General Motors Announces Electric Motor Plans

[HavoCnMe]

Maybe they will finally pull their heads out the asses, I used to work at a GM dealership(5 years), 4 months ago, finally got a great IT job, and glad, the car industry is hurting just as bad as the housing industry.

 

[jfem]

Good for them and the environment.

 

[widcard]

They should of let GM go under, GM has been building junk for 35 years and this changes nothing. Back in the day i paid good money for a half ton GM truck that was still fairly new with low miles, It turned out to be the biggest peace of sh#t on four wheels i ever owned.

 

[falchard]

There is nothing really wrong with any American Automakers ability to sell cars. When you think that GM sells as many cars as all the non-American Automakers sell combined, they really aren't in trouble from lack of sales. They are in trouble because they have become too large and sell every car in the red. Thats an idiotic business strategy no matter who you are. The fact we are proping them up with a failed strategy is even worse. They should fail. Its mainly the fault of the UAW who is heavily invested in political campaigns, and the fact they are over-benefited.

Top auto sales are GM, Ford, Honda, Chrysler, then Toyota.

 

[falchard]

Electric based cars don't work yet. They won't work due to basic physics. Getting energy from an intermediate source will always be less efficient then getting it from a direct source. Electric cars actually consume more fuel then gas powered cars will ever consume in their lifetime. Some of it has to do with the logistics, some of it has to do with parts being made of oil, and some of it has to do with electricity mainly coming from Oil and Coal.

The reason we use Oil is because of its superior energy co-effecient outside of Nuclear and low costs. Having the power plant in the vehicle allows for little energy loss in exchange. Talking about 70~90% efficiency.
Getting it from the plug you are looking at tops 90% effeciency from the most sophisticated electrical network, then sub 50% effeciency from storage in batteries. In most cases the combined loss will result in 15%~45% energy efficiency.

 

[Caffeinecarl]

[citation][nom]sacre[/nom]ugh, to charge these vehicles you need electricity, a large portion of the worlds power is still generated by Coal, fossil fuels, etc. So now that demand for electricity will go up due to all these vehicles charging, the power plants will then produce more pollution.There is a no win in this scenario unless all power plants were converted to Hydro electric, or Wind, solar, etc. Than maybe we'll feel better about using electric vehicles. But atm, you're still increasing the production of Gases in the atmosphere.[/citation]

Even in spite of all that, electrics are still cleaner and by a large margin!

 

[jeffunit]

Gee, motor technology sure needs improving. For several decades, electric motors have been 90-98% efficient. I am sure GM can revolutionize electric motor design, just like the GM Volt gets 200 MPG.

 

[jeffunit]

I just read the article at gm's site. They will make motors more reliable, and lighter. The got a $105 million grant to do so.
My buddy Alan Coconni, the founder of AC propulsion, was building motors in his garage in the late 80's. They were well over 95% efficient. I know he could lift his 100kw motor, and I am certain it weighed under 100lbs. I can't imagine it is very important to cut weight significantly below that. I think the newer 150kw motors are still around 100lbs. As for reliability, I suspect they will last many hundreds of thousands of miles.

Perhaps they could be made cheaper, but I think $105 million is a boondoggle.

By the way, 150kw is roughly 200hp.

 

[totheshed]

[citation][nom]tipoo[/nom]General motors is making electric motors, General Electric is making...Wait....General Electric Motors, is.....Wait....WAIT....*HEAD ASPLODES*[/citation]

Lol aslplodes?

 

[khourig]

Nuclear would be ok if maybe we could launch the spent fuel rods into the sun or something. http/library.thinkquest.org/17940/texts/nuclear_waste_storage/nuclear_waste_storage.html

Some combination of ground and space-based solar plus more efficient wind power are the way of the future. Very nice vid here: http/news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9945005-54.html