Very high cost of Tesla and Chevy Volt discussed in Washington Post article about plug-in battery vehicles

(Note: To learn more about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and their potential to solve the oil crisis, please read the series of articles titled “Twelve Hydrogen Facts” which is part of the Hydrogen Manhattan Project.)

Here are a few quotes about plug-in battery vehicles (which include a discussion of the very high cost of both the Tesla and Chevy Volt) from a really good Washington Post article that was published yesterday:

1.  “The experience of Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley sports car maker, illustrates the challenges of making a radically new automobile. Founded by a group of high-tech multimillionaires, Tesla has been trying to become the first new successful American car company since Chrysler, which was founded in 1925.

Tesla’s founders set out to make all-electric vehicles. The company’s first: an all-electric sports car with a price tag of $109,000 that can go from zero to 60 mph in a bracing 3.9 seconds. As of a week ago, only 63 had been delivered to customers; a couple of dozen were nearly ready and the company has about 1,200 back orders.

‘The reason we started with a $100,000 sports car is that when technology is new it tends to be expensive,’ says Elon Musk, the co-founder of PayPal who is the chief executive of and a big investor in Tesla. ‘It just takes time to optimize the right design and work up to economies of scale. . . . Why we didn’t start with a Honda Civic is that it would be a $70,000 to $80,000 Honda Civic.’”

2.  “Still, production of the new cars will be limited. GM, for instance, plans to produce only a little more than 10,000 Volts in the model’s first year.

‘People ask us when will we produce not just 10,000 but 50,000,’ said Frank Weber, GM’s global vehicle line executive and chief engineer for E-flex systems. ‘I say when the battery and power train costs have come down significantly.’”

3.  “‘There’s fluff and there’s reality,’ (automotive analyst Maryann) Keller said. ‘The fluff is the Chevy Volt . . . That’s not going to save GM in the next five years. What will save GM is more small sedans and more crossovers. That’s what people are going to be buying.’”

Hydrogen critics might be quick to say that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are even more expensive than plug-in battery vehicles.  But is this true?

Here is an excerpt from an article published on Edmunds.com in September that discusses what Honda thinks about the cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles versus plug-in battery vehicles:

“(Honda research chief Masaaki) Kato told Bloomberg that Honda engineers don’t believe lithium-ion batteries will satisfy most consumers because of their high cost and limited range compared to gasoline engines.

In Japan, he said, battery developers are still trying to meet a government goal of boosting energy storage capacity by seven times while slashing battery costs to just 2.5 percent of current costs.

‘That gives you a pretty clear example of what type of gap we’re facing relative to a gasoline vehicle,’ Kato said. ‘At this point, I’d say it’s impossible to imagine a date at which such a breakthrough could occur.’

He said Honda believes it will be easier, less costly and quicker to perfect the fuel-cell electric vehicle, such as the FCX Clarity that it is leasing in small numbers to select consumers in Southern California and Japan.”

Are you surprised that plug-in battery vehicles will be so expensive considering how many people act like they are ready to go today?  Considering the comment from the Honda research chief, doesn’t it seem like the mainstream media, politicians, etc. have a lot to learn about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and when they will be ready?