I stand corrected.

You're way off. The average person doing an average walking pace would take about 35-40 mins to do 2 miles. 30 mins at a brisk walking pace. 15 mins would be walking-race speed, and far beyond most people.

"Specific studies have found pedestrian walking speeds ranging from 4.51 kilometres per hour (2.80 mph) to 4.75 kilometres per hour (2.95 mph) for older individuals and from 5.32 kilometres per hour (3.31 mph) to 5.43 kilometres per hour (3.37 mph) for younger individuals;[3][4] a brisk walking speed can be around 6.5 kilometres per hour (4.0 mph).[5] Champion racewalkers can average more than 14 kilometres per hour (8.7 mph) over a distance of 20 kilometres (12 mi). An average human child achieves independent walking ability at around 11 months old.[6]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...

The reason you are having to repeat it so often, is that you are mistaken.

The Volt is a serial hybrid. The ICE only powers a generator. The power from the generator can be fed both into the electric motor, or can be used to recharge the batteries.

This is unlike the Prius, where the motor has a mechanical linkage to the drive wheels.

Not true. The Volt is a serial hybrid. The ICE only powers a generator. The power from the generator can be fed both into the electric motor, or can be used to recharge the batteries.

I'm afraid that's your wish rather than reality.

This was the 90s Mac before the iMac. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
Dull beige PC looking thing with equally uninspiring specs.

The current iMacs, Macs, Macbooks, Macbook Air, iPhone 5, iPad and iPad Mini are certainly not dull and uninspiring. And the specs of every one are amongst the best in the industry. Customer satisfaction is the very best in the industry, and has been every year for more than a decade.

Rather like the 2 samples I already pointed out for Doom? Are you getting the idea yet that you aren't telling me anything I don't already know?

Wow! One sentence and you managed to make comprehension errors on both short posts you mention.

I never claimed it would be half, and the person I replied to never claimed it would be a tenth.

And you fell into the trap of not considering that price is about negotiation and the power you have to negotiate.

The idea behind your question is that competition always ensures the lowest price for products. That is clearly not true, even in the naive theories of Adam Smith. It's even less true when you consider that the true mechanism is game theory, and Nash showed there are other equilibriums.

Lower the costs and reduce the profit margins by cutting out middle men and using economies of scale, and you can reduce the price. If you are motivated to do so.

Exactly. That was Apple's problem in the 90s. Their product offerings had become dated and uninspiring. Now they justify their premium. That's how they made a big turnaround.

It sounds like insurance. You are paying someone else to take on the risk. That costs extra money, but it's predictable.

Personally I self-insure everything for which there isn't a legal necessity to have insurance. I don't see any point in paying someone else to take a risk when I can do it myself.

If it's anything like bottled LPG, no thanks. Sometimes when you go to get a bottle they don't have any of the type you need in stock, and you have to chase round to find one. Then there's the problem of what you do when you run out of LPG and the shop is closed.

Halving the price would be an enormous gain!

And I rather suspect you will find it's not.

Sure. If you are a socialite of 100 years ago. New money these days is Tech. Oil is old money. Indeed it's heading towards an industry in decline.