Drew Dowdell

But those aren't fog lights. Those are perimeter lights as you said. If the distance that headlights let you see is an issue, than the answer is more likely to be active headlights that adjust up and down and not just side to side. At slower speeds, the headlights can angle down slightly for more immediate vision while at higher speeds they can raise up to normal

Leafs are still wait listed. So if Leaf sales are pathetic, it is a supply issue and not a demand one.

Toyota went in there with the Pruis and was charging 5-series pricing for that crap trap. It is unsurprising to me at all that the Germans took no notice. The only redeeming quality of the Pruis is its powertrain, the rest of the car is crap, handles like crap, drives like crap.

I'm not willing to say that we shouldn't pursue EVs just because Camino says so. I think at this point we keep all options open and be willing to admit that it might take a combination of these technologies to make it work. I see no reason that we need to pick just one.

You don't learn unless you make mistakes. Suppose you are right and EVs can't be developed beyond their current level. What harm is done? A few city dwellers drive their leafs around and eventually give them up once all the charging stations are removed. What I described above is a multi-prong approach. Diesels, 3 cylinder turbos, eAssist... It is getting to be far more diverse out there in engine technology than it has been in 7 decades. The only thing we're missing at this point (to my sadness) is steam vehicles. Eventually one will become (or remain) the dominant technology. Mistakes might be made, but we will learn from them and move on.

Who, besides Tesla, has put all of their eggs in an electric basket? Not one single manufacturer has. The Spark EV will arrive about 18 months after the Cruze diesel. Ford is talking about 3 cylinder turbos to compliment the Focus EV in the lineup. The transit connect comes in standard, electric, and natural gas. The Sonic and Cruze are both getting upgraded 1.4t power plants. If there is a misunderstanding here, it's how you came up with this idea we are going all electric anytime soon.

And a miata is an unsuitable primary vehicle on a farm, and a GMC Sierra Denali is an unsuitable primary vehicle for the average NYC dweller. And a SMART is an unsuitable primary vehicle for Octomom, and a Suburban is an unsuitable vehicle for a middle aged female office worker to commute 50 miles each way in..... And yet, those vehicles are still built and sold. For some people, the leaf is a suitable vehicle. You complain, loudly, when there is the threat of someone taking a V8 out of production. You feel that such the removal of choice is a disease to be stomped out. Physician, heal thyself!

If you're more than 100 miles round trip from a hospital, you're probably not buying a leaf in the first place. You can come up with all of the strawmen you want, I'll still be here to set them on fire.

Lots (all?) of the electric card articles that I or Mudmonster have written added value to the site as they are news of the current direction of the auto industry. That hasn't stopped you from rating them down. Clearly you feel that my and mud's writing don't contribute to the site.

Situations change all the time. The cts fit my daily routine until it didn't. Suddenly I needed a truck so I bought the Avalanche. Then my financial situation changed and I had to sell the avalanche and end the CTS lease and drive a $750 Buick Wagon that I borrowed. Then I went with no car for a while and just used Alberts CRV and the bus. You don't buy a car today based on what you think you might need in 5 years. Lots of families are 2 vehicle families, thus the leaf or focusEV or SparkEV do make sense.

You vote down every post about an electric car no matter what. Since you can't vote on your own posts, I voted it down for you.

Simply untrue. Even the Leaf/FocusEV/SparkEVmakes sense for certain people. I posted this article on Friday from the Acela train to DC. The guy in the booth next to me and I were talking about electric cars. He's on a wait list for a Leaf. He lives in D.C. and takes the metro for most things. If he goes long distance it is normally by train or by car. He only needs a car for the occational trips out to the suburbs. His wife has a crossover for hauling the kids around. He is trading in a Jetta for the Leaf and it seems to make a lot of sense for his needs. No need for the Volt because he doesn't need the range in his second car. Even my Albert could make the Leaf work as his primary car if he wasn't so insistent that he needs AWD. We would still need something for distance runs, but for his run to work, he would have 85 miles of range left over at the end of the day. Just because it doesn't work for you doesn't mean it doesn't work for everyone.

"barely better than the base 2.4" isn't at all correct. The base 2.4 in the Lacrosse was barely able to eek out 30mpg highway and got an abysmal 19 in the city. You had to work that engine hard to wheel around the weight of the Lacrosse. I did 36mpg highway / 27 mpg city in the eAssist Lacrosse. Now, some of the eAssist increase in mileage does come from an improved 6-speed transmission, but not that much. The 2.4 is aging. I wouldn't expect it in any form to be on the Wards 10 best anymore. Watch the 2.5 though. If there is anything holding them back on the Volt it is the gasoline engine. It is an old technology family zero 4-cylinder that is tuned to run on premium. As advanced as the rest of the Volt power train is, the 4-cylinder in there is about as old-school as GM has on the shelf right now.

The advancement in batteries has been in size.

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Don't care... which is the whole point about electrics! You don't care where the electricity is coming from as long as you're getting it. You like to $h! all over the Volt and Leaf and even the eAssist Lacrosse for using electricity. So the source of the electric doesn't seem to matter to you. As the technology continues to improve, battery range will get you further. In the meantime there are vehicles like the Volt to mitigate that problem. Electric is the power of the fastest land based vehicles on earth that move through the force of their wheels. So no, I don't care where the power is from. The point is I'm running at 125mph under electric propulsion which is faster than ANY of the vehicles you have owned can go. IF by chance you did own one that could reach 125mph... in an hour I'll be in the 150mph zone.

Not with more cut lines than a 92 Silverado it doesn't.

I'm doing 125mph right now in an all electric powertrain. Just saying.

The entire Lexus line rests on the RX and ES. I don't think Lexus can afford to screw up the ES... and I also don't think that interior is a step forward for them.

Marketing seems to be almost entirely word of mouth right now.

Teslas are a ton of fun. So are the mini cooper electrics.

New Lexus ad points out 3 new techs on the GS that have been on GM cars for years, even decades. Heads-up, Blind Spot, Night Vision. Amusingly, the beginning of the Lexus ad talks about leaving old technology behind.

Yes it officially was available in March.. all three of them that actually shipped. I think they sold a very respectable amount for what is essentially a new brand in the US again, has a limited dealer network, and honestly didn't really get inventory moving in until about July. So, let's call ~18k six months worth of sales or 36k a year. It's not 50k a year, but it is respectable for the first year of a niche car from a new brand.

Drew Dowdell - February 24, 2012 - CheersandGears.com Photo by Chris Doane Automotive, LLC - May not be used elsewhere without permission of photographer. The last time we saw a 2014 Spark EV prototype, the front end was covered in heavy camouflage and rear was held together with pop-rivets. Today, we've spied another Spark EV prototype with the production bodywork in place and almost NO camouflage. From our spy photos, we can see the Spark EV will get a different front end from its' gasoline brother. A new, smaller grille is in place, with filler panels that mimic the styling of the panels we find on the Chevy Volt. The Spark EV also has a new lower fascia and new styling around the fog lights. On the driver's side, front quarter panel, the door to access the charging port is clearly visible. The rear fascia on the Spark EV is also new, and looks to protrude from the car more than the bumper we find on the gasoline-powered Spark. This is likely to provide more room for the battery pack. It's also easy to see that this Spark is, of course, NOT sporting any tailpipes. Motivation for the Spark EV will come from a 114hp, permanent magnet electric motor, built at a GM plant in White Marsh Maryland. That motor will get its' juice from a lithium-ion pack manufactured by A123 Systems. GM will hope to have this all-electric Spark on sale sometime in the first half of 2013. Full size photo: View full article