Chevy Volt - What is GM doing?

[TruthSeeker56]

It's viable, just very difficult!

Much simpler than you would imagine, and ALL of the car manufacturers KNOW it is simpler than they make it out to be.

While our government pisses away billions, even trillions, of dollars in subsidies and guaranteed loans to these fly-by-night "green" companies and crazy investments in flawed "green" technology, many of us sit back and shake our heads in disgust, while others continue to drink the Kool-Aid and praise the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf, and all of the "hybrid" crap that the auto manufacturers are putting out on the roads.

 

[flacaltenn]

It's viable, just very difficult!

Much simpler than you would imagine, and ALL of the car manufacturers KNOW it is simpler than they make it out to be.

While our government pisses away billions, even trillions, of dollars in subsidies and guaranteed loans to these fly-by-night "green" companies and crazy investments in flawed "green" technology, many of us sit back and shake our heads in disgust, while others continue to drink the Kool-Aid and praise the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf, and all of the "hybrid" crap that the auto manufacturers are putting out on the roads.

Well GO FOR IT.. Don't disclose ANYTHING til you get the patents.. Just make sure it's as comfortable and sturdy as my Bimmer...

BTW -- I think hybrids are a good idea. Gets you to regenerative braking, and electric motor efficiency and all that without putting an impossible burden on the power grid. Actually runs cleaner than an all-electric when you consider the power source.

 

[RGR]

You can only hum along to the Pizza take-out and back if you are lucky. Chevy says it gets 35 miles on a charge. Cut that in half after a couple of months. So you have a dinky little gas eater with a gigantic battery you can't replace or get rid of.

The one I drove wasn't dinky, call it slightly smaller in the front seat area than a Camry/Accord. The back seats were okay for normal human legroom as long as the front passengers hadn't set the seats for a 36" inseam. The floorline inside the hatch is a little high, but there is still enough room for say a family of 4 to load up for a modest camping trip.

People who have been driving these things...for thousands of miles without using much gas I might add, seem pretty pleased overall. And people are reporting jumps in their all EV range after a few months, rather than decreases.

Volt after 9,000 miles

More investigation prior to engaging keyboard!

 

[martybegan]

You can only hum along to the Pizza take-out and back if you are lucky. Chevy says it gets 35 miles on a charge. Cut that in half after a couple of months. So you have a dinky little gas eater with a gigantic battery you can't replace or get rid of.

The one I drove wasn't dinky, call it slightly smaller in the front seat area than a Camry/Accord. The back seats were okay for normal human legroom as long as the front passengers hadn't set the seats for a 36" inseam. The floorline inside the hatch is a little high, but there is still enough room for say a family of 4 to load up for a modest camping trip.

People who have been driving these things...for thousands of miles without using much gas I might add, seem pretty pleased overall. And people are reporting jumps in their all EV range after a few months, rather than decreases.

Volt after 9,000 miles

More investigation prior to engaging keyboard!

More than likely the increase in range is from them learning that using anything draws the battery down, and adjusting their behavior accordingly/

 

[RGR]

More than likely the increase in range is from them learning that using anything draws the battery down, and adjusting their behavior accordingly/

Quite true, and not unlike learning to drive a hybrid. But certainly there is no evidence of the battery performing poorly after only a few months, which was the claim. The amazing thing about this vehicle is the zeal with which people are trying to make it into an EV. Some of the stories related to filling up the gas tank for the first time...after a thousand miles or two, speaks for itself as far as how well the 40 miles of EV range expectation worked out as planned by GM. Certainly it appears to have been built for the kind of commuting large chunks of the American public do.

 

[saveliberty]

Wonder how much gas you can buy with the $10,000 extra the car costs over a conventional one?

Before you get too excited, the batteries were subsudized by stimulus money at every level of the production process. After eight years or 100,000 miles the battery problems are all yours. Let me know when your ready to swap one out. I really want to see you lift a 400 pound battery.

 

[RGR]

Wonder how much gas you can buy with the $10,000 extra the car costs over a conventional one?

Who cares? You get social eco-cred for driving one, you save the world from peak oil, you can ignore those little numbers they post at the gas station telling how badly you are about to hosed, it's like driving your computer!

Before you get too excited, the batteries were subsudized by stimulus money at every level of the production process.

So the government is HELPING me to buy a computer on wheels, with which I can save the world? THIS IS GGGGRRR-EEAAATTTT!

After eight years or 100,000 miles the battery problems are all yours. Let me know when your ready to swap one out. I really want to see you lift a 400 pound battery.

I imagine they swap them out the same way they did the engine of my Toyota minivan last summer. Some pulleys, some ropes, and presto! Hell, you could lift my entire van off the ground with one of those rigs, a 400# battery pack is nuttin!

