Here come the electric nay-sayers who can’t let go of the buggy whip…

How much, how much?!?! Please say $40,000!

Wow, that thing is hideous. What we NEED is the EV-1 back. Now those would sell like hotcakes.

Here is your H2 Gm..talk about a P.O.S.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6222339872282952499&q=h2&hl=en

A pic. of you in your G6

http://www.mycarsucks.com/photos/Crappy_Car.htm

gm cant make cars with 640 hp so shut up gmnumber1. this is nice, an environmentalist kind of car that can let your whole family to experience 155mph in one go

Geez i think saying GM is #1 is very uneducated. Take a look why….

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=GM

Jus compare GM/s P/E with their financial statements.

HAHAHAHA GM jsut got smacked…..the great thing is you all provided such great evidence as to why GMnumber1 should shut his mouth….
Oh and GMnumber1…if you love GM so much quit talkin so much trash about other car companies…the only thing your doing is turning people away from GM by your attitude…
Because of you I will never buy a GM car in my life…

Pie in the sky is all I have to say. If this were even possible, the OEM’s would have done it already. Also, this thing will cost ove 100k, and again, where is the electricity coming from? If it’s not wind, solar, or nuclear, then it’s LESS efficient and clean than an equivalent IC motor. Sorry, just a fact. That charge has to come from somewhere, and when these people start racking up $300/mo electric bills, they’ll soon find out. Energy is not free, people.

I know its an electric, but i don’t hink people who want 640 hp really care about the enviroment. Golf4me’s statement is correct!

whats the point of a car that can drive 155mph? It’s illegal to drive that fast on a road. Electric cars would cost less in energy to recharge - not sure about maintenance costs and all of that jazz.
ummm…recharge stations instead of gas stations?
hahaha! 10 minutes to charge isn’t that bad, but it’s sure slower than gas fill ups.

10 minute recharge? That doesn’t sound so bad. I wonder how long it takes to fill up an Escalade or Suburban?

Here’s a question: since in-hub electric motors at every wheel require no driveshaft and differential, how do you think this will affect the drive layout for similar cars in the future? Other than cost, it sounds pretty easy to emulate RWD, FWD or AWD with absolutely no way to continue making RR or MR vehicles.

maximus, if you don’t want a 155mph car then by all means find a vehicle with a slower top speed that *you* like. The rest of us like being able to choose, illegal top speed or no.

An electric car called the ZAP??? Is it safe to drive in the rain?

On a more serious note, you could probably sell these along with a “home recharging station” powered by wind/solar/hydrodynamic/nuclear/etc… Honda was working along these lines for their upcoming fuelcell vehicle. Alternatively, just mount a Briggs and Stratton portable generator in the trunk!

same time it takes to fill up an armada,sequoia,expedition,or new g class. can we talk agout this nice little electric crossover or do you all need to feel like your better than gm#1? this should be good for the entire automotive industry, i like it when new companies showcase new technologies, sometimes it takes an outsider to come up with new ideas.

@golf4me,
All good points, but you failed to realize, and what GMnumberone4ever will shortly point out, is that GM will soon own all the world’s energy resources, and utilities whereby GM be giving free oil, gas, hydrogen, and electricity to all GM owners—and only GM owners. The rest of the world will have to bow down to the mighty GM!

Who cares if its illegal, 5mph over the speed limit is illegal, but that doesn’t stop most people for doing it. The top speed seems a little low for something with 640hp, wonder what acceleration is like being electric and AWD, this thing must scream. Dont know who said it, but this does seem a little pointless. A fast car is what people are looking for when buying something electric right now IMHO. Its still damn impressive to me that it has the power it does and still a 350 mile range on a charge. 10 minute recharge, thats killer. This coming from a GM fan. Wonder what it costs.

its all gonna depend on price price price

644hp through four hub-mounted electric motors? Imagine how quickly the battery life would diminish running this thing at 155mph.. it would peter out after 15 minutes unless they load this thing down with a literal ton of batteries!

Uh oh.. the key word here is “flagship” electric vehicle.. which means there is no chance they will be charging less than $100K each!

It all boils down to this. If you have big bucks to spend on batteries like the Tesla (a $ 45k car with $ 40k of batteries). then yes electric cars are here now.But this is not gonna be priced anywhere near a real world comparable vehicle And so will remain a plaything of the rich.

Also how does one engineer a “car” with the unsprung weight of an electric motor in each wheel to handle as well as a normal vehicle?

I still feel that an all-electric car will be more a toy for the rich and idle, than the rest of us for at least another 10 years. Four in hub motor making over 640hp and it can’t get over 160 mph? Very few with the money will touch it.

The Volt points the way better than any Japanese or European Hybrid or electric.

I am not enthused…

Good idea, Bad styling.

I agree @golf4me. Making plug in vehicles only changes the problem to our electrical infrastructure not alleviate it.

