

Open Source the Chevy Volt - coglethorpe
http://steveblank.com/2009/04/15/bold-idea-for-reinventing-the-us-auto-industry-open-source-the-chevy-volt/

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ams6110
"... proposed that in exchange for the GM bailout we spin out the Chevy Volt
into an open source electric car platform."

Counterintuitively, electric cars are not something that is a good idea in the
near term. Why? The electrical grid does not have the capacity to absorb the
additional demand.

California for example has rolling blackouts during the summertime, just to
moderate the existing demand. Imagine adding tens of thousands, or more, of
electric car recharges to that...

Widescale adoption of electric cars, even assuming they were otherwise
acceptable to the public, will require a massive investment in electrical
generation, the two practical energy sources being coal and nuclear, neither
of which is a politically easy thing to pull off.

~~~
andyn
I heard mention of charging the cars at night from the unused base load,
possibly meeting the demand during the day by taking some charge from parked
cars.

Whether that's practical or not...

