Friday Funnies

The latest in automotive technology

Henry Payne | August 28, 2009

Comments

To be fair|8.28.09 @ 7:01AM|#

I thought it was funny.

|8.28.09 @ 7:08AM|#

I like it. The political cartoon is a deprecated format, so my bar is low.

Bob|8.28.09 @ 7:15AM|#

It wasn't cringe-inducing!

ed|8.28.09 @ 7:16AM|#

Henry is clearly out of gas.

Untermensch|8.28.09 @ 7:29AM|#

This one is pretty good, especially given the month of wtf? ads that just showed a smiling outlet and the number 230 without saying what they were actually for. Payne actually nicely captures the sense of slight annoyance I felt for those ads and my cynical take on the whole thing.

ed|8.28.09 @ 7:51AM|#

the number 230

That's how many imaginary miles the yet-to-be-built car might go once they start implementing the still-to-be-invented battery system.

Tomcat1066|8.28.09 @ 7:58AM|#

I like it.

|8.28.09 @ 8:07AM|#

I give it a 7. I can dance to it.

|8.28.09 @ 8:13AM|#

not so fast. Its almost like a compliment - i mean, at least they managed to come up with the mileage. It would have been funnier of the number was only like 60, or 50. still a shit pot of taxpayer money to burn, but wouldnt give the american car manufacturers so much credit.

|8.28.09 @ 8:51AM|#

How much will my electric bill go up every month? Will the car still only last the same number of miles a Chevy normally lasts compared to Japanese counterparts?

I think you'd have to give me a Chevy for free for me to drive one.

|8.28.09 @ 9:03AM|#

I for one, am really excited at the prospect of owning a plug-in hybrid. I looked at the numbers a while back, and electricity is (currently) much cheaper than gas. And don't worry about the fact that the Volt's going to be at the Chevy quality level... just wait a year or two and you'll be able to buy the Japanese version.

And yeah, sucks that the gov't has to jump in to support (i.e., ruin) something that the market would probably produce anyway.

|8.28.09 @ 9:11AM|#

Well, I'll drive my Galant for another decade hopefully, so maybe by then we'll have flying cars that run on Mr. Fusion.

George|8.28.09 @ 9:11AM|#

All this worry about peak oil and global climate changed. The end times will render these issues moot.

Rich|8.28.09 @ 9:12AM|#

electricity is (currently) much cheaper than gas

"Currently." Now *that's* funny.

|8.28.09 @ 9:39AM|#

Ugh! No just no. The GM bailout is a done deal. Even cash4clunk is dead and gone. Even the subsidy is old news. There are bigger fish to fry than Chevy.

Not Funny
Slightly Relevant
Crappy artwork
Grade: F

Mike Laursen|8.28.09 @ 9:43AM|#

"... taxpayer dollars burned per mile" doth not come trippingly on the tongue.

|8.28.09 @ 9:51AM|#

This doesn't totally suck; shazzam!

"230" could also represent (in thousands) the amount of money lost on each sale.

|8.28.09 @ 10:03AM|#

Actually not bad, Payne. I can't remember the last time I said that.

electricity is (currently) much cheaper than gas

Really? I think that completely depends on where you are. In CT, for example, electricity is extremely expensive, but here in Seattle, it is very cheap. I don't think a Volt would make much monetary sense in CT. However, where would I charge a Volt in my apartment building in Seattle? There are no outlets in the below-building garage that I could get to (and that wouldn't be stealing from the apartment complex).

|8.28.09 @ 10:03AM|#

I looked at the numbers a while back, and electricity is (currently) much cheaper than gas.

Thats great news. Until the burgeoning popularity of electric vehicals quadruples electrical demand which our plants have no way to produce (at 40% efficiency by the way), and our grid has no way to distribute. Then we will have a multitrillion dollar infrastructure update, and cover the plain states in windmills to meet it. great plan.

|8.28.09 @ 10:14AM|#

It's actually not too bad.

|8.28.09 @ 10:25AM|#

Then we will have a multitrillion dollar infrastructure update, and cover the plain states in windmills to meet it. great plan.

