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Originally Posted by Deltona Couple
Am I to assume that you are one of those "conspiracy theroists" who think that GM and Ford are hiding the technology for these "uber" efficient vehicles you are talking about so they can hold hands with "Big Oil" for large amounts of money? We DO have vehicles out there that make much better than 23 MPG, but as I have stated, not everyone can fit their entire families inside one of them, and that was the point I was making, in that a SUV or Mini-van that gets 23 MPG is not so ridiculous.
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23 mpg for a whole family is abysmal. The Volkswagen Sharan, a minivan available in Europe, gets about 45 mpg combined. It seats 7, just like any other minivan. Even here in the US we have several minivans that break 30 mpg. The only excuse for being under maybe 25 mpg is if you need to tow something heavy.
[QUOTE=Deltona Couple;2578062]As far as the EV1, even though the concept behind the vehicle was sound, the biggest problem with that vehicle, which is the same with these "home grown" electric cares was safety and longevity. If you do the research, the government has DEMANDED that the electric car must pass certain requirements to be accepted as a vehicle that can be sold in the US. It must be efficient, meaning that the range of the electric portion must be above what it can get for its gasoline equivalent. With todays technology, GM is having a challenge finding the right battery.[QUOTE]
The EV1 passed all government tests, otherwise it wouldn't have been leased in the first place. The issue, according to GM, was that there wasn't enough demand. Of course the truth is that there were steady waiting lists for leasing the EV1 from the day it was released until the day it was taken off the street. All 800 publicly leased EV1s were on the street.