JazzMan > wrote in article
>...
> y_p_w wrote:
>
> >
> > Certainly many of the electrics in recent years were sold at a net
> > loss. Remember the GM EV1, Toyota RAV4 Electric, or the Honda EV
> > Plus? GM claimed there was no demand for the EV1 (a lie). The
> > real reason was because it was costing them $80,000 each to make
> > them
> >
>
> The EV-1 was never intended to be sold to consumers. That
> vehicle was only available under a lease program, GM used
> that lease program to do long-term testing of electric
> vehicle technology. It was a sad day indeed when the program
> was terminated at the end of it's run and the cars were all
> taken back. Every single lesee really liked the car and it
> worked well for them. If it had been available in my area
> I would have leased one in a heartbeat. The volatility and
> the gaming going on in the gasoline industry is really
> hurting people now, having an all-electric car would allow
> someone who truly wanted to to step out of the game altogether.
>
> BTW, the reason for the high production costs of the EV-1 was
> because every one was a hand-built and hand-assembled car. If
> GM had set up their usual mass-production assembly line for
> the EV-1 it likely would sell for less than what a mid-level
> SUV sells for now. Fundamentally, the only really expensive
> part was the motor and the battery pack, but don't forget that
> those costs were offset by elimination of expensive to design
> and build transmission systems and complex emissions control
> systems on gas engines. No fuel injectors, no catalyst, no
> smog pumps or EGR systems, no exhaust system at all for that
> matter, no fuel systems, no evaporative vapor recovery system,
> no clutch system, no tranny cooler, no radiator, no antifreeze,
> I could go on and on. Ultimately I would see an all-electric
> direct-drive car being cheaper to make than a regular petro-fuel
> vehicle.
>
> Another plus of an all-E car is that it can use better
> electrical sources, including reforming fuel cell technology,
> and renewable non-carbon energy sources.
>
>
> JazzMan
> --

Of course. now that it has been established that hybrids will use less fuel
- thus pay fewer fuel/road taxes - Big Brother has proposed that ALL cars
be equipped with spyware - er, monitoring devices - which will determine
how many miles have been driven in order to tax the car owner by-the-mile.

Of course, "absolutely nothing else" would ever be monitored - such as
speeds driven, locations driven to, etc., etc......

One has to wonder why the government is so enthuisiastic about hybrids.
When was the last time YOU heard ANY politician praise a program which will
result in fewer taxes collected?

Could such monitoring of the general population be but a single reason?