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Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

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31–40 of 298 posts

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#31
post #14
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $7500 federal tax rebate, most people can't take full advantage because they don't owe that much I am pretty sure most of those who can afford to purchase a 35k+ car are making at least 40k / year and owe that much in federal taxes, unless I am not calculating something right

What I never really thought is that that‘s still a pretty dumb was to subsidize any kind of purchase. It massivly advantages the rich(er). Why do it that way?

It's a set amount money set aside to jump-start the market. The subsidies will end when the fund runs out and pure (if there is such a thing) market forces take over. Fossil fuels are subsidized permanently, however.

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#32
post #29
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the idea of Electric cars and even own Tesla stock, but I think they're still a ways off from me seriously considering buying one. Why? I drive a large Hybrid sedan. I get a bit above 600 miles on a tank of gas without thinking about it. That's a trip from NYC to Toronto with about 100 miles of driving around range left before having to think about finding a gas station...or for our European friends, Paris to…

> plus interest ... > I paid cash. How are you paying interest if you paid cash?

Well, I'm not, but somebody is bound to call it out for people who finance.

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#33
post #22
post #3

At $35k+ with 240 miles of range, it's starting to get close but realistically not quite there yet for "mass market" adoption. I hope I'm wrong but this will likely be a minor seller. Also re: the $7500 federal tax rebate, most people can't take full advantage because they don't owe that much and it doesn't carry over past the first year. Still a good program but not a magic wand solution.

I love the idea of Electric cars and even own Tesla stock, but I think they're still a ways off from me seriously considering buying one. Why? I drive a large Hybrid sedan. I get a bit above 600 miles on a tank of gas without thinking about it. That's a trip from NYC to Toronto with about 100 miles of driving around range left before having to think about finding a gas station...or for our European friends, Paris to…

The only problem with your analysis is that there appear to be 100s of thousands of US consumers who want a pure electric car and not a (Edit: plugin) hybrid, many more people than are interested in hybrids. So you've got a fine personal datapoint, but you don't appear to be typical of the market, or at least of a market big enough to launch a high-volume car.

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#34
post #14
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $7500 federal tax rebate, most people can't take full advantage because they don't owe that much I am pretty sure most of those who can afford to purchase a 35k+ car are making at least 40k / year and owe that much in federal taxes, unless I am not calculating something right

What I never really thought is that that‘s still a pretty dumb was to subsidize any kind of purchase. It massivly advantages the rich(er). Why do it that way?

Early adopters help bring the costs down for everyone else.

By making the car more affordable for wealthy (but not that wealthy) people, it eventually brings the cost down for everybody.

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even have to itemize (it isn't a deduction), so I think most people would be able to take full advantage of it. I would bet anyone who is in the market for a $35k+ car (or even 28.5k+) is going to be at a point where they can take full advantage of the rebate.

It's a credit yes, but it's not a refundable credit. Which means you need to owe at least that amount of tax. So for 2016 that means a single person has to earn at least $46,900 to get the full benefit (assuming no other non-refundable credits). The median US personal income for 2016 was about $31,100, so I think it's fair to say the majority of Americans can not take full advantage, although I agree with your last s…

That number is deceptive: a married joint-filing income would be around $60k, so they would qualify if they only bought one of these.

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#36
post #20

We just managed to sell another flagship GM vehicle, and the software was so bad, it was nearly a deal-breaker. (Most years of this model had software bugs that were so bad, they could literally kill you — for example, the exhaust system could overheat, and burn the car down). Also, basic electro-mechanical things, like seat belts and the FM radio started to die after 3-4 years. This is with light use in CA. Even whe…

about 2/3's of this car is built by LG, if that makes you feel better

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#37
post #26
post #3

At $35k+ with 240 miles of range, it's starting to get close but realistically not quite there yet for "mass market" adoption. I hope I'm wrong but this will likely be a minor seller. Also re: the $7500 federal tax rebate, most people can't take full advantage because they don't owe that much and it doesn't carry over past the first year. Still a good program but not a magic wand solution.

> At $35k+ with 240 miles of range, it's starting to get close but realistically not quite there yet for "mass market" adoption. Really? Why is that? For me and I’m sure tons of other people 250 miles is more than enough. I think it’s extremely rare I’d go 100+ in a day. If this was from Honda or Toyota I’d probably jump at it if I needed a new car. I’ve never had any experience with GM, and their reputation isn’t ex…

For me that's like the main use my car. I'll bike to work and often run small errands on my bike. I'll use the car to go to the mountains since that would be too far to bike (and there is a large dull valley in the way).

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#39
post #3

At $35k+ with 240 miles of range, it's starting to get close but realistically not quite there yet for "mass market" adoption. I hope I'm wrong but this will likely be a minor seller. Also re: the $7500 federal tax rebate, most people can't take full advantage because they don't owe that much and it doesn't carry over past the first year. Still a good program but not a magic wand solution.

You don't even have to itemize (it isn't a deduction), so I think most people would be able to take full advantage of it. I would bet anyone who is in the market for a $35k+ car (or even 28.5k+) is going to be at a point where they can take full advantage of the rebate.

To take full advantage of the tax credit, you'd have to owe $7500 income tax, which would mean at least 57K if single, 67K for married filing jointly. More if high itemized deductions, or if dependents. Assuming I read the tax tables [0] and form 1040[1] instructions correctly and didn't make a dumb arithmetic error.

[0]https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040tt.pdf

[1]https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf

Re: Chevy Bolt: the First Practical, Mass-Market Electric Vehicle

#40
post #30
post #20

We just managed to sell another flagship GM vehicle, and the software was so bad, it was nearly a deal-breaker. (Most years of this model had software bugs that were so bad, they could literally kill you — for example, the exhaust system could overheat, and burn the car down). Also, basic electro-mechanical things, like seat belts and the FM radio started to die after 3-4 years. This is with light use in CA. Even whe…

Case in point. I thought I read bolts (volts?) sometimes put themselves into reverse and accelerate while off+charging. I wanted to paste a link, but found this article instead. It looks like this safety issue is by design. (Also, CR says the handling is “choppy” on uneven pavement, which matches my old lemon): http://www.chevybolt.org/forum/#/topics/7778?page=1 “On this rainy morning while turning to park in a stall…

your case in point is that someone who wanted to park decided not to use his brakes?

is removing your foot from the accelerator instead of using the brake a standard learned behavior amongst bolt/volt owners?

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