Does Chevy Volt have a future?
I read with interest your Aug. 12 account of the Chevy Volt plug-in electric car due in showrooms late next year. According to "230 MPG?" by Katie Merx and Jeff Green of Bloomberg News, the Volt would have the highest efficiency rating of any car at 230 MPG in city driving.
Four times more fuel-efficient than the Toyota Prius hybrid, the Volt would cost almost twice as much at $40,000. Will the cost of the Chevy Volt deter Americans from buying the car in 2010 given its limited mileage before the battery pack needs recharging? A fully powered battery pack will take the car 40 miles, after which a small gas-powered engine will kick in to provide another 260 miles - a total range of 300 miles - at which time the car battery will require another 8-hour charging period.
Although the idea of an electric car sounds inviting, there are some other considerations. Foremost among them is where does electricity come from? Electric cars do require electricity to charge their batteries. Presently coal-burning plants produce much of this nation's electricity.
Also to be considered is that lithium-ion batteries are very expensive and require replacement after a few years. Then there is the storage problem after the lithium-ion batteries are replaced because of the chemical toxins found in them. What to do with them? Yucca Mountain is now off limits to store spent nuclear fuel rods.
And why are plug-in cars being encouraged? It is all based on the theory that man is causing the world's temperature to rise.
There is no lack of information about the hoax that is global warming. It is fact that the earth has not gotten warmer during the last ten years. Regarding July 2009 temperature for the contiguous United States, NOAA (National Climatic Data Center) reported average July temperatures of 0.8 degrees F below the 20th century average based on records going back to 1895.
With the present aversion to nuclear power and oil - of which this nation has plenty - future years might see a shortage of electricity with regular period of blackout making electric cars inoperable at such times. If electric cars do represent the wave of the future, let's make sure that this nation's energy needs are sufficient by drilling for oil and building nuclear power plants.
Solar and wind are poor substitutes for the real thing. There would be little interest in investing in either without the huge subsidies offered by state and federal governments to encourage the development of wind and solar energy. Libertyville is having its own share of grief over just one wind turbine!
Nancy Kulp Thorner
Lake Bluff