Volvo to go full electric & hybrid by 2019

Jbird

Kick Henry Jackassowski
https://www.wsj.com/articles/volvo-to-phase-out-conventional-car-engine-1499227202

No gas engine for you!

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Excellent. I hope to keep my old VW Passat Wagon TDI (not a recall one, before those) running well until more of these cars are available, and the infrastructure improves in my area so I can get one. Idaho is a big state geographically, and there are a lot of both desert and mountain highways with little in the way of services. So, range will need to be decent, and more charging stations will need to be in place before it is practical for me. But, that said, would love to do it.
 
Kind of a big shot across the bow for those of us in the biz. Every dealership business model since the dawn of the industry is heavily dependent on the revenue from maintaining combustion engines i.e. Parts and service.

Glad I'll be retiring in about 10 years!
 
I'm surprised they decided to go all in like that. As mentioned above, it seems that there just isn't the infrastructure in place just yet.
Maybe there is more than I realize since I drive a gasoline engine. Idk
 
Yeah, range is a big concern for me. I put over 300 kms on the truck today and I only went to the office.
Going to the office is a rare occurrence. I'm usually visiting customers all over the province.
If I can't get the range, it's really not practical. I can't stop and charge mid-route in most cases. First because the infrastructure is not there and second because of the time needed to charge.
Improve those two things and make it all affordable, including maintenance, and it will all start to take off, I think.
 
They will price themselves right out of business, or lose a lot of money trying to lure customers. Electric cars are prohibitively expensive. Have you seen the price of a Tesla? And don't tell me about the Model 3 starting at $35K. Most of those will be optioned out and sell well north of $50K.

Not to mention the range issues. For a daily commuter around town it might work, since you can charge the car at home overnight, but forget about taking any long trips with one, unless you want to stop somewhere for at least 30 minutes every 300 miles or so (and that range will be less if you use air conditioning, play your radio or use any other electronic gadgets). Also weather affects the charge capacity too. If it is too hot or too cold your range will be reduced too. Google user reviews of the Nissan Leaf and you will see what I am talking about.

For everyone that thinks electric cars are the answer to our environment, they are fooling themselves. All it does is shift the emissions from the tail pipe to the power plant (more will be needed as the demand will increase on the grid with all these electric vehicles charging up during what used to be low demand periods). Also the mining process to get the rare earth minerals it takes to make the batteries and so forth is extremely bad for the environment too (as of now China is the only country willing to mine it so they control 90% of the worlds supply).

I still think hydrogen makes more sense as a long term fuel solution.
 
I understand there are problems with the technology, but if we don't try something, nothing will get built. Perhaps trying this will help spur innovation and progress on the hydrogen front. I do not believe the free market will solve this on its own. Because a portion of the costs to consider in the economic equation are external, ie, environmental, and do not enter into the profit model. Some support for development of alternatives to fossil fuels is pretty important, it seems to me. Now I frankly don't know what support Volvo is receiving from its government. I did hear Volvo is Chinese owned. I sure wish our US companies would come up with something. Hydrogen, electric with better range, less environmental impact, etc., or whatever.
 
The environmental impact from making the batteries alone is huge.
Then there is the disposal when they die in 5 years.

Hydrogen might be a better solution, but then you have more water vapor in the atmosphere .

The tree huggers will then call for a ban.
 
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