Chevy Volt? Meet your Buick Competition

[hampdenwireless]

Originally Posted by Prianista

From the Yahoo!-Finance article:

"Two critical areas, battery life and the electronic switching between battery and engine power, are still being refined..."

All these years, all this hype and the Volt still doesn't work?

The first one of these makes sense. And I think its the Volts biggest challenge, to get 40 miles on electric mode. That mirrors all of the real world problems designers of electric cars have.

The second must be somehow misunderstood. The Volt is always on electric power and while the engine does switch on and off the electric motor should not care where its power comes from.

[chris5639]

Originally Posted by Felt

There may be a nitch for a "city" car. I personally have no interest in such a limited use car ...... I need a car to drive over a mountain pass to visit my daughter and her family; a car to take the family into the country to camp, and on and on. I do not have the funds to own a very expensive "city" car, and another to accommodate my desire to visit the family, go on a vacation and such.

Whats the big deal with 230 mpg? All the noise about "plug-ins" makes no sense to me what so ever. If it is about the lack of emissions ..... they are completely ignoring the fact that the power must come from somewhere. Here in Utah, a good percentage of public power comes from coal.

Ford advertises they can go 700 plus miles on a tank of gas. It is all about tank size. In my Prius, I can go 500 miles (and more) on 10 gallons. Now that is something!

It is about total emissions.
1. Power plants (even coal) are far more efficient at generating power than individual cars.
2. Electric power is distributed very efficiently. By the time you get the oil out of the ground, ship it, refine it, truck it to your local gas station there's a tremendous amount of energy used and emissions produced before it even gets in your car.

Lastly, even if most of your power is produced by burning coal today, changing the power source to electric opens up the possibility of using other means to generate that power. I can stick a solar panel on my roof and offset the power consumed by charging my car.

The Volt address your exact use case (occasionally driving a long distance to visit people). I'm willing to bet you still make more trips to the local grocery store. For me, a city dweller with 2 cars, I would actually prefer an all electric car and a plug-in hybrid as a 2nd car for the occasional long trips.

[Rybold]

Originally Posted by Indyking

GM is constantly releasing press notes stating that the VOLT is pretty much on schedule... they have 40 already built!

I wonder about this. Under GM's former management, we couldn't believe anything. But with the new CEO, appointed by the Fed, following bankruptcy and restructuring, I find it hard to believe that he would be making bogus claims as big as this, this early on in his employment.

"GM has produced about 30 Volts so far and is making 10 a week, CEO Fritz Henderson said"
GM says new Volt to get 230 mpg in city driving - Yahoo! Finance

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[hill]

Originally Posted by Prianista

From the Yahoo!-Finance article:

"Two critical areas, battery life and the electronic switching between battery and engine power, are still being refined..."

All these years, all this hype and the Volt still doesn't work?

Rav4-EV's are around 10 years old now, and some have over 100,000 miles on them and are still chugging down the highways. Somehow the excuse doesn't wash.

Originally Posted by Indyking

Note the date of the article I posted and the source... supposed to be very reliable... "In theory” the VOLT will be a great car because it will run 40 miles with zero gas plus 300+ miles after that in the triple digits MPG, so it will really blow the Prius out of the water in FE... but am I brave enough to invest that much money in a GM hybrid? Not in this life... who would be?

What kind of comfort should one find in the fact that GM released their "doubts" press release some 12-14hours after claiming the mpg's will be way the heck up there. And why is it that on the test mule, GM doesn't want to tell the public what the (Volt's) mpg's are on an entire tank of gas, AFTER the 40 mile's worth of batteries are depleated ... and you're simply lugging around 100's of pounds of depleated batteries?
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[Flying White Dutchman]

Originally Posted by Chrome

Sigh.

This is a plug in parallel hybrid that utilizes Lithium Ion batteries. Just like the Prius, it's a gasoline-powered ICE with an electric motor to assist/take over at low speeds/low loads.

The Volt is an extended-range electric vehicle. The ONLY thing connected to the wheels is an electric motor. The gasoline motor generates the electricity (and keeps the batteries at a certain level of charge) used by the electric motor after the initial battery charge is depleted.

World of difference.

Gm already got hybrids on the road
but no plug-in yet

and beside the volt thats not on the road yet going to talk about yet another car thats not going to be on the road..... only a lot of talk..

i hope to se the day where the first plug-in car will be out there. volt or buick...

[Rybold]

Originally Posted by Flying White Dutchman

i hope to se the day where the first plug-in car will be out there. volt or buick...

...or Toyota. However, I think the Nissan Leaf is going to be the first car from a major auto manufacturer that has a power cord.
(excluding the EV1, since it did not incorporate today's technology)

[drees]

Originally Posted by Prianista

From the Yahoo!-Finance article:

"Two critical areas, battery life and the electronic switching between battery and engine power, are still being refined..."

All these years, all this hype and the Volt still doesn't work?

Are you kidding? They are going to be refining battery life and the switching between battery and engine power forever.

We've only had the ICE engine around for 100+ years, and you don't see anyone saying it's done yet, do you?

What do you think Toyota is doing over there in their engineering labs right now? They are working on the next generation HSD - refining things like battery life and optimal switching between battery and engine power!

[Rybold]

Originally Posted by drees

Are you kidding? They are going to be refining battery life and the switching between battery and engine power forever.

We've only had the ICE engine around for 100+ years, and you don't see anyone saying it's done yet, do you?

What do you think Toyota is doing over there in their engineering labs right now? They are working on the next generation HSD - refining things like battery life and optimal switching between battery and engine power!

There is a difference between what is acceptable by today's standards and then improving towards the future. One is a game of catching up and the other is paving the path. Toyota is clearly paving the path and Honda is clearly playing catch up. But, because GM is working on a plug in EV - series PHEV combo, which no one else is working on, yet they are ten years behind the competition as far as delivering it to market (Prius I came out in 1999, if I am correct), it is difficult to say whether they are paving the way or playing catch up. We will only know when the Volt is on the test track against the Prius PHEV. Here's something else to consider though: Toyota and Honda aside, how long has it taken other automakers to develop hybrids? Hyundai? Nissan? Ford? Others?

[hill]

Anyone curious why GM hasn't claimed the PHEV Buik gets 230mpg?



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[Duffer]

Originally Posted by Rybold

There is a difference between what is acceptable by today's standards and then improving towards the future. One is a game of catching up and the other is paving the path. Toyota is clearly paving the path and Honda is clearly playing catch up. But, because GM is working on a plug in EV - series PHEV combo, which no one else is working on, yet they are ten years behind the competition as far as delivering it to market (Prius I came out in 1999, if I am correct), it is difficult to say whether they are paving the way or playing catch up. We will only know when the Volt is on the test track against the Prius PHEV. Here's something else to consider though: Toyota and Honda aside, how long has it taken other automakers to develop hybrids? Hyundai? Nissan? Ford? Others?

The road to fuel efficient cars and trucks will not be a straight one, there will be many curves along the way. One constant will be that fuel mileage counts when it come to people actually buying these vehicles.