We'll have to depopulate flyover country to make room for the windmills. We can put the population in camps in the liberal northeast, where our betters can keep an eye on us. In order to minimize our footprint, these camps will be small. Concentrated, even. The barbed wire is for our own protection. We will work for the State, and work will make us free.

|8.28.09 @ 10:30AM|#

We will work for the State, and work will make us free.

At which point the windmills will be unnecessary; slave-powered dynamos will provide power for the luxuriance required by our overlords dwelling in their cloud cities.

Sparky|8.28.09 @ 11:18AM|#

It isn't the batteries that's holding things up.
It's the development of those 50-mile-long extension cords.

Christ on a Cracker|8.28.09 @ 12:31PM|#

electricity is (currently) much cheaper than gas

How do you convert Dollars-per-kWh to Dollars-per-gallon?

Serious question.

|8.28.09 @ 12:42PM|#

Episiarch: Yes, the huge problem for electric cars is that the most likely customers for them are people who live in cities, who often don't have private garages or any other place to recharge them....

|8.28.09 @ 12:45PM|#

If every parking meter had an electrical outlet on it...

What could go wrong?

Paul|8.28.09 @ 12:58PM|#

How do you convert Dollars-per-kWh to Dollars-per-gallon?

Serious question.

Very difficult and the formulas are all prone to shenanigans. The Aptera comany (maker of an all-electric car) admitted it was pretty fuzzy.

Art-P.O.G.|8.28.09 @ 12:58PM|#

Hmm, pretty good cartoon.

|8.28.09 @ 1:00PM|#

"How do you convert Dollars-per-kWh to Dollars-per-gallon?"

Good question, and I don't remember exactly. I read an article about these upcoming plugin hybrids, and it gave an estimate of miles/kWh. I looked up local energy prices and did the math. The difference between gas and grid electricity was signficant... I think the grid was ~ 1/3 - 1/5th the price of gas (I live in San Diego).

And yes, one reason that electricity is only currently cheaper is because electric cars could jack up demand... and I'm skeptical that the energy industry could ramp up production (especially not in CA). Plus, nobody (aside from the Illuminati bastards) knows where oil prices will be in a year or two or 10.

|8.28.09 @ 1:17PM|#

I would say the most reasonable way to make a comparison would be overall operating costs, but that would require being able to meter and account for your charging current separately.

|8.28.09 @ 1:20PM|#

And- as most of us already know, these junkpiles won't "eliminate" pollution, they'll displace it. More smog in Arizona, less in L.A.

|8.28.09 @ 1:53PM|#

$/kWh*kWh/mile*miles/gallon=$/gallon

kWh/mile and MPG both depend on type of driving and the specific instance of automobile you are using. Since you either use KWh or gallons, the conversion factor between those is necessarily a guess.

Not an expert, just thinking aloud.

|8.28.09 @ 4:40PM|#

'Ugh! No just no. The GM bailout is a done deal. Even cash4clunk is dead and gone. Even the subsidy is old news. There are bigger fish to fry than Chevy.

Not Funny
Slightly Relevant
Crappy artwork
Grade: F"


I gotta agree with Warren on that one. The Detroit Bailout is done and over with. There's not much use in bitching about it now. I'm not entirely sure that electric cars are this magic bullet that everyone seems to think they are.


Am I the only one who opposed the bailout but still thinks Detroit (Chrysler Excluded) still makes a half-way decent product?

|8.28.09 @ 4:44PM|#

@ 10:03 am

(and that wouldn't be stealing from the apartment complex).

Good point! I had thought about whether the electricity distribution infrastructure that was not designed to support electric vehicles was up to a massive increase in plug-in cars, but I hadn't considered the need to protect outside electrical outlets from thieves.

Art-P.O.G.|8.29.09 @ 7:34AM|#

but still thinks Detroit (Chrysler Excluded) still makes a half-way decent product?

I like Ford but never cared much for GM even though the Corvette is sweet (I can't afford one).

|8.29.09 @ 3:51PM|#

Inner relief.

The vertex
of a mountain
appears over
a rainbow,
where the light
of my dreams
describes in the
will a perpetual
desire.

Francesco Sinibaldi