c64lucky

Anybody seen it? Saw a small article in one of the Car Mag's.

When is Corvette going to Spin off from Chev.? They need to be like Ferrari & Porsche IMO. No reason why Corvette can't be to GM what Ferrari is to Fiat.

They need to position this Brand as a Winner, which it is & not over produce & distress Market at Invoice pricing etc. Make the Price a fair Price & Let the Price be the Price.

Maybe then the undeserved negative impression of Gold Chain wearing Mid Life Crisis Playboy whatever would be replaced by Guys who know Car's and understand that Corvette's are on par with any Car on the Planet.

Corvette's can be Marketed like Porshe & Ferrari as well. Entry level Coupe & Convert's, Z06's, ZR-1's etc.

GM where's the Electric 'Vette?

GM has needed a serious check up from the Neck up since the '80's, so have Ford & Chrysler. Why aren't guys Like Foose running their design department's? Or guys like Jim Kramer as CFO's?

C64Lucky

Red Rochester

This might be an opportunity to buy the division out from under GM. Looks like you have some good ideas, go for it.

RanGer498

ok you started on one topic then went a whole different way :/

can you post something from the article?

ZO6 Lee

Waiting.

djpatrick35

I think I read that article. Isn't RUF (Porsche's equivalent to Callaway) the one building the electric car? I don't think it was a Porsche thing.

But, changing topics, I don't care if the next Corvette runs on fusion power, so long as it's fast and looks good, I'll buy it.

dvilin

Vetteinplano

Here's a company out of Florida that does conversions on high end cars.
Top quality conversion, but expensive on the front end.

http://www.worldclassexotics.com/Electriccarconv.htm

GotVett?

Happen to see it yesterday while reading some mags at Barnes & Nobles. It's the RUF's electric Porsche.

Daytona Bob

Talk about a Saturday morning Quarterback.

Are you blind to Marketing? Corvette is as ICONIC American as Apple pie. The Tagline has always been Supercar performance at a great price.

Next you will be telling me that Lending Institutions were careless.

IMO - Stick to your post topic - I'd like to see a top secret Porsche.

quacktheduck

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/10/r...-breaks-cover/

think this may get moved to OT soon...

c64lucky

The Point I was trying to get at in this Thread wasn't so much about an Electric Porsche (as I could care less about buying a foreign Car in these times) but more as to why GM, Ford & Chrysler can't get their Heads out of their A$$e$ & be the World Leader in the Industry they created.

I think GM has been blind to Marketing for the last 28 years personally. They have constantly ignored what the Public wants. Like Ford and Chrysler they "Market", for the most part, unexciting designed and lower overall quality Vehicle's than Germany & Japan. For years!

Not only from a Manufacturing Perspective but right down to the Dealer Sales, Parts and Service level with regard to Professionalism, Product Knowledge and Customer Service.

If all you care about is "Bang for the Buck" buy a Cobalt & put a Turbo & Nitrous on it.

Corvette is the Premier American Automobile. Not Cadillac, not Lincoln, Corvette. It should be Marketed as such.

Personally I love my Corvette. I would like to see it's Perception equal to Porsche, Ferrari & Lamborghini and not as some wannabe piece of distressed Merchandise. We all know Corvette's are every bit as good as them and even better as they can truly be daily Drivers.

I was really just wondering why, once again, an American Car Magazine is printing a Story about another Countries Auto Manufacturer being way ahead of us again in developing the right Product for the right time.

Why aren't we reading about GM testing an Electric Corvette. Why? Because they don't have guys like Foose or Kramer.

Sorry if I wasn't more clear. I probably should have worded the Thread differently.

C64Lucky

Mark Ducati

I've always heard the argument against electric cars for us sportscar guys that we're gonna give up that pretty exhaust note.... true enough, but the trade off is that you'll now go 0-60 in like 2.7 on aveage, as opposed to just being in the 4 second club! The torque management if done right is incredible, an electric vette could see sub 2 second times if a major player put their mind to producing such a machine.

_Nathan

Interesting, but who would want a Porsche 911 that weighs 4200 lb and takes 7 sec to go 0-60. If I wanted an overweight sports car I would have bought a MB SL.

LarryMJones

I suspect the range is limited to the length of the extension cord!!!!!!
LJ

shopdog

Yep, I'll show some interest in electric cars when they can offer a 430 mile range per charge and a 5 minute recharge. That would make them equivalent in that respect to a gas engine car like the Corvette. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen, though. Gasoline is 1166 watt-hours per pound, rechargeable lead-acid batteries are 40 watt-hours per pound, and the most advanced lithium-ion batteries are 70 watt-hours per pound. Battery electrochemistry is a mature and well understood technology, has been since the 1890s, it isn't going to magically get significantly better.

