Ever hear of the GM Saturn EV1 or the Toyota RAV-EV? Do yourself a favor and check out http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com . It is the same players involved today playing the same filthy games. At least this time they are offering to sell a $40,280 MSRP hybrid without having to lease it where they can grab it back and destroy it. If you have $40+ grand to lay out on a car, you best look into what Ford has to offer in that price range.

In 1980 I purchased a Ford Escort Diesel, (Mitsubishi engine), that got 70+MPG highway and 40-45MPG city. After finding it was paying for itself in fuel savings alone, I purchased another one. The 1981 and later models switched to a Mazda Diesel Engine that touted 60MPG highway. Where did they go? That’s right; GM released a slew of junk gas to diesel engine conversion cars that ruined the reputation of American made diesel cars. No one in their right mind wanted a diesel car; it also didn’t help when the feds raised the excise tax on diesel fuel .50 per gallon in order to make it the same price as gasoline.

Electric portable power is the right way Americans should be moving, then power can then come from hydroelectric, solar, wind, nuclear, and coal all of which are cleaner, safer, and more efficient than crude oil. GM? That’s a big NO THANKYOU!.

So why i ask is it taking so long to put this car in production? That would make it 5 years from ’07, not to mention how much development GM did prior to ’07! Not only that but They had a working ALL ELECTRIC car prior to that (EV1) which was a perfectly good working vehicle. That seems ridiculous!

Let’s look at the Tesla Roadster. By my research, The roadster was first developed circa 2003-2004 (when the prototype was developed). Their first production models were slated to be complete late 2007, but didn’t end up rolling of the factory floors until early 2008. So that’s roughly 5 years from conception to completion. They had no prior auto manufacturing experience and had a lot of help from Lotus and other sources, but 5 years from scratch is pretty impressive.

Chevy, on the other hand, has just about 100 years of Automotive production experience, they have a literal army of developmental engineers in California, some of the most forward thinking engineers working on this technology since roughly 1989-1990 (the early stages of the EV1). So it’s taken GM almost 20 years to develop a production HYBRID car, not even an ALL ELECTRIC production model?

This is all very disturbing information for anyone that loves american made product. I’m not going to make any accusations or place blame, but only ask WHY???

I would love to see more companies as progressive and forward thinking as Tesla. Let’s not screw around wasting time and money and just make a darn good product that lives up to it’s hype. Go USA indeed, but not on the side of GM.

The VOLT is not enough GM! It’s not even competitive with the Prius. Why not make a car that EVERYONE can afford. Granted Teslas isn’t doing that either, but I’m sure we’ll see something from them in the next 5 years. Better than you can say about Chevy.

Let’s drop some of the duds and start developing fuel efficient/EV PHEV cars NOW, not 20 years from now. If i were Obama’s Car Czar, I would tell GM to follow the Japanese model, fewer models and only two product lines, standard (Honda) and Luxury (Acura). Why does GM have so many lines of cars? It’s a start to drop Pontiac, but to have Saturn, Buick, Cadillac, Hummer, GMC and Chevy? Let’s just make Chevy’s and Cadillacs and make every model in those likes competitive with the Japanese models and have them all Hybrids or Electrics or Hydrogens. No more playing around for decades!!! That’s a bit off topic, but on the same lines.

Not to get political, but let’s get political: all those pundits who were gleefully predicting the death of GM and by extension, the Obama administration, can go suck on a rock. GO USA!!