GM put a survey on one of their web site asking people to let them know whether they should build their plug-in series hybrid Volt. I don’t know why the people Who Killed the Electric Car, would do this, but I am planning to give them a big surprise. Right now the number of people who have come to the site and voted for GM to make the Volt is close to 100,000. That is right baby 100 Gs worth of people telling GM that they want what is in essence an electric car that can go unlimited miles because it has a generator to produce electricity to keep it going on long trips. Let’s hammer this one home for GM, its stock holders and its bankers. We want alternative fuel vehicles that free us from foreign sources of energy. We hammer it home by showing overwhelming numbers on this survey. A hundred thousand people telling them that they are willing to buy plug-in vehicles is a darn hard thing to ignore.
We need to overwhelm them in their own survey to let them know that demand is real and BIG.
Click here to go to the Chevy Volt website
When at the site go to the lower part of the page and a little to the left. Click on Vote for Volt Survey. Vote yes on both questions if you want GM to make the vehicles and if you are willing to buy one when they do.
Hopefully, their eyes will see dollars behind all those votes in the survey. And hopefully the survey will lead them to do the right thing. The right thing being to produce the Volt in sufficient numbers across the country to have an affect on pollution, oil and our economy. So help me push and vote.
Tell GM the halo effect doesn’t begin until they produce the vehicles in large enough numbers so that all of us who want them can buy them, where ever we live in the country. And I mean buy. I am not going to lease the Volt.
There are a lot of design issues that GM is going to have to conquer, but I love the concept behind the Volt. If battery technology catches up with where they need it to be, it would be a huge first step towards renewable energy. It might even count as two steps.
At 615am on Sunday morning in the East Coast the vote for GM to produce a plug-in hybrid that runs mainly on electricity has gone to over 124 thousand votes. The rate at which it is climbing is approximately 50,000 votes every single day. At this rate we will have about a quarter of a million votes before the Washington Auto Show. That is if the rate isn’t accelerating. How fast can you through a press conference together or do a press release to call attention to the fact that so many people have taken the time to tell GM that they want a plug-in hybrid? It would also be a good time to pin GM on their past of parading out fuel efficient vehicles before the public and never selling or releasing them for wide distribution. If we talk about the things that GM did in the past and the things it did wrong with the EV1 we can tactically maneuver the company’s actions towards producing the car. Let me bullet it so that it is easier to understand.
-DEMAND – Point to GM’s own survey as proof that there is overwhelming demand for plug-in electric hybrids.
…….GM can’t claim that their own survey is bogus. Perhaps this may bring more people to the survey and pump up the numbers even higher.
-DEMAND again – Work in the success of the Prius and how GM misunderstood the demand for hybrids in the past
…….Thanks to the Prius GM can’t claim that there isn’t any real demand for hybrids any more
-RELIABILITY – Point out that the EV1 was able to go over 100 miles on a charge in NIMH and that the Volt should be able to do the same with no problems using safe, reliable battery technology. Site the mileage of the RAV4 EVs at SCE. Point out that the batteries in a plug-in hybrid would not be as stressed as they were in the EV environment so reliability and longevity would increase. What is upwards from 100 thousand miles plus achieved by SCE? Ask that question. Use my blog on my personal experience with NIMH as a way to point out how in house hold NIMH batteries the price has dropped by a factor of 10 and the capacity has risen by a factor of 2.
…….GM can’t claim that the battery technology doesn’t exist to make this a reality now.
-SAFETY – Point out that safety mechanisms being pioneered by TESLA motors makes a thermal runaway event non-adverse. If a single cell fails or has a thermal run-away event it will not affect the performance of the vehicle. In fact the only indication to the driver that a cell has had an event may only be an indicator light in the instument panel. In the TESLA the cells are isolated limiting the damage to that one cell and keeping the other cells safe and operating.
…….Point out that GM can apply similar techniques to keep the batteries and passengers safe.
-RANGE – Point out that TESLA has managed to get 250 miles on the EPA loop with lithium batteries on a battery pack that is not much bigger than the one invisioned for the Volt.
…….Again chipping away at GM’s claims that the batteries just aren’t there.
-CONVENIENCE – The 110 Volt AC charging is everywhere there is an outlet.
…….No need to build an infrastructure it is already here.
-THE HALO EFFECT – Point out that Toyota didn’t get the halo effect until it actually produced the Prius and committed to it beyond its first iteration.
…….Point out that GM has the history of crushing breakthrough and game changing green technology and is currently suffering from a halo deficit. It won’t get the halo effect unless and until it produces the plug-in hybrid and markets it to the entire United States in quantity and in quality.
-COMPETITION – Point out that the Prius is easily converted to a plug-in and that many companies are popping up around North America making components to convert Priuses to plug-in hybrids.
I will leave it up to you to come up with some more.
Good luck. Sincerely. Joseph Lado
Just as long as the plants generating all that electricity are not inordinately polluting the atmosphere. Clearskies legislation did a lot of damage.
Absolutely spot on b2.
The reason I’m all in favor of this kind of initiative though is that it is a whole lot easier to change one plant powering 50,000 cars than it is to change 50,000 cars. I think there is merit in that.
Yup,
and as long as they build them here and put American workers back to work.
Had to rec and vote. Even if the idea ain’t perfected yet… We need to make this point loud and clear to the automakers:
We don’t want their gas guzzlers!
Did GM ever run a poll on whether they should build another gas-guzzler?
Honestly, of all the useless marketing ploys to get suckers to visit their website. Why? So they can justify NOT producing a retail electric car because, “Gee, there just wasn’t enough public clamor out there. We expected 2.75 million positive responses, and we only got half a million. And that’s only because we let the poll run weeks longer than first intended.”
Look to foreign car makers to put the needed vehicles on the road first, better, and cheaper than GM.