With every global automaker announcing plans for electric-drive vehicles, Opel’s plans are not surpr

Electric cars are going to be more popular in Europe than in the United States. That's because, by and large, Europeans have higher gas taxes, denser urban centers, greater consumer acceptance of smaller cars, and more aggressive carbon emission targets.
With every global automaker announcing plans for electric-drive vehicles, Opel's plans are not surprising. But it's intriguing that Reilly says the third-generation—that's two generations away from the Volt rolling out later this year—will car rental key west florida have a battery pack designed to only last a few years. Current-generation car rental key west florida hybrids have been successful because consumers can expect their extra battery packs to last the full lifetime of the vehicle—without requiring expensive replacements. Instead, Reilly believes, the goal should be to make those upgrades cheap and easy, and therefore reduce the upfront cost of the Volt and the Ampera.
The key to that cost reduction is the ability to offer the battery pack with a choice of sizes—smaller cheaper packs for shorter all-electric ranges, and larger more expensive packs for longer ranges. Moreover, owners should have the ability to easily remove and replace packs in a matter of a few years—well ahead of the 10-years of battery life expected from the first plug-in cars.
It's difficult to remove the battery car rental key west florida pack on the first-generation Volt-Ampera—because, among other things, it was built with crash protection as the priority. New construction methods, according to Reilly, will create the necessary flexibility for quicker battery upgrades.
Interesting article. I dont understand how they d make the battery available in different upgrades. Shouldnt they just make a standard one? Who knows, maybe the savings are that much of a difference in pricing.
In a way, this makes sense. car rental key west florida If you re a F/T college student or urbanite, you just buy it w/a small, cheaper battery for primarily city driving. When you get a F/T job and have to commute far for work, you upgrade to a larger, more expensive battery (and sell/trade your old, smaller battery car rental key west florida to recoup some of the cost). car rental key west florida Or, if you re older, when you retire, you sell/trade your larger battery you used for commuting for a smaller one.
Just like memory and hard drives car rental key west florida in desktop computers and laptops. They are effectivly creating several models with multiple price points based on a single platform. They can charge a premium to those who can afford to pay and are willing car rental key west florida to pay, (The up market consumer who is always car rental key west florida paying a premium for the fastest memory, processor, videocard and hard drive) but still market the same product at a lower margin to a low end crowd that needs the untility of the basic vehicle and is willing to defer more oomf under the hood knowing they can always upgrade later. This is the it that I haven t seen until now.
The electric vehicle market presents the largest selling opportunity in the history of the automobile. The Hybrid market car rental key west florida is the AOL/dial car rental key west florida up of 1992-1995, once you had cable modem and DSL there was no looking back. I m no tree hugger, but once we rid the cities of auto produced smog, and end that garage grime buildup caused by exhaust so we can actually smell the flowers, grass and trees again, all while saving money over the pump, we will never look back.