You've never replaced a battery in your camera, flashlight or laptop? Come on! Kids stuff! And just think, when peak oil stops all fuel supplies, and everyone else can't find fuel for their cars, and are riding the bus in misery, bicycling, soaked in sweat, there you are, silently gliding to work powered by American made electicity, in air conditioned comfort, and you can probably park anywhere you want!

I recommend you get one quickly, before everyone realizes what is going on and snaps up the entire years production run!

 

[saveliberty]

Compressed natural gas would be way easier.

 

[RGR]

Compressed natural gas would be way easier.

Of course it would be. Plus, here in the US we have plenty of it. But electric, besides the reasons I mentioned previously, is just so much COOLER than natural gas.

 

[Firehorse]

Electric cars have a problem when they run into reality.

Let's go WAY out on a limb and say the Volt can go 100 miles on a charge. Sounds great doesn't it? You work 20 miles from where you live, sounds perfict for you doesn't in?

Except for a thing called reality

That '100 miles' equals and an hour and a half of juice.

You live in Fort Worth, you work in Dallas (20 miles). How long does it take you to get to and from work? (about 45 minutes) ... What if it's 100 degrees and you got the ac kickin. Will the car make it there and back? What if the headlights are on as well, then will it? What if there is road construction and the 4 lane becomes a 2 lane with backup you in trouble then?

What if you live in Iowa in the winter. You drive at night (lights on) it's snowing or sleet (windshield wipers on) it's 5 degrees with windchill in the -10 range (heat and defrost is on) your not driving faster then 40mph ... Will the car get you home? That a rather important question at that moment ... Life and death type question, cuz when the volt stops, the heater stops.

If you have to ask 'will this car get me home' ... You shouldn't have baught it

When you have to ask every morning if the car in the garage will get you to work and back ... You shouldn't have baught it.

 

[saveliberty]

Actually what GM is doing is called e-assist. It will be on two Buicks this year (2012 models). Generating 15 hp by electric motor, it can reduce the demands on a gas engine and provide power at low speeds. The cars it will be featured in will go from 30 to 35 or 36 mpg.

2012 Buick LaCrosse will Come Standard with e-Assist Hybrid System: EVWORLD.COM

The best part is the price is not prohibitive.

 

[RGR]

If you have to ask 'will this car get me home' ... You shouldn't have baught it

When you have to ask every morning if the car in the garage will get you to work and back ... You shouldn't have baught it.

You have assembled a very specific scheme to use range anxiety against someone enthusiastic about the idea of a Volt. 75% of Americans don't have to commute across Dallas and Fort Worth, they commute less than 40 miles. The Volts electric range was designed to be 40 miles for that reason, and another couple of hundred if you want to burn gas.

Let us talk about the other scenario for commuters using the Volt. I live in Denver. From my door, Denver downtown is 7 miles away (14 total). After roundtripping that to catch a meeting say, I drive to work in the other direction (2 miles away, 18 total). I stop at the liquor store on the way home (20 miles total), I change my mind, decide to pick up a kid at her friend's house (22 miles total), run to Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cone (24 miles total), take my daughter to orchestra practice (30 miles total), run out for a late night burger (33 miles total) and then catch the midnight showing at the movie theater (35 miles total).

I park the car in the garage at 2AM, plug it in without having used any gasoline that day. Not everyone lives in a megatropolis. Volt would work just GREAT! for us, which, based on a 40-mile or less commute, is 75% of the commuting public.

 

[TruthSeeker56]

If you have to ask 'will this car get me home' ... You shouldn't have baught it

When you have to ask every morning if the car in the garage will get you to work and back ... You shouldn't have baught it.

You have assembled a very specific scheme to use range anxiety against someone enthusiastic about the idea of a Volt. 75% of Americans don't have to commute across Dallas and Fort Worth, they commute less than 40 miles. The Volts electric range was designed to be 40 miles for that reason, and another couple of hundred if you want to burn gas.

Let us talk about the other scenario for commuters using the Volt. I live in Denver. From my door, Denver downtown is 7 miles away (14 total). After roundtripping that to catch a meeting say, I drive to work in the other direction (2 miles away, 18 total). I stop at the liquor store on the way home (20 miles total), I change my mind, decide to pick up a kid at her friend's house (22 miles total), run to Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cone (24 miles total), take my daughter to orchestra practice (30 miles total), run out for a late night burger (33 miles total) and then catch the midnight showing at the movie theater (35 miles total).

I park the car in the garage at 2AM, plug it in without having used any gasoline that day. Not everyone lives in a megatropolis. Volt would work just GREAT! for us, which, based on a 40-mile or less commute, is 75% of the commuting public.

You are missing the whole point. The millions of people who DON'T live in a "megatropolis" are the people who would have NO USE for a Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf.

You are forgetting about the millions of people who live in small towns, and who have to travel 30 or 40 or 50 miles or more ONE WAY to see a doctor, go to the grocery store, go shopping, go out to dinner and see a movie, etc. Maybe the "city slickers" are all for eco-friendly battery-operated cars, but these cars make no sense for the rest of us.

