Popular Science reviews the Volt

oxymoron: aggressive hypermiling

 

I thought the article was a nice one.

I'm a tad annoyed with the ending comment about the 2010 Prius being noisy at startup. It was unecessary and detracted from the overall credibility of the author, in my opinion.

 

"the transitions between battery and parallel power jarring"

Funny, I never considered the transitions between ICE and battery power to be jarring in my 2010 Prius, he's selling snake oil. The Volt sounds like a great car, but I'll wait on the price tag to change. Let it earn a reputation for being reliable like the Prius, then I'll consider it.

 

I loved this:

I don't think people realize how much we as a species love 'quiet.'

Bob Wilson

 

Alright now people are test driving them and talking about them. I didn't see the bad press everyone was saying and didn't see the word "junk". But anyways this is a Volt thread so let the bashing begin

 

More info:

127 MPG: This Volt Story Must Be Told | Car News Blog at Motor Trend

 

Has anyone been able to figure out how many kWh they charged the Volt over the 299 miles they drove? There doesn't seem to be any mention of their charging over the test period.

My best guess:

<deleted> Edit: Give up on trying to figure it out...

 

Popular Science also predicted air ballons in space and flying motorcycles by 2005. LOL. This mag can't be taken seriously.

 

C'mon . . . don't EVER say Wayne went over to the dark side


Did he ever get out of Mojave after leaving the 10yr event? Here's to hopin' so. Anyway ~
mpg in the 30's . . . that's what I'd feared GM was hiding. So, if you got the $41,000 - you get a car that will either never use gas (somewhere between 30 and 45 miles) ... but if you DO go beyond that range, you get low Camery mileage, with GM reliability. Hmmm.

.

 

BTW, if you read the last comment on the page, the guy nails it.

Based on the $.20/kWh + tiered energy usage system, it will cost us Californians $116 over 22 days of pure electric to charge the volt. That's more than it costs to power a BMW 335i. After that you get 37 mpg. Yay.

The fact is that there are no real world tests or reviews of the cost to charge the Volt. Call it what you want, scam, myth, fake, etc. There is no way this thing will be a success.

 

so...... the leaf wins.. and the prius wins.. the prius is still the long distance champ. (u.s. speeds) the leaf ends up being the city champ. when you calculate it out, the leaf will probably be more efficient... even if it somehow IS just as efficient.. then the leaf still cost a lot less...


has anyone made an interactive version of the volt system yet.. like the psd ones?... btw.. what is this system called?...

 

Well using that guys math it would cost me just under $1 a day to charge the batteries. I have alot lower electricity costs than him. So i could get 25-55 miles for one dollar. Then 14 miles per dollar on gas with the volt. Right now i get 20 miles per dollar with my prius.

If gas hits 4$ a gallon, I would get less than 11 miles per dollar in the prius and then the volt's 25-55 mile per dollar would be great.
So I'm very happy that gm is going in the right direction.

 

A lot of issues with the poster's #s.

1. You will very likely want to switch to TOU billing for at least your EV for charging - perhaps for your entire house depending on your usage.

2. The Volt does not use 16 kWh/charge - it uses around 9 kWh for a full charge.

3. It looks like the commenter has a top-tier rate of 41c / kWh which the Volt (if charged on the same plan) will charge at - pretty much worst case scenario. Assuming a 40 mile drive costs $3.69 that comes to 11c / mile. Gas prices are about $3.10/gallon where he lives, so that's about equivalent to a car that gets 28 mpg.

4. Off-peak rates are around 10c / kWh will cost about $0.90 / charge or 2.3 c / mile. That's about equivalent to a car that gets 155 mpg.

Summary: If you pay peak electricity rates - your fuel cost per mile will be about the same as your typical car, but about half of the Prius. To match the Prius in fuel costs, you should not charge your EV with electricity that costs more than 27c / kWh.

Just about everyone considering an EV should also strongly consider a way to either keep their rates below 27c / kWh for economical reasons. In reality this would likely either include either switching the house to TOU metering, charging the EV from a dedicated TOU meter and charging during off-peak hours, or installing at least enough PV to offset your increase in electricity demand.

IMO - I think the best option is installing PV if you are paying more than 27c / kWh. At those rates a PV system will pay for itself in less than 10 years and will last much longer than that. For example, a typical system today will cost about $6/watt installed before rebates. A 1 kW system will generate about 1500 kWh / year (depending on where you live). At 27c / kWh that will be about $405 of electricity / year. Federal tax credit of 30% reduces $6000 system cost to $4000. Current state rebate will reduce cost another $280 - so total cost is now $3720 which is paid off in less than 10 years. If you are paying for 40c / kWh electricity that decreases break-even point to 6 years.

None of this takes into account the other positive effects of replacing gas consumption with electricity of which there are plenty that aren't taken into account from a pure economical standpoint from the end user.

 

I'm not sure how you come to your conclusions from the reviews.

Long distance milage champ is definitetly the prius.

For shorter distances the trade offs are not so clear cut for the leaf or volt. Both are new and have possible reliability issues so leases may be the best solution. At arround $350/mo both leases are right next to each other in price. Driving habits, the availability of another car for long trips, commute length, and opinions on how pretty or ugly the cars are will probably count for much more than the low CS mileage numbers.

I don't think we will see an interactive volt system. There are other threads with details about the 6 modes. It acts like a series PHEV hybrid bellow 70mph, then the generator and/or engine are used to assist.

 

So don't pay more than 27cents/kWh. Sounds easy enough, right? We have so many things to worry about throughout the day. Your home electricity bill shouldn't have to be one of them.

It's basically "What is my car going to cost me this month [opening your electricity bill like a high school report card]??" vs. "Pay for a little gas up front." In today's world, I'll take the latter.

 

The PopSci author says the Prius is Not radically less expensive than the Volt ....

Since when is $22,800 (Prius base) not radically less expensive the $41,000 (Volt base)?

Anyone?

Forget tax credits, car to car comparison cost, not taxpayer funded.

Here's comarison test for the Volt and Prius PHV -

Deplete the plug-in batteries on both, fill with gas, reset meters, compile MPG data on depleted batteries.

That would be interesting

 

Seems to me one way to rate economy on these PHV's and Reev's is to give an EV range, or low - high range and then separate MPGs in hybrid mode.

Like Prius PHV, 13 miles EV, 51city/48 MPG hwy in hybrid mode

Volt , 25 - 50 mile EV range, 50 MPG combined extended range mode.

Maybe this has already been determined.

Maybe it's not that cut and dried since in the Prius PHV, the engine can kick in while running on the plug-in pack. Ah, guess the EPA gets to determine how to rate MPGs.

 

Fixed that for ya.

Face it - gasoline prices are extremely volatile and will only get more volatile as demand bumps up against supply.

Electricity prices on the other hand have been historically very stable. While they tend to increase steadily over the years, most can easily fix your electricity costs for years in advance by installing solar panels.

I am hoping that community solar projects are soon allowed so that anyone will be able to invest in clean, renewable energy and fix ALL their energy costs, too.