WSJ: Former GM CEO On the Future of Electric Cars

[doug]

Eyes on the Road - WSJ.com

Former GM CEO Stempel
On the Future of Electric Cars

Almost 20 Years After He Approved the EV1
The Same Major Snag Remains: Batteries
July 21, 2008
...
Forget Democrats vs. Republicans. When it comes to the future of cars, it's Technologists vs. Skeptics.
...

[malcolm]

Thanks for the link doug.

Piling thousands of laptop batteries into a car creates "a control nightmare," Mr. Stempel worries.

No it doesn't. It's an engineering problem in heat transfer and fluid dynamics. Little different from conventional ICE cooling concepts.

You might just as well say a gas tank creates a "combustion nightmare".

[vfx]

"A lot of the commodities used in batteries have gotten expensive in the recent commodity price boom, he says."

Yeah, and so has oil/gas. The problem is you have to keep buying one of them as it goes up every week.

Never heard this one before.
"Mr. Stempel says, a gasoline fueled car can be five to ten times more efficient on a dollars per horsepower basis than an electric car."
How is it calculated and is it even relevant?

Thanks Doug,
Having read "The Car that Could" I have always wondered what Stempel and the other players in the book would think of the Tesla model.

[graham]

Slightly off-topic: "The Car that Could" is awesome, and highly recommended for any here who have not read it.

On topic: Yes, vfx. I have wondered the same thing

[Chris H.]

"Mr. Stempel says, a gasoline fueled car can be five to ten times more efficient on a dollars per horsepower basis than an electric car."
How is it calculated and is it even relevant?

Yeah, I wonder if he's conveniently forgetting about running costs and maintenance? He's probably speaking purely from a manufacturing POV...

[Cobos]

Even if he is his statement doesn't make sense.
Tesla's electric motor costs a lot less than a similar engine that produces even close to that many horsepower. If you are relating the entire car package with an EV vs ICE than you need to take into consideration running costs.
And looking at the purchase costs considering how many countries that have pretty hefty incentives on EV's the purchase cost in other countries than the US might be a lot less closer between the EV and ICE car. Seems to me that the old GM CEO is too stuck in his old ICE car paradigm....

Cobos

[graham]

Yeah, I wonder if he's conveniently forgetting about running costs and maintenance? He's probably speaking purely from a manufacturing POV...

I assume he is referring to the fact that you can buy something like a Chevy Impala for 4-5 times less than a Roadster but probably has similar horsepower.

Yes, a fallacious argument in the grand scheme, but accurate from his POV.

[TedK]

Without forward thinking, the small car makers and future electric car makers might blow by GM, with GM's stock price falling and the company experiencing financial problems, etc. Oh, wait, that's happening right now.