
Also check out trailer to who killed the electric car
7. sold 2 rent 1 said...
Less of the insults inbreda.
rotten tomato has some valid points.
The whole green revolution concept pushed by Obama is pants as water-powered cars and free energy will be the new paradigm - but only once the capitalist/socialist system has collapsed. This is only 18 months away now – yippee.
Even if you don't believe in the above, we could be using hemp to build and power all our vehicles, but that would mean recognising the most valuable plant on the planet for what it is.
Bring on the destruction I say - it is the only way for real change.
8. Browneconomy said...
Given the seeming commercial death of the current automotive industry its a good time to look at new technology.
What a wasted opportunity to bail out 19th centuary technology at the expense of a potential 21st centuary alternative. The internal combustion engined vehicle is just a refinement of late era Victorian engineering.
I'm a car bore myself. I made snide comments when the C5 was launched but if someone can come up with a viable alternative, better for both transport & the environment, then good for them.... and they'll get my support. I think it a great mistake to bail out GM to continue to make inefficient gus guzzling trucks for urban Mums & inbred Southern Yokels.
Officially the average new car in America gives less MPG than a Ford Model T
9. iguana said...
Mmmmmm,.... a General Motors envirosegway,.....
Will need to be capable of moving two average Americans, say..... 1.5 metric tons, will need docking mechanism for drive-thru burger joint,....will need roof, sides and air-con, .....I think we are talking about a Hummer crossed with a very large garden roller.
10. alan said...
I suspect there were a number of vested interests who ganged up to delay an electric car. There is also the average American's love of pick up trucks. Cars are a big part of the American culture, and ours too. Ford and GM made them so over the last 50 years - Channel 4 made a good documentary and aired it last month. It was called "The Dagenham Dream".
A small vehicle may well be useful in city centres. Space will always be at a premium. Maybe its time for a new dream?
11. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
I'm all for options.
Having said that - the PUMA looks quite ridiculous. In their defence not everyone comes up with a good idea the first time.
I would not buy that thing - ever. Waiting to see what PUMA MkII looks like.
Can't help but imagine what I'd look like if I crashed that thing at 35mph. Road safety on cars has come on leaps and bounds. I am fairly sure that having zero crumple zone would mean the only thing taking the impact would be my head.
Some would say no doubt a good thing !
12. drewster said...
How is this newsworthy? Peugeot have been manufacturing their Scoot'Elec since 1996. Vectrix have produced the Maxi-Scooter (stop sniggering at the back!) since 2007. Piaggio are expected to release a hybrid bike this summer.
As far as I can tell, GM don't even make motorbikes at the moment. How will they take massive market share, in a continent which is historically averse to motorcycles, with no history and no background in the sector?* With the exception of a niche "biker" subculture, motorcycles are not popular in the United States. Small cheap cars should be the way forward for GM - but this is an area where the Koreans have them licked.
(* Admittedly Apple managed this feat when they brought out the iPhone; hugely popular despite no previous experience with mobile phones.)
13. enuii said...
General Motors name sums them up as a company with no creative flair producing bland and mediocre vehicles. All this goofy stuff was trotted out in the 1970's by doomed companies such as AMC and our own BL only then it was safety with such things as Denovo run flat tyres, soft foam filled bumpers, square steering wheels and host of other ill thought out ideas I cannot remember off the top of my head but have a book full of them somewhere.
When companies trott out garbage statements like this to blagg some money off dumb politicians you absolutely know that they are going down the proverbial toilet.
14. robh said...
Not meaning to sound right wing, but I owned a Vauxhall Carlton 15 years ago and it was awful; If GM goes bust, its a price worth paying
Chrysler are crap too; they can go
I did have a great mkIII Cortina, so Ford should be saved
This GM thing goes at 12 mph, allowing for some other traffic you may as well walk. Why don't GM make buses, railway carriages, trams, wind turbines...
15. japanese uncle said...
'Indiana, let it go.'
16. rotten tomato said...
@ Inbreda
Let me be more specific:
The vehicle I am repairing is actually a small, but gas guzzling 4x4, which I use to fetch firewood from the forests around my home.
Now you can really have a hissy fit.
17. robh said...
That's much better use of a 4x4 than taking fat children to school in town
I would propose everyone gets to have a go with fun things in the right context. If people had chance to milk a goat, drive a tractor, dig a spud as well as 'be a rap star' the world would be a better place
I would leave off that list 'be a BTL landlord'... its not supposed to be a punishment
18. enuii said...
Robh; 1970's milk floats can go faster than 12mph with a decent charge.
Bung in some 21st century battery technology and the good old milk float chassis would make an ideal vehicle for the transportation of fat children around town where a m,ax speed of 30mph would be quite adequate for such mundane purposes.
19. Guest said...
in response to, "Electric cars would be good in cities to reduce toxic emissions. But CO2 emissions pointless if gas or coal are being used to generate the electricity." This is both an inaccurate way of presenting the benefits of electric cars, and false. First off, you say it is pointless if 'gas and coal' are being used. Only 2% of electricity is generated using gas, whereas 98% of transportation is fueled by gas, see the difference? And anyways, if America hypothetically ran on electric cars tomorrow, even with the current amount of coal plants, CO2 emissions would still dramatically decrease. Not to mention, if Obama does as he says, we will have cleaner and more renewable energy by the time electric cars are popular. Lastly, what's also really important is not if electric cars reduce co2 emissions, but if they give you the option/freedom to reduce emissions. Combustion engines will always be dirty machines. If someone cars enough, with electric cars they can power their cars on solar energy etc.
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