Reflections From a Murky Pond

The Roberts Electric Car was built in 1896, 13 years before even Henry Ford’s famous Model T, and it got, using only the lead-acid batteries of the late 19th century, 40 miles per charge. This is the same range as that which is advertised for Chevy’s $32,000 Volt which cost nearly $750 million for them to develop.

Roberts Electric Car Circa 1896 – 40 Mile Range

Slightly later, in 1914, the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, MI was producing electric cars using Edison’s nickel-iron batteries with a confirmed range of 80 miles per charge, twice that of the car which GM Dan Akerson called “not a step forward, but a leap forward.”

Anderson Electric Car Circa 1914 – 80 Mile Range

So the Volt was progress? No. The abject and pathetic travesty that is the Obama-approved “Great Leap Forward” in green engineering, the now defunct Chevy Volt was not progress in anything other than gross stupidity compounded by government intervention.

Chevy Volt Circa 2012 – 40 Mile Range

If one wants to look at progress in electric vehicles one might consider looking at Dave Cloud, an electric vehicle hobbyist who designed and built his Dolphin for just $3000 using reclaimed car parts and COTS equipment. His Dolphin has a range of 200 miles on a single charge with a speed of 60-65 mph for 85% of those miles.

Dave Cloud’s Dolphin Circa 2004 – 200 Mile Range

Admittedly, Cloud’s Dolphin is not truly practical for normal driving. Yet, what could someone like Dave Cloud design and build if given a fraction of the $750 million that GM wasted on the Volt?

Of course, between the actions and demand of the UAW and the restrictive regulations of the federal government, even if Mr. Cloud got access to funding it’d be unlikely that he could bring anything to market that was anywhere near as good as what he’s already designed.

Tags: Autos | Chevy | Electric Cars | GM | Politics | Society | Technology | Volt

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 at 5:52 am and is filed under Politics, Society, Technology. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

In America we make commercials for car insurance featuring: geckos, cavemen, squealing piglets, and strange men behaving badly. That’s certainly one way of marketing automobile insurance but I think we’re not the best at it…

How Romanians Sell Car Insurance

Geiko’s gecko may be cool and and advertising icon, but the gecko loses hands down to these Romanian babes. 😀

Tags: Autos | Babes | Humor | Insurance | Marketing | Romania | Video

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 4th, 2012 at 8:59 am and is filed under Humor, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Periodically there’s talk about green automobiles. Let’s be honest about the expectations for these “green automobiles” though. Insofar as the Leftists and Warmists are concerned, this is the only “green automobile”:

Green Automobiles

Nothing else or “lesser” will satisfy them. The Leftists, these Liberal and Progressive domestic enemies of America, want cars abolished or strictly controlled because they hate the liberties that individual transport provides and the Warmists are true believer of their doomsday cult who will do anything in their thankfully dwindling power to destroy the economies and industries of the Civilized World.

Tags: AGW | Autos | Climate Change | Freedom | Global Warming | Leftists | Liberals | Progressives

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 11:36 am and is filed under Politics, Society, The Environment. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Can you say green jobs? It’s easy; just say, “gōngzuò de” which is Chinese for “green jobs.” and it looks like China will be where those “green jobs” that Obama promised will be.

It seems that back in September 2011, the Obama-appointed heads of General Motors signed an agreement with the Chinese government to effectively move all future electric vehicle (EV) development to China. Primary production of such vehicles will also likely move to China.

America’s Liar-in-Chief, Obama strikes again.

But then almost all of these “green jobs” that Obama has touted and attacked traditional American jobs and practices over have gone to foreigners so GM’s moving their electric powertrain development to China shouldn’t come as a surprise despite Obama giving them a massive handout from the taxpayers’ coffers.

Tags: America | Autos | China | Economy | Employment | GM | Green | Jobs | Lies | Obama | Technology | The Environment | Unemployment

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 8th, 2012 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Politics, Technology, The Environment. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

On Jun 4, 2009, President Obama went to Cairo, Egypt and gave a speech to the Islamic World. It was entitled, A New Beginning, a seemed to promise a less overtly hostile attitude from US government toward the Muslim World.  Given the apologetic and conciliatory tone of the address, I was quick to disparage it. Given the antipodal natures of America and Islam, I found it’s entire premise to be fatally flawed.

I had overlooked the fact that, while President Obama was careful to formally address the Islamic World as a whole, he was actually speaking to the Arabs and the Persians. He was speaking to the controlling partners in OPEC. Given that fact and the fact that he is in the processes of semi-nationalizing the US auto industry,  President Obama may well be ushering a new era of improved US-Arab relations.

Barack Hussein Obama, President of GM

Yes, President Obama’s administration having ownership of majority shares of the remains of both GM and Chrysler will definitely have the Arabs rethinking their bargaining positions with the United States. 😉

Tags: Autos | Big Oil | Cartoons | Humor | Iran | Obama | Politics | Saudi Arabia

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 11:49 am and is filed under Humor, Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.