Toyota set to Unveil new Electic Vehicle Concept in Detroit

Gotta buy me an electic vehicle.

Interesting...Is it just me or does that look like a flexible solar panel behind it? I think toyota will kill GM's hopes of the Volt being a big hit with this car, and what better place than in Detroit.

Ya i think GM is done regardless.. or atleast wont be saved by the Volt. Toyota and Honda are leagues beyond with their tech.

Electic? Might wanna correct that typo..

GM is definitely done, with or without Toyota EV. the Volt is a dead wrong concept, pricing at $40K or above? are you kidding me? that's NOT a fuel efficient solution for the mass. GM even place their bet on the Volt to save the company? what a joke. those CEO or whoever up there really out of reach, out of touch, out of sense for the market.

Well the volt was a retarded idea for north america anyways, the range on electricity is sad. They also forgot the size of our continent and the fact that if you want to go to the big cities you have to drive quite a hefty distance, where the hell are you going to charge up on the way??? People's barns? Gas stations?? I'm sure gas stations wouldn't bother wasting their time and $ buying more land and setting up recharge stations so that they could fuel 10 of these at a time. The concept of a mostly electric car works only in mega cities, where you get where you need to go in a relatively short distance, California would be great, and thats pretty much it. And lets face it Toyota has a strong grip on Cali.

The Volt is an electric vehicle with an engine that rides along and functions solely as a generator to recharge the battery. Stopping to recharge isn't necessary. The electric-only range of 40 miles is based on the average American driver. I will assume you know what the definition of average is. The closest big city to me is Chicago and if you work downtown only a massochist commutes by car to work each day. Much easier and cheaper to park and take the train in to work. Not to mention the cost to simply park a car in a big city! Given this scenario, the Volt would still work in pure electric mode. Where I see the Volt will struggle is folks won't want to spend $40,000+ for a four-passenger car that is GM's first try at this segment. I hate to think of the possible maintenance problems if they haven't ironed out all the bugs before going to production. If there are any brains leading GM at all, there had better be other applications for the Volt technolgy already in the works - something at a lower price point as well as something that will haul a family that is much cheaper than the Tahoe hybrid. Something along the lines of a Volt powered Acadia/Outlook/Enclave. Unfortunately, GM may already be too far gone and the current gas prices are too low for any new hybrid/electric beyond the Prius to be a real success.

Ok but then what's the point if you are running on gas? What advantage would it pose over the Prius which is 40% cheaper or the new Insight which is 50% cheaper? Even if this car was all electric it would take 40 years to make up the difference in price between it and the Insight. Realistically for that $ you can get a fully loaded Audi A4 tdi which averages between 3.8-4L/100km which i will bet that over a year will be better than the Volt, and unless GM has some extra terrestrial battery technology those batteries wont last longer than 7 years(if that)and durring that 7 years you will see your efficiency decrease pretty much linearly. And then all you have is a bottom of the line GM car with a weak little 1.4 engine and an auto trans that you paid 40k for. Anyone with half a brain will stay away from this car.