

While Detroit Slept  - anthonyrubin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10friedman.html?hp

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jmtame
The innovation will come from somewhere, and it probably won't be from us
because we're so busy defending our father/mother/aunt/uncle/cousin who worked
at one of the Big Three that we don't care about innovation right now, we want
our comfortable pensions, dammit!

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kingkongrevenge
The entire global car industry is screwed; this is not about detroit. There's
massive global overcapacity. Companies like Honda and VW will probably lapse
into financial crisis next year.

Personally, I would bet money on sub $200 bicycles before electric cars. The
techno fetishists just don't get where things really are both financially and
in terms of energy supply.

~~~
ntoshev
Do you have a reference/data about this global overcapacity?

I also think all-electric cars can't win big anytime soon. On the other hand,
the Chevrolet Volt concept seems really good to me. It would also provide
incremdntal incentives for building charging infrastructure that would pave
the way for purely electric vehicles - it can solve the chicken and egg
problem there.

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kqr2
Better Place wants to use the cell phone model of buying minutes to buying
miles on their electric vehicle network:

<http://www.betterplace.com/our-bold-plan/business-model/>

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systems
well the analogy is a bit off, I do not agree with the bailing out in general,
I think it's akin to curing the symptom as opposed to the real desease

But electric cars are still cars, they ride on roads, mechanical etc ...

It's shell, exxonmobile and Saudi Arabia who might need to worry. Electricity
is a real substitute product to theirs

Many companies cut RnD costs by following the principal of "don't innovate
imitate" cars were invented in USA but this "innovation" found it's way to
europe and Asia

Detroits problem is not innovation, it's implementation. Which sort of explain
how the bailout might actually be sane

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lmao
General Motors produced electric cars over 10 years ago, it just wasn't
profitable at the time.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1>

It is also interesting to note that 50% of the electricity generated in the
United States in 2006(latest report available) came from burning fossil fuels.

<http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat1p1.html>

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mixmax
Here's another Danish alternative to Detroit <http://www.ruf.dk/> since the
author brings it up.

Wouldn't worry too much about them though, they've been going for 20 years and
only have a test-setup to show for it.

