Ackerman today in Washington said gas and natural gas are the future not electric. Claims driving by the dots not feasible. Gm will install natural gas refilling stations (what will these be called on map...dots or exes?). So I guess gm bowing out or maybe just need wind to change direction again?
This Ackerman guy is so clueless that he should get fired. I am referring to the dots of course. The dots are only the beginning, once the whole US is covered Tesla will continue building new supercharger stations so that you can take whatever route you want. The dots are only the beginning and they cost only a few hundred million dollars. Once Tesla is raking in $20b in revenue they can easily double the number of dots. See where the puck is going. The dots are only the beginning, before you know it there will be supercharger stations every 50 miles.
How do I get a natural gas fueling station in my garage? While I wait on that answer, I'll start planning my next road trip using this map of free gas/natural gas stations in the US.
He's taking the easy/cheaper way to fulfill his mileage, emissions and customer requirements (in his mind). If he was actually speaking his mind he say "Batteries are hard, we can't figure out how to make them work like Tesla has and we have all this other stuff just laying around (ICE stuff) that is depreciating soooooo..."
This is actually very good news for Tesla shareholders, as it means that time window which GM would need to develop their own electric car platform is shutting up on them faster than Mr. Ackerman could count dots on the map. At certain point of time in not to distant future there will come realization that the only way they could avoid fate of Kodak and try to stay relevant is by licensing the proper electric drive train technology from Tesla. I would be very interested to see what such a prospect will do to Tesla's valuation models.
I just think GM has it's roots implanted too deeply in OPEC. It's probably being spoon fed and doesn't want to cut off it's primary food supply.
So I presume you meant Akerson. They'll start going for NG. Seems like the same route as the HCNG. Sell to government because they have people carriers and don't care about the loss of trunk space. The great irony is that GM's marketing insisted on selling the Volt as a gas-station avoider. NG is a reasonable hedge but any success is entirely price-dependent.
I posted this yesterday in a different thread but the point is pertinent here too. What if GM did the following. Use half of their annual 4.2 billion dollar advertising budget and install Superchargers in every American city/town. They could do it in less than 4 years @$250k per. Then build EV's with just 200 mile range and they could turn the car industry on its head. Of course you would need an real EV first:smile:
CNG was very big here in Ontario 10 or 15 years ago, but died down for some reason. Our Ministry of Transportation was pushing it big time. It is still cheaper and cleaner than gasoline and could be part of an energy future. I heard that a dual fuel (gasoline/CNG) Chev Impala is in the works.
Wow, didn't know that existed. It says the home model has a flow rate of "1.2sm³/h". Any idea what the volume of a CNG tank is?
Dan Akerson’s Remarks to Energy Security Summit Larry - - - Updated - - - Per Dan Ackerson yesterday: Larry - - - Updated - - - More of Dan's words of "wisdom". Larry
Honda already offers a CNG Civic. They won't let you have a home natural gas compressor due to water in the gas. Also it takes quite a lot of electricity to pressurize the gas up to the level a car needs compared to how it enters your home.
I've got a buddy in SoCal who bought a CNG Civic to get into the carpool lane (time savings). He explained that he fills up down the street at a station that supplies CNG at 3600psi!!! I haven't done the math to figure out how much energy it takes to get CNG to that pressure but it can't be trivial