GM with the 2.8 diesel

[DieselBound]

Only way long distance, high speed or high duty cycle electric trains, subways, street cars and buses can operate is to have access to a power rail. Batteries are too much $$$ per kw hr, too heavy per kw hr and too bulky per Kw hr.

Yup.

If I had to wager there being a future in EV it would be more along the lines of a power rail. Returning to the days of electrified street cars?

 

[Egon]

Lots of older folk getting around town with electric vehicles. When my time comes I'd like one of these!

 

[NC419N]

And I thought this was a Diesel post :laughing:
My son just had his first service done on his 2.8 and I asked it the truck was all he thought it would be and said it's no 6.6 like yours but for what it is it's all good. Will have to see what the years will have in store to see if the extra cost is really justified.

 

[davesl708]

And, I'll take my diesel cars (and truck) over gassers. BUT...

While for many these statements are valid, for others not. It really depends on one's needs/requirements. I figure everyone here should know that electric motors are almost impossible to kill (well, w/o extreme abuse they seem to nearly last forever). Battery technology, as you note, isn't gaining as much as all the over-optimistic types would suggest (talk to Samsung ), though battery reclamation is said to be vastly better than in the past. If I had a nice solar power setup (off-grid; I was going to go that route years ago, but it didn't materialize [didn't move to where I was aiming for]) I'd look to leverage That investment and go with an EV. And the point here is that, yes, up-front investments sometimes don't look so good; but, many times, as we know, things change and our earlier calculations don't hold due to changing dynamics (economics) of the world. When fossil fuel usage drops, due to aging populations and less people being able to afford their use, you start losing the leverage of economies of scale, and decreased production monkey-hammers things, causing per unit costs to increase -> higher end costs (follow the swirling vortex downward).

I wouldn't likely touch a Chevy Volt. I might consider a Nissan Leaf. But, as I stated, my diesels serve me very well: I'm about $0.05/mile; they're fully depreciated, fully paid for; I expect to get another 150k miles out of them (300k miles).

I don't expect to ever see electric trucks (semis) or electric tractors, but that is based on what today looks like (don't count out dedicated electric lines for moving stuff- kind of like the electric passenger trains in some cities). I see the probability as being less than 50%.

Smith Electric has been building electric small trucks for over 10 years. Even with millions in research and a check for 5 mil. from the President in 2009 the truck only gets about 40 miles between the 6 to 8 hour charges. I worked in an office above Smith's offices and saw the money given by the taxpayers for this turkey of a truck turn into BMW's and Mercede's within a few months of getting the taxpayer money.

Electric is great but a long way from practical in almost all applications. If I want to go out of town I would still have to use gas or diesel to get there and back.

As a Public Safety diver we had special dangers in recovering electric vehicles submerged in water. Those batteries are only 1.5 volt each but stacked to produce several thousand volts. We had to be able to see where the hooks went to tow the vehicle out. Not possible in the mostly black water around here.

 

[lostcause]

just under 8k on the odometer right now and the last three tankfuls have finally dipped below 25mpg, but it looks like it'll still be close to 24mpg for the winter months, as it's been as low as -10f over the last couple weeks and the mileage has only dipped a couple mpg overall. I had a minor hiccup in mpg a couple months ago, but after that it went back to the 26 range until recently.

the other downside is that we're fully into the winter blend fuel here and everyone in my area has jacked their prices. a lot of the places on my daily drive are hovering close to $2.599 now - it was odd to feel happy paying $2.499 a couple days ago. had family here for the holiday and they said it was $2.399 on the way south for them. gas is hovering in the high $2.20's at the same places for me, so it's about a 10% cost premium. most of the fall i got off easy with a 3.5% / $0.08 premium - $2.199 to $2.279.

i won't try to fully justify the vehicle against a gas engine on cost basis. i know it's not a home run, but it looks to be enough to at least break even or maybe even start to barely eat into the cost premium. maintenance doesn't look to be that big of a cost since it's not a big engine. 6 quarts of oil is no different than a gas engine. time will tell on long term repairs, but nobody is that good of a mind reader. the one thing i am happy with is that for my usage, it doesn't feel like a 4 cylinder, or even a 6 cylinder. it really doesn't even feel like a small 8. the initial acceleration is slightly anemic, but once you're rolling at speed it just putts along at 1500rpm, maybe the occasional bump to 2000-2200 when changing speed limits, but it's pretty consistent. it doesn't have the big tachometer jumps i've been used to seeing with smaller engines. also not that screaming engine sound that goes along with it.

i'd love to have been able to pull 30mpg, but it's just not in the cards for my route. i've worked and or lived in a bunch of places from texas east, and i'm pretty confident that i could wrangle out 30 in a bunch of places i've been outside of the northeast. i can pull 30mpg for a 20 mile stretch of my daily commute, but not for all of it.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Thanks for the follow-up feedback...

Id like a crewcab 4x4 manual trans version when its about 6-7 years old with about 100k miles on the odo... *grin*

Happy Holidays!

 

[3930dave]

just under 8k on the odometer right now and the last three tankfuls have finally dipped below 25mpg, but it looks like it'll still be close to 24mpg for the winter months, as it's been as low as -10f over the last couple weeks and the mileage has only dipped a couple mpg overall. I had a minor hiccup in mpg a couple months ago, but after that it went back to the 26 range until recently.

the other downside is that we're fully into the winter blend fuel here and everyone in my area has jacked their prices. a lot of the places on my daily drive are hovering close to $2.599 now - it was odd to feel happy paying $2.499 a couple days ago. had family here for the holiday and they said it was $2.399 on the way south for them. gas is hovering in the high $2.20's at the same places for me, so it's about a 10% cost premium. most of the fall i got off easy with a 3.5% / $0.08 premium - $2.199 to $2.279.

i won't try to fully justify the vehicle against a gas engine on cost basis. i know it's not a home run, but it looks to be enough to at least break even or maybe even start to barely eat into the cost premium. maintenance doesn't look to be that big of a cost since it's not a big engine. 6 quarts of oil is no different than a gas engine. time will tell on long term repairs, but nobody is that good of a mind reader. the one thing i am happy with is that for my usage, it doesn't feel like a 4 cylinder, or even a 6 cylinder. it really doesn't even feel like a small 8. the initial acceleration is slightly anemic, but once you're rolling at speed it just putts along at 1500rpm, maybe the occasional bump to 2000-2200 when changing speed limits, but it's pretty consistent. it doesn't have the big tachometer jumps i've been used to seeing with smaller engines. also not that screaming engine sound that goes along with it.

i'd love to have been able to pull 30mpg, but it's just not in the cards for my route. i've worked and or lived in a bunch of places from texas east, and i'm pretty confident that i could wrangle out 30 in a bunch of places i've been outside of the northeast. i can pull 30mpg for a 20 mile stretch of my daily commute, but not for all of it.

Thanks for the update.

It would be interesting to see your summertime long distance driving #'s, even/especially if you are towing. Plan a trip to Canada to save money - we allow diesel fuel pricing to dip below gasoline at times.

No need to "justify" IMO - just keep enjoying it for what it is - a compact motor with a great Tq curve. :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.