http://gigaom.com/cleantech/gm-to-launch-all-electric-city-car/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=earth2tech As lame as this announcement is, there is this: So if they are too scared to put more than their toes in, once the feel the juice, will they run away (Monkeys style) or will they get up the nerve to jump in?
No mention of range. If it stays on track, it'll be launching alongside the Model S, though I doubt it'll steal any thunder. One of GM's hands is saying "hey, don't get stranded with a pure electric, try this!" the other "We've got a pure electric here! woo!"
Looks like it intends to (perhaps) be the first vehicle on the market with the new SAE Combo plug: For J1772 AC charging, & high speed DC...
Expect to see ads with a two car garage and mom taking the kids to school in the Spark while dad heads off to a meeting 300 miles away in the Volt...
Few Sparks: GM's underwhelming electric car program Miami Herald 10/17/11 It's like GM is trying the old slight of hand again. See California, nobody wants our EV, so just ease up on your emission restrictions. However, unlike the EV1, the Leaf and soon, the RAV4 and Model S is going to make them a laughingstock.
For those who insist upon bashing GM about their schizophrenic marketing plan to build both the Volt and the Spark, they can also bash just about every other manufacturer with idiotic plans to build not just one single car to fit everybody, but to build *dozens* of car models with *dozens* of options to fit just about anybody. 2-seat, 4-seat, 5-seat, and 8-seat vehicles, with 5, 6 or 8 cylinder engines. Convertibles, sports cars, hatchbacks, sedans, crossovers, SUVs, pickup trucks. Economy or Luxury. Choice of colors, too. There will always be, for the next few decades, motorists who will need, er, *want* a car that does not require a lag time during recharging / refilling. For those, there is the Volt. For others, there will be the Spark, or its progeny. If you drive an 18-wheeler, you may need to travel upwards of 1,000 miles a day. I don't see a battery doing that kind of distance anytime soon, nor do I foresee the technology capabile of refilling a battery of that kind of size in less than 20 minutes. So a hybrid that uses some kind of liquid fuel-burning engine to supply the electricity to motivate the vehicle seems like the proper stepping stone until such technology arrives. The Spark may not be for me either (I think Tesla's Model S is more my style), but I will welcome them to bring it on anyway. -- Ardie
I don't think the author had a problem with GM bringing out an EV in addition to the Volt. I think the problem is that the Spark is such a totally lame EV!
I don't think it's just about having different options. GM has been pretty hostile to pure EVs with their volt ads, so for them to introduce one, especially one so subpar, is more hypocritical than anything.
I think your reaction is a bit off base. I don't think people are criticizing them for the fact they make both an PHEV and a BEV. Otherwise any mainstream automaker deserves criticizing too (they all make ICE cars, some make hybrids, and might make PHEVs and BEVs too). People are criticizing the way GM chooses to market the PHEV at the expense of the BEV. And there's contention about the type of public policy they push for (for example California AB475 and its effects on plug sharing). I don't think any other manufacturer is doing the same type of marketing (and it seems kind of ironic it is an ad for a plug-in that is the first to focus on negatives of BEVs). There are CEOs (like Audi's) that like to publicly bad mouth BEVs to push other tech (like diesel), but they haven't done actual marketing to this effect. Toyota also has a PHEV they are selling, but their ads focus on the benefits of the PHEV over a gas car and not a PHEV over a BEV. I just feel sabotaging the BEV movement to sell a PHEV to be especially wrong. I actually don't feel as strongly when a backer of another technology (like diesel, biofuels, natural gas, hydrogen) criticizes BEVs because I expect them to do so anyways. And I'll admit I have a BEV bias (don't feel as strongly when BEVs are marketed at the expense of PHEVs because PHEVs are a subset of ICE cars and when you are criticizing ICE cars as a whole, PHEVs are sometimes included).
Totally agree. I've had quite enough of GM's marketing BS at this point. Enough so that I'm adding them to my black list. (That makes two. Ford was already on that list for selling me an utterly unreliable pile of... well that's another story.)
But noone else tries to patent "Range Anxiety" or says your child will die because you won't be able to take him to the hospital.
Actually it is the opposite as you are filling your battery every evening, and always have a full range, or close to it available. Your gas car is limited to when you filled it last. I don't fill my ICE cars until they are less then 1/8 tank, so you may not be able to make that trip depending on when you visited the gas station last!