Another point that nobody talks about is the fact that ANY vehicle that needs to have it's batteries charged via household current is using power derived from an external source, via coal-fired power plants, nuclear power plants, gas-fired power plants, etc.

 

[saveliberty]

Ever have your cell phone run out of juice? Pretty frustrating huh? Now imagine your car in the same position.

 

[mawlarky]

The Indian built G-Wiz is very popular in the U.K especially in and around London costing around 9k GBP which is very cheap plus the bonus of no U.K road tax and cheap insurance. They are capable of the equivalent of 600 miles per gallon in running costs (u.k).

 

[RGR]

You are missing the whole point. The millions of people who DON'T live in a "megatropolis" are the people who would have NO USE for a Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf.

I don't live in a megatropolis. I have the PERFECT use for a Chevy Volt.

You are forgetting about the millions of people who live in small towns, and who have to travel 30 or 40 or 50 miles or more ONE WAY to see a doctor, go to the grocery store, go shopping, go out to dinner and see a movie, etc. Maybe the "city slickers" are all for eco-friendly battery-operated cars, but these cars make no sense for the rest of us.

Well, if you are part of the 25% of the commuting world which isn't within the 40 mile range of the Volt (however many millions that might be, it is still a minority), might I recommend you choose whatever choice best fits your personal circumstances? By all means, use a Hummer, F350, or M1A1 Abrams to deliver Johnny to his little league practice 30 miles down the road, America is a free country and you are free to spend as much money on fuel as you would like to drive a tank to little league practice.

Certainly I am all for you driving to little league practice for the kids in whatever you like. What is wrong with letting me do the same? Sort of like EVing around, my hybrid in electric mode is wonderfully quiet.

Another point that nobody talks about is the fact that ANY vehicle that needs to have it's batteries charged via household current is using power derived from an external source, via coal-fired power plants, nuclear power plants, gas-fired power plants, etc.

Absolutely. But we can make electricity from so many different types of fuels (be they green, or not so green) that we can now CHOOSE to not send our hard earned tax dollars overseas.

Natural gas powered Hondas for everyone!

Honda prices new tragically ignored natural-gas Civic

 

[RGR]

Ever have your cell phone run out of juice? Pretty frustrating huh? Now imagine your car in the same position.

Inconvenient. I recommend watching one of those dials on the dashboard, and when it says "Yo! Ignorant American driver! You are running low on fuel!", do the same thing you do when your regular car is running out of gasoline! Except instead of running to a gas station and paying MEGA $$, run home, plug it in and pay minor $$.

 

[saveliberty]

Ever have your cell phone run out of juice? Pretty frustrating huh? Now imagine your car in the same position.

Inconvenient. I recommend watching one of those dials on the dashboard, and when it says "Yo! Ignorant American driver! You are running low on fuel!", do the same thing you do when your regular car is running out of gasoline! Except instead of running to a gas station and paying MEGA $$, run home, plug it in and pay minor $$.

It truly takes an idiot to not factor in the additional $10,000 in the purchase price as a cost of producing the energy. Check most fuel guides on a US car. For the average driver annual fuel costs are around $1750. You have to own the Volt for 5 years 8 months before you recover the $10,000. Before you even begin to "save" money.

 

[RGR]

It truly takes an idiot to not factor in the additional $10,000 in the purchase price as a cost of producing the energy.

Since when does buying one cage over another have ANYTHING to do with saving money, or the energy cost of running the engine? You think a single Corvette would be sold in the US if the determining factor for the purchase had anything to do with fuel cost on size of the intial investment? What kind of idiot would ever think that? You some kind of car hater?

I want a Volt because it is cool, no baby seals died in its construction, I can contribute voluntarily towards saving the planet, and when we run out of crude based liquid fuels, I can still motor off to work in air conditioned comfort! The "value" of any of those, let alone all of them, far outways the measly $10,000 you say I have to make up in savings to break even in some bloodless, bean counter hell you appear familiar with.

 

[TruthSeeker56]

It truly takes an idiot to not factor in the additional $10,000 in the purchase price as a cost of producing the energy.

Since when does buying one cage over another have ANYTHING to do with saving money, or the energy cost of running the engine? You think a single Corvette would be sold in the US if the determining factor for the purchase had anything to do with fuel cost on size of the intial investment? What kind of idiot would ever think that? You some kind of car hater?

I want a Volt because it is cool, no baby seals died in its construction, I can contribute voluntarily towards saving the planet, and when we run out of crude based liquid fuels, I can still motor off to work in air conditioned comfort! The "value" of any of those, let alone all of them, far outways the measly $10,000 you say I have to make up in savings to break even in some bloodless, bean counter hell you appear familiar with.

By the time the world runs out of "crude-based liquid fuels", your bones will have been reduced to dust and your great, great, great, great, great grandchildren will be asking "who the hell was that crazy global warming nutbar that's in our family tree?".