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[fireplaceguy]

"The world's biggest car maker, General Motors, believes global oil supply has peaked and a switch to electric cars is inevitable. In a stunning announcement at the opening of the Detroit motor show, Rick Wagoner, GM's chairman and chief executive, also said ethanol was an "important interim solution" to the world's demand for oil, until battery technology improved to give electric cars the same driving range as petrol-powered cars.

GM is working on an electric car, called the Volt, which is due in showrooms in 2010, but delays in suitable battery technology have slowed the project.

Mr Wagoner cited US Department of Energy figures which show the world is consuming roughly 1000 barrels of oil every second of the day, and yet demand for oil is likely to increase by 70 per cent over the next 20 years. Some experts believe the supply of oil peaked in 2006. The remaining oil reserves are deeper below the Earth's surface and therefore more costly to mine and refine.

"There is no doubt demand for oil is outpacing supply at a rapid pace, and has been for some time now," Mr Wagoner said. "As a business necessity and an obligation to society we need to develop alternative sources of propulsion." "

From The Sydney Morning Herald - More at Link: http://tinyurl.com/264obk
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Read thrice...
Measure twice...
Cut once.

F. I. R. E. Certified Inspector
NFI Certified Woodburning Specialist

[fusion]

[Burn-1.2]

I came across this system yesterday which is deployed in a basically stock Saturn Vue Greenline.

Extreme 150 mpg hybrid

Video here

It's basically a very interesting use of ultracapacitors to provide fast discharge for acceleration and then these are recharged by an onboard generator. It runs for about 40 miles on electricity so most people wouldn't need to get gas daily but would need to recharge overnight. The big problem is these guys are not a car company and GM plans to release a new hybrid every quarter until they start releasing the all-electrics.[/url] Although I'm sure someone might be interested in licensing something like it.

Oh yeah, and it'll only take three years to get this to market.
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Enjoying the warmth of wood heat in central NH since 2006

[fusion]

Well..... let's see ......here we are 21 months after the last post to this page and GM has run its own company into the friggin ground........I sent the GM CEO letters more than 2 years ago telling them what morons they were and what the had to do to survive and received not so much as even an acknowledgment of my letter and now here they are in bankruptcy.....a perfect example of management shirking their responsibilities with the end result.....bankruptcy........well, you get what you deserve.....