GM Volt???

[duluthmkII]

I see the commercials saying that the car will go 40 miles without using a drop of gas.... I also hear one can buy a conversion for the Toyota Prius for the same thing....

Just wondering what everybody's thought are on this???
Is this the answer to this so called energy crisis?

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/volt.jpg
http://carcorner.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/2011chevy-volt.jpg

[Toftii88]

i'm not quite sure how i feel about electric cars yet. at least it looks like an actual car though.
interesting read http://www.evauthority.com/a/t-boone-pickens-discusses-electric-cars-natural-gas/

[bluerabbit82]

This might be better off in the non-euro section...anyways, from reading apparently it will go 40 miles on a full charge. "The battery pack itself, rated at 16 kilowatts/hour, comprises more than 220 separate cells wired in series. That means the failure of any one cell disables the entire array, though some existing hybrid vehicles also have this flaw." a quote from consumer auto guide. Could you wire it in parallel? I'm sure there are flaws to wiring it in parallel also. Release date is supposeldy nov. 2010.

[flippinvw]

How long has GM been touting this car? Even longer than the new Camero? I'll celebrate when they finally release it, but until then it's just one very long running (and unsuccessful) advertising campaign.

And 40 miles isn't very far, that's less than the old EV1's would do so I guess I don't really understand the point of this vehicle. Sure, it's a heck of a lot more practical than the EV, but again, a 40 mile range couldn't even get me to work and back.

At least it looks sharp.

The new Honda hybrid on the other hand should be cheap, available very soon and I don't think I've seen a single commercial for it. Maybe one.

C'mon GM, get your act together!

[OptimusGlen]

A solution. I don't think so.

Where do you recharge it? You plug it in to a wall outlet or something right? What generates the electricity that comes out of your wall outlet? And are you ready for your electric bill to skyrocket?

They need to develop a car that runs off lighning. Everyone has a kite with a key tied to it floating above them. It'd rule. (not really)

[flippinvw]

By the way, do they have the newest technology from the hybrids in the electric car? Where the 'brakes' are actually used to charge the battery?

I guess what really sucks is that GM got into the hybrid game too early. They sunk a lot of development money getting the EV program going and people didn't bite soon enough, so it all got called off. Now they're stuck looking like they don't care about hybrids when really they had prototypes way back in the mid-90's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

[Toftii88]

pickens is a great resource for positive info on this stuff.

[duluthmkII]

And 40 miles isn't very far, that's less than the old EV1's would do so I guess I don't really understand the point of this vehicle. Sure, it's a heck of a lot more practical than the EV, but again, a 40 mile range couldn't even get me to work and back.



I would bet a lot of people drive less than 40 miles a day, myself included. I'm not saying I would buy one since I don't buy new cars. But if I did, gasoline would be pretty much a thing of the past for me.
The electric bill would no doubt go up, but at least it would be "off peak"

[Majend]

in the volt's defense...

oh wait i don't have anything, a huge chinese battery company, BYD, just came out with a better car then this and it took them 18 months to make...

[Toftii88]

ya'll should watch Who Killed the Electric Car? directed by chris paine

[duluthmkII]

ya'll should watch Who Killed the Electric Car? directed by chris paine

I saw it... I can see gm not wanting to continue production of such a car if sales were dismall but why did they have to take them back from the owners who actually loved them and wanted to keep them, just to crush them?

[Toftii88]

not only that, but all the infrastructure was torn down. where's my tin foil conspiracy hat?

[bholz2004]

A solution. I don't think so.

Where do you recharge it? You plug it in to a wall outlet or something right? What generates the electricity that comes out of your wall outlet? And are you ready for your electric bill to skyrocket?

They need to develop a car that runs off lighning. Everyone has a kite with a key tied to it floating above them. It'd rule. (not really)


With all the info i have read on electric cars and what you pay for electricity it would cost you between 15 and 20 cents a mile or less.

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/factsheets/evinformation.pdf

[Die Frau]

$.15/mile is TERRIBLE! At $2.15 a gallon, a car that get 28mpg costs a little more than $.07 per mile.

[audivwdave]

I saw it... I can see gm not wanting to continue production of such a car if sales were dismall but why did they have to take them back from the owners who actually loved them and wanted to keep them, just to crush them?

Cuz GM is a bunch of greedy assclowns and it serves them right what is happening to them now,fuck em,good riddance GM hope it was worth it.

[bholz2004]

$.15/mile is TERRIBLE! At $2.15 a gallon, a car that get 28mpg costs a little more than $.07 per mile.

but when gas reaches 5$ a gallon it will sound pretty good. And that is coming sooner than you think.
If you check the link some are saying less than 1$ a day to charge.

[mac.man25]

$.15/mile is TERRIBLE! At $2.15 a gallon, a car that get 28mpg costs a little more than $.07 per mile.

The average cost of electricity in MN is about 9 cents per KWh.
So to charge a 16KW/h battery takes about 20KW/h.
$1.80 to charge the pack from dead empty, to full charge. (And you're never going to do that.)
$1.80/40 miles = 4.5 cents / mile.

About half of gasser cars. Btw, the battery pack will always be about 50% full, in order to keep the life of the battery higher, so it only uses about 8KW/h of that power to move the car, and only charges that much too.

So, it really will only take 10KW/h and so the final cost will only be 2.25 cent/mile.

I don't know where 20 cents came from? 2 cents is a little closer to reality.

[PTJettaDriver]

but when gas reaches 5$ a gallon it will sound pretty good. And that is coming sooner than you think.
If you check the link some are saying less than 1$ a day to charge.

Keep in mind that if gas reaches $5 per gallon, it is highly likely cost of electricity will go up also.

[shaneco13]

Well I live less than 5 miles from both of my jobs, so I barely even drive to work, lol.

[OrangeDUB]

What I do not get is how on one hand, GM has so much R&D cashflow (maybe not so much after budget cuts and all, but that's a different story....) and produces a hybrid that gets a measly 40 miles before the gas motor kicks on. On the other hand you have Tesla Motors, a small company, can make an all-electric car that gets 260 miles off a full $.85 charge. WTF Chevy?

Are auto makers in bed with oil companies? Is some organization requiring gasoline or hybrid elec/gas engines to be in every mainstream brand of vehicles?

[Digital K]

doesnt this thing run on gas when it runs out of battery power? It seems like a cool idea to me. Someone has to be pushing the envelope here to come up w/ ideas... the prius is a joke, and thats as far as we've gotten, all prototypes and non-production cars not included.

I think they aim this to be cheaper than the tesla, which isn't really a realistic vehicle.

[shawn o]

Chevy Volt is going to be a joke. You're not really going to save ANY money.

Do you think the gov't will actually let you get around not paying for road tax via gasoline purchases? Of course not.

They'll implement a new tax just for hybrid/electric cars once the technology gets far enough along that it matters....

And has anyone heard GM tout the retail price of the Chevy Volt? Of course you haven't because its going to be ALOT. Depending on how many they make the 1st year of production its rumored to be somewhere between $35,000-$40,000. Even more for a larger battery bank.

[OrangeDUB]

Tesla has the high performance +$100k roadster but are making a sedan as well that gets the same effeciency/range, and at half the cost.

A friend of a friend of mine built an all electric car out of a mitsu 3000gt for $10,000, eat it GM. :)

[mac.man25]

Keep in mind that if gas reaches $5 per gallon, it is highly likely cost of electricity will go up also.

Not much, 50% of MN base electrical load is supplied by nuclear power, and most of the rest with coal. Petroleum is not the same market as coal. And nuclear power is very cheap.