This car is probably sponsored by the coal burning electric refineries as it is in their best interest to make us more dependent on the electrical power that they provide.

A pure electrica car is coming but I think we will have to take incremental steps to get there.

It’s interesting, it’s an excersise in technology, and I think it’s cool. Reminds me of the CX-7 Mazda. The fact they have a 10min charge is a pretty big leap in the electric car world. That’s quicker than my RC10. I believe the 155mph is limited, just like a M5, or most other high end euro rides.

More people than you might think have some source of clean power. I know 2 people with massive solar arrays on thier homes, and my fathers friend has his own wind generator. That guy creates more power with wind than he uses, and he gets checks from the power company, not bills. His meter actually goes backwards. So for some, it truly could be “clean” energy. And he’s a rich dude that could throw down $100k for a vehicle. So the market for something along these lines might be bigger than you might at first think.

But, for the vast majority of people, it is something of a pie in the sky deal.

Wow your prelude goes 148? It must be almost as fast as a M3 or a M5 because those only go 155. Or maybe its because they’re electronically limited to that, like this car probably is.

You think your prelude will take this thing in a race from 0 to 75? I doubt it.

Anyways I personally like the styling. And I like seeing developers experimenting more with hybrid and different fuels. So thumbs up.

@ all those who say electrics are inefficient:
You are comparing the efficiency of the entire electric system (from powerplant to car turning the wheels) while only comparing the last stage of the combustion engine (gas tank to car turning the wheels) compare car to car [batteries to motor and tank to engine] or system to system [power plant to motor and oil well to engine] and see who comes out on top. I’ll give you a hint: you have to burn diesel just to get gas to a place where you can buy it, and then you have to use electricity to power the gas station. How far do you think you could drive an EV for the electricity that is used to keep a gas station open 24/7?

But others have mentioned what the real source of the problem is for the time being (and why other major auto players have not done much with EV’s): The batteries are just too expensive right now to make a vehicle with the right price point, and batteries don’t recharge fast enough.

Flipper said:
“Also how does one engineer a “car” with the unsprung weight of an electric motor in each wheel to handle as well as a normal vehicle?”

The physics say the “car” will probably handle more like a “tank”…. unless Lotus has anything to say about it.

640Hp - yes
Eletric - yes
Lotus - yes
Crossover - NO!

Forgot about this when I was wondering why VAG were interested in Lotus. Can’t keep a good engineering department down. How many other companies out there can sell a new start-up a ready-to-roll concept.

I agree that electric cars are pollution-shifting rather than pollution-solving, but at least its the first step, and all we need to do is take an industrial wasteland like, say, Detroit, and build a Nuclear Power complex there and wahey! we’ve got CO2 emissions-neutral, non oil-dependent power for a huge fleet of outrageously fast electric cars.

Wouldn’t mind a restyle though, that thing looks scarily similar to the nightmare-inducing Ssangyong Actyon http://www.ssangyong.co.za/showroom.asp?typeID=25

What a fun expesive toy!! Seriously, for a rich somebody, this will make a nice toy that will also pay dividends in “feeling” good.

As someone else said, it’s a nice excersize in forwarding technology, but that is about it. Taking into account the actual cost of this machine, well over $100k, it’s just unpractical. You are stuck in a 175 mile radius. Any further, and you’ll be flatbedded home by a diesel. I doubt this thing can be recharged in a typical socket, at least not in 10 minutes. With a 10 minute recharge, that wall socket is the electrical equivelent of an afterburning turbo jet. I would not be surprised if the recharge outlet requires some sort of capacitor/battery system itself.

“Also how does one engineer a “car” with the unsprung weight of an electric motor in each wheel to handle as well as a normal vehicle?”

The physics say the “car” will probably handle more like a “tank”…. unless Lotus has anything to say about it.

It is lotus they will obviously sprinkly some magic lotus powder, probably made from the dried remains of Collin Chapman, and that will make it handle like an elise.

Also you afre forgeting that by using hub mounted electric motors lots of things are going away.

Unsprung weight includes the weight of the brake rotors and calipers and half the weight of the axle half shafts on a fully independent sprung vehicle. With hub mounted electric motors you don’t have any of that because it is all replaced by the electric motor. I bet that makes a vehicle at least brake even on unsuprung weight.

GOOD POINT IRONPONY42, THAT IS A REALLY BIG TREND THATS STARTING UP, I KNOW SEVERAL PEOPLE WITH WIND GENERATORS UP IN APPLE VALLEY WHERE IS ALWAYS SOMEWAT WINDY, THEY COULD CHARGE THIS CAR AND MAKE MONEY BACK FROM THE POWER COMPANY AT THE SAME TIME. WHO KNOWS MABEY EVEN ENOUGH MONEY BACK TO COVER THE CAR PAYMENTS, SO WHATS WRONG WITH A FREE CAR?

If it’s all electric, why does it need tail pipes?