The only way to make electric cars practical replacements for gasoline fueled cars is to externally power them, metaphorically with an extension cord. In practice, electric cars will need to be powered from the roadway using linear induction coupling. This is also a mature and well understood technology. It works. It isn't cheap, costing about $20 million per lane mile to install ($180 trillion dollars to wire the US highway system). And then we have the problem of quadrupling the electric generating capacity of the US in order to power the US vehicle fleet. The enviro-nuts will make building enough coal fired plants impossible. The need for a stable and schedule-able power system will prevent wind or solar from doing the job. There isn't enough untapped hydro. That leaves only nuclear power, and we all know how hysterical the left is about safe clean nuclear power.

c64lucky

Once upon a time the Gasoline Combustion Engine was a Fantasy too. Total Science Fiction! Then a Car that could go 25 M.P.H.! Wow!!! Then.....the rest is History. Time we started making some again. History that is.

If we don't develop 21st Century Technology including Hydrid Power for Vehicle's you can bet someone else will. In fact they already are as witnessed by the Vehicle Manufacturer mentioned in this Post. As well as China & others.

C64Lucky

shopdog

Some fantasies don't contradict physics, others like a pure battery car with decent range do. The former are possible to engineer, the latter aren't. In 1910, there were more electric cars on the road than gasoline powered cars. But then the road network improved to the point where one could travel more than a handful of miles by car in a day, and that sounded the death knell of the very limited range electric car. Nothing about the physics or electrochemistry of battery electric autos has changed in the century which has passed since the first collapse of the electric car market. It is still impossible to store enough electric energy on-board a car, due the the very poor power to weight ratio of batteries, and it is still impossible to recharge a battery as rapidly as it is to refill a gas tank, due to the equivalent internal series resistance of batteries. Neither of those things are going to change. As I said, to make electric cars practical, the roadway must supply the electric power.

c64lucky

All I'm sayin' is if a small Company like Tesla can achieve what they have in the short time they have been in Business why can't GM, Ford & Chrysler.

Check out the link www.teslamotors.com to see what's happening now.

I think you may be livin in the past my friend. The times they are still
a-changin'.

C64Lucky

PS They're just scratchin' the surface with Solar.

shopdog

I've followed Tesla's puff pieces. I hope you haven't been taken in by the hype. Take a hard look at the engineering and the COST of their little $100,000+ converted Lotus kit cars. Actual real world range is still pitiful, recharge still takes way too long, and the cost puts them in the brie and grey poupon league. They have no hope of reducing those costs to the point where they could actually call themselves a mass market auto manufacturer either. In recent weeks they've laid off 25% of their staff and put on indefinite hold their plans for a "cheap" $60,000 electric sedan. They are a struggling niche player, and that's all they'll ever be as long as they pin their hopes on a battery electric car.

Wayne O

Porsche testing secret electric 911....apparently it's not such a "secret." I imagine most all the major manufacturer’s are testing electric vehicles. The fact is GM has the Volt which is virtually ready to roll.

The trend to electric cars may have negative ecological consequences. Don't forget the batteries in the Prius are an ecological nightmare. Manufacturing the 'green' Prius leaves a larger carbon footprint than making a Hummer....not to mention the car isn't cost effective for 5 or more years.

People like to knock GM and I don't deny they've made mistakes. I cringe, however, when I hear someone say people don't want to buy US manufactured vehicles. Although foreign car makers have made huge inroads into the US market and taken market share from US car makers, GM has remained the largest auto maker in the world until just recently (and they let the title slip only because they elected not to pursue their low margin fleet sales). Notwithstanding the current economic crisis, its evident people around the world still buy GM products. GM must be doing something right.

While GM's made mistakes they've also been nailed by negative economic circumstances beyond their control...the recent spike in oil prices, the so-called 'credit crisis' and frankly, the Unions have done more damage to the US auto makers in the past 30 years than just about anything. Talk about sweetheart deals for CEO's...our automakers pay thousands of employees NOT to work everyday.

You've got some good points though...GM very well might position Corvette as a stand-alone brand.

Now about Jim Kramer...I like the man. He's enthusiastic, an intelligent entertainer with some interesting business insights but when it comes to picking stocks he doesn't do so well.