As long as they stop along the way to beat up the LIE-brals (libruls) all is good.

But the invention of liquid disinfectant was a good thing, no?

sPh

Sure. And you are an outlier:

http://www.statisticbrain.com/...

15 miles one way, 30 miles round trip is the 70th percentile. That's well within the range of a Leaf not to mention a Volt.

And there are some extreme outliers out there, but that shouldn't set either perceptions or policy:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

sPh

Fear of change. Funny thing is my late grandfather-in-law told me about having the same discussion with his father when he (grandfather) proposed replacing some of the horses and mules on the farm with gasoline-powered tractors. Great-grandfather admitted 5 years later he had been wrong which from what I've heard down there was not something that happened very often.

sPh

If your region loses electricity for any significant period of time your local gas station won't be pumping any liquid fuel. OTOH during the last hurricane evacuation from Houston - bumper-to-bumper traffic for 16 hours - Priuses made it through due to regenerative braking while liquid fuel vehicles ran dry. So there's that.

And entire economy cannot be structured based on 1-in-100-year worst case scenarios. Los Angeles (earthquake), Seattle (earthquake, tsunami, lahar), St. Louis (earthquake) are not so structured and no one is proposing it be done. A daily driver cannot be justified based on a 0.00001% use case.

sPh

The Malibu is an excellent car, competitive with anything in its size and price range. I understand the new Impala is even better. I had somewhat the same view of GM in the 1980s but they have actually gotten their design and engineering act together.

sPh

= = = Who wants to roll around town looking like the "before" picture in a testosterone replacement ad? = = =

It was only ever a certain percentage of the US population that ever participated in that "my sexual identity is wrapped up in and reinforced by my car/horse/mastadon" game. And by observation, among the current generation that percentage has dropped drastically since the 1970s. So I don't think automakers really need to tailor their design and marketing campaigns to reproductive organ insecurity anymore.

What's not to like is that although it seems like a good idea, no one has managed to do it successfully at even pilot batch scale much less industrial scale. And the process does generate some not-nice waste.

sPh

Distribution of Vehicles and Persons per Household
Vehicles Per Household
1969 = 1.16
1977 = 1.59
1983 = 1.68
1990 = 1.77
1995 = 1.78
2001 = 1.90
2010 (unofficial) = 2.28

Persons Per Household
1969 = 3.16
1977 = 2.83
1983 = 2.69
1990 = 2.56
1995 = 2.63
2001 = 2.58

2.28 cars per 2.58 people. One of those cars is typically dedicated to primary breadwinner commuting. So the "expense of the 2nd car" is already there.

sPh

I agree on the $20k target (although the average price of a new car sold in June 2015 was around $33k); it will be interesting to see where GM prices the 2016 Volt (2nd generation).

However for most of its model life the Volt has been eligible for tax credits and rebates which are generally around $4-5K, lowering the out-of-pocket cost quite a bit.

sPh

Which could be one of the reasons that car salespeople don't sell them very hard: no service department revenue for 10 years until those components start to reach end of life.

sPh

= = = Electrics are only good for commuting. I = = =

Which is about 98% of US driving, esp for the primary breadwinner's vehicle.

= = =If I go on a long distance drive then I want to be able to stop for 5 minutes to get gas and keep going. = = =

Average US household is at what: 2.3 cars? Get a Ford Transit minivan with a hyper-efficient turbo engine for the 2nd vehicle and use that on the road trips. Assuming you didn't buy a Volt for the primary car.

sPh

= = = Chevy volt, nissan leaf, i3, etc are all pure POS in which the car sales have been going down = = =

Last time I checked the numbers the Volt had a 99% consumer satisfaction rating - a smidge higher than the Tesla, with the next vehicle on the list not even close - and a 100% "would buy again" rating. Not sure how that meets the definition of 'POS'.

sPh

= = =
In other words, perfect as a second car for upper-middle-class suburbanites who don't drive far.
That's a small population. = = =

Even setting aside the gap between the average suburbanites actual commuting patterns and vehicle requirements as scientifically measured vs. their psychological perceptions of same, at least 80% of USians classify themselves as "upper middle class". So no problem.

sPh

Yes, I know, Lake Woebegone. Don't electrocute the messenger.

So until electric or combination electric-ICE vehicles meet 101% of the needs of 100.0% of the population of the US - including the very small minority who live in isolated rural areas - they should not be popular (or even sold!) anywhere in the US including the metro areas where 85% of the population lives and commutes. Got it.

sPh