GM releases some teasers for Volt 2.0

a good deal on a yugo would be, they pay me to take it.

 

bonus car or bogus car?

 

i would like to see what chip foose could do with a yugo.

 

Yes.

All it will really do is offset the larger battery in the 2016 so that it can still be fully recharged in approx. 4 hours on 240v.

 

Which is fine for an EREV. The vast majority will charging at home, and the second most common charging place will be at work. With 4 fours charging on 240v, the car will be charged with time to spare. A larger charger is only of real benefit for opportunity charging for a half hour to an hour.

I understand the draw of wanting to do as many miles on EV as possible, but the car does have a gasoline engine. In areas with higher plug in adoption rate, the courteous thing to do is to pass on quick grabs of juice at public chargers to avoid ICEing(is it Frosting with a PHV?) a BEV.

It would be great if GM got the standard 15a plug charging time reduced, but I think that is pretty much maxed out as is. 20a recepticles are becoming the norm in new housing, but a 6.6kW charger would likely still be overkill and of little extra benefit.

 

LOL. Good one! but...... shouldn't it be PHrosting?

 

Regardless. It would be nice to have options. For example, I have a 40amp charging station. Why not let my Volt 2.0 quickly charge and swap to my EV so I can go to sleep? And getting a few more electrons at 6.6 kw/hr on the street would not hurt either. This is something that most owners would be willing to pay a little extra for. Instead, GM is going cheap by using what is in their parts bind. This lack of thought might lose a few more sales. Like me.

 

I don't mind not having a 6.6kW charger, though I agree that having the option would be nice.

 

I'm not sure that the enhanced charge rate affects as many people as you think. About 70 percent of Volt owners charge via 120V, which would be unaffected. The majority of affected folks would be those who public charge at pay per hour EVSE's. Public EV infrastructure, paid or free, is still not common enough in most of the country to drive this issue.

For me, a 10% faster charger to charge a 10% larger battery would be fine.

 

My guess is they went with 3.6 kw to save cost, although perhaps faster might hurt the battery. If they did it to reduce cost and not because of battery limitations, I would not be surprised if they had a faster option at an additional cost. I doubt we will no all the options for anouther year, but 3.6kw seems safe for a base charger.

 

Going with the parts bin would mean sticking with the 3.3kW charger already in the Volt. GM probably came to the same conclusions as I did, and while there may be a few willing to pay for the larger charger, they want to hopefully sell it to more. The tax credit will likely end for GM during this generation of Volt, reducing the price is more important at this time. A larger charger is likely something that can be added as an option without waiting for the Volt gen3.

 

I respectfully disagree because I pay by the hour to charge at work. A 6.6kW charger would cut my cost in half. We are moving beyond the early adopter phase where people are polite to each other. Now and in the future it will be all about who got there first. With faster charging one wouldn't need to hog up a charging location for as long.

Besides, I'm a firm believer in buying the right sized EV for your needs. I don't like to use gasoline. Why should I be penalized and forced to use my ICE because someone in an EV didn't buy enough battery and needs an opportunistic charge that isn't part of their daily routine? If someone asks politely I'd give up my spot but I'm not going to avoid charging at a public charger because someone might come along and need it.

 

We maybe moving beyond the first adopter phase, but the prevalence of public and even pay chargers is still low across the country. Charging at work, which is outside Philly, for me isn't even an option. The 3.6kW charger will keep the charge rate on par with the outgoing Volt, and keep the base cost low.

We don't know the full specs yet, much less on possible options.

 

I agree and that's why having fast charging is even more important. If public Chargers were everywhere then fast charging is less important.

We don't have any numbers to show how much more faster charging adds to the cost of the car. We see the cost to add the feature to the Leaf though. Why not offer it as an upgrade? It would allow those of us who could really use it the option to use less gas AND have a more enjoyable ride. Volt owners by and large hate it when the ICE kicks on.

 

I'd split it this way, the new volt will leave you charging for a shorter time at work;-) Why, you get more miles from a charge at home, so you should be able to arrive at work with more of a charge, and add to that less. GM found out something strange in their research that many were charing just at 110V.

From that my guess is you are screwed and need to move to a different car if you really need faster charging at work, although gm could provide qc and 6.6kw as an option (nissan charges $1700 for this option, tesla only charges $2000 for faster qc option and free charging at their chargers for the life of the car).

 

A fast charger doesn't help in areas with no public chargers at all. The only one I have ever seen was the one the local Dominos has for their Smart ED. Technically, that one probably isn't public.

With most current Volt owners just using a basic outlet to charge, GM's research probably told them, that despite not liking the ICE kick on, most people wouldn't be willing to pay the price for the faster charger or bigger battery. We've seen plently of surveys here where people say they want better fuel economy, but it really hasn't panned out in actual car sales.

A larger charger option can't be ruled out at this point.

I think many probably found the 10hr 110V charging rate fine for them. Between work and a few errands, there is still time for a full charge. In which case, the only advantage is preconditioning with a home level 2 charger. Which is still a separate expense. They end up using the ICE more, but if a person manages to never need to use the ICE, it will still come on at some point to burn off old gas. Literally burning gas just to burn it.

GM will likely also be unveiling the Sonic EV with the new Volt. Chances are it isn't the 200mi EV GM has talked about, but it should be better than the Spark EV in range, which is already decent and competitive with the Leaf. This will be GM's model for those that don't want an ICE to kick on ever.

 

I'm not asking for a QC option. Just a 6.6kW charger option. That should be significantly less than $1,700 since the car already has the ability to charge at much higher levels during regen.

I wonder how much of the data they collected regarding 110v charging is based upon the fact that short term charging on level 2 chargers is almost worthless with the 3.3kW charger. Or the fact that public chargers are still fairly scarce or that many fleet vehicles rarely charge at all or only do so on 110v. I.e. The conclusions reached may not be representative of what people actually want. *shrug*

Unfortunately there are no other PHEV options that work for me and my wants/needs. So I'll keep pushing for faster charging.

I hear ya but there is a big difference between the Volt and the Sonic/Spark. Neither are cars I'm interested in from a size and styling standpoint. Not that they are bad mind you. I'm just not interested in tiny economy cars. They are awesome from an affordability standpoint!

 

People tend to conflate overnight charging with daytime opportunity charging. In my opinion they are largely independent.

I charged at home at 120v for the first year and only needed a 20-25 mile charge for my commute but I sometimes did shopping during the day or drove to a restaurant for lunch that was nearby a public 240v charging station. Also weekend drives.

Even if the daytime charging station was free it would have been better if I could charge at 4.5 kW or 6 kW so I could add enough EV range to get back home without cranking up the engine. Opportunity charging at 3.6 kW or less is painfully slow unless it is while you are working or overnight and you are asleep.

 

Hummer-hostility will never be matched.