So Audi's solution to the crap aerodynamics of the vast gaping horse collar grille that Walter_de'Silva designed ...

@Sloop_John_B: The BMW X1 looks way bigger than this.

@rlj676: Gee, what a shame we don't just get gov't funded research

@Mad_Science: Yeah, A3 DSG + Quattro + 2.0T is nice. It was the car I wanted to upgrade from the Subaru Impreza, but in this economic meltdown, $35000 is thirty-five thousand dollars!!! And owners tell me Audis don't last after five years.

(where'd my comment go?)

@LionZoo: ass-engined Nazi slotcars.

Here's a simple picture that shows the efficiency problem with hydrogen that Honda's Kato-san doesn't admit:

@MrSpyder: You're not understanding the physics.

@Grive: The incremental upgrades to the electricity supply are trivial compared to the cost and energy to create a hydrogen fueling infrastructure. Plugging millions of cars in at night would barely increase the load on the grid. And as solar and wind get cheaper, more people will make their own electricity locally.

1. The Clarity still has advanced batteries in it to store electricity from the fuel cell and electricity from regenerative braking.

@brentil: Really? That's the first I've heard that the generator is big and heavy, electric motors and dynamos are supposed to be light. I think the Volt's generator is the round can with the cable coming out in this picture:

@Dollarbill4: It's good stuff, but Chrysler is planning to make all of 100 vehicles for 2009. They could have farmed out the engineering and manufacturing to one of the auto tech companies like Quantum Technologies just for the PR benefit.

Mr. Wert,

@Accordforall: are they still relying on a 10yr old body and looks

@Ash is 30 today!: I think you've got it backwards. The lights don't sense the car arriving and magically turn green. Instead the lights know when they're going to change and calculate the speed that should be maintained in order to pass through in the green phase and transmit this to the car. (Will drivers will…

The BMW and Benz both have a weird crease between the grille and the headlights. They need to make the grille flush instead of cueing the "luxury cars have a grille poking out" meme from Rolls-Royce.

@Ben Wojdyla tried: tow the line of a hundred years of iterative improvement.

The preliminary spec in the GM's press release omits the Volt's weight (scary !!?), and any details of the back-up "gasoline/E85-powered engine generator" such as cylinders, fuel capacity, etc.

@DarthNigger: If everyones car was a plugin where would all the electricty needed to power those cars come from, from some power plant burning coal or natural gas or some other fossil fuel. The money you save on gas will be spent on your home power bill from plugging in your car.

@FutureCarDesigner: I here most hybrids do more damage to the environment than most cars because of the way they are built.