Story by John LeBlanc
Although sales haven’t met expectations, General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid has garnered plenty of attention towards the technical and engineering capabilities of the biggest automaker in the world. But with upstarts like Tesla gaining further green cred with pure-electric vehicles, America’s GM is once again talking about building an electric car.
“Again?” you may ask. Well, yes. As you may already know, GM was once in the EV game. Its 1996 to 1999 EV 1 (seen above) was the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicle from a major automaker in the modern era. And now GM is once again talking about getting into the EV market, with claims its working on a new car that can be driven on electric power alone twice the current norm of about 160 kilometres between charges.
In what is being touted in the industry media as a direct challenge to Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors, GM said it’s new EV can go up to 320 kilometres between charges, and will cost only US $30,000. That price alone would make the vehicle a game breaker for GM. In the U.S., electric vehicles range in price from $25,000 for the Smart ForTwo EV, $41,350 for the forthcoming BMW i3, $50,000 for the Toyota RAV4 EV and $70,000 for the Tesla Model S.
Regardless of all this new choice in EVs, new car buyers are still holding out. All EV-makers — including Nissan, with its sales leading US $28,800 Leaf — suffer from criticism that their vehicles deliver too little driving range for everyday use (about one quarter of what a typical gas engine car gets on a tank of fuel). The result? According to a report in the
Wall Street Journal, the number of pure-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles for sale in the U.S. has more than quadrupled to 15 since 2010. But sales remain less than half of one percent of new vehicle sales, this despite price reactions, discounted leases and government tax incentives that can add up to as much as US $12,500 per vehicle in some States.
If GM can really sell an EV with twice the range of the Leaf for about the same price, would that be enough to get you into an EV? Or is $30,000 for a car that can only go half the distance of a gas-engine vehicle (and costing about 50 per cent) still too expensive for most buyers?
Source:
Wall Street Journal
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