Chevrolet Volt Named European Car of the Year

I've driven my Volt 18,000 miles (11,000 miles on battery charge) over 14 months.

I get more than the EPA estimated battery range of 35 miles all year long in the SF Bay Area including December and January when temperatures are often in the 40's.

During March-November I get 45+ miles of battery range in mixed city/highway driving every day on my commute to work.

People in the colder parts of the country get winter battery ranges of around 22-33.

So, yes, it does take ideal circumstances to get 50+ miles of battery range.

 

I get your thinking and agree as a burgeoning conspiracy theorist.

 

Jeff ....... that is nice to know ... In a normal winter I would be in colder weather than you are but even 30 would get me most places.

I think it would make an ideal city car -- Then .... I was thinking of installing two more chargers for the weekend runs ... both more than 60 miles away.

What kind of miles do you get when the battery is exhausted?


I'm a bit conflicted on the tax credit - especially when many cannot claim it. Should we have a credit so it can have extra options? Don't think so.

Everybody that looked at the Volt did like it more than the Prius ... but it is 40K+

 

Not sure why some of you guys are hating on the Volt, the more Hybrids and EV's on the market the better.

More choice for everyone = A good thing.
More non-gas choices for everyone = A good thing.
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I know it's considered high-treason these days to actually approve of tax expenditures but in my opinion, this is a good one. And the $10k tax incentive is great, too. The early incentives on Prius were a big motivator for the early adopters, making the subsequent iterations of the car, better and cheaper for shmoe's like me.

I say this all as a very happy Prius owner. :cheer2:

 

I get close to the EPA estimates for gasoline while I can easily exceed the EPA estimates for battery range and efficiency in mild climate conditions.

I get about 41-42 mpg on extended highway driving at 65 mph. I get roughly about 35 mpg in extended city driving but I do very little of this. My city driving is almost always on battery either because I stay entirely within battery range or because I am driving beyond battery range on the highway and I reserve the last 15 miles or so of battery range for city driving by using the so-called "mountain mode" feature as a battery "hold".

So, my long-term hybrid gas mileage is about 42 mpg (as in not counting any battery grid charging). Just as an experiment last year, I drove for a week without ever charging (and using another aspect of "mountain mode" to generate electricity into the battery using the gas engine during my highway/expressway segments) and I ended up getting around 41.5 mpg in December on 200+ miles of driving in mixed city/highway.

That isn't very impressive from a 3rd gen Prius perspective but it's good enough for me given that I'm driving most of the time on low-carbon grid power. I expect to increase my total EV utilization during the coming year both due to increased opportunity charging during the day on my occasional longer trip segments and due to reduced road trip driving (I drove around quite a lot last Summer).

 

It's too bad reality doesn't match that ideal.

If a choice of an affordable Volt was also available, the story would be entirely different. Instead, we're stuck with a one-size-fits-all approach... just like Two-Mode ended up.

How long must we wait for something ordinary people will have in their driveway rather than just a trophy vehicle? In other words, what will the next model deliver to fulfill enough consumer needs to generate profitable high-volume sales?

Remember, each automaker has a limited number of resources (time, money, people, and production capacity) available.
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As someone who has a Volt on order (not sure where that stands now with the 5 week shut down...) and also usually ends up with AMT I'm counting on still getting the $7500 credit. Your message scared me so I looked it up again and from what I can tell the credit is still good with AMT. Check out this link for details:
Energy Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Jeff

 

Well, Motor Trend magazine made the volt their US car of the year

I don't know if the 4-6 ? full page Volt ad, Chevy bought in that issue had anything to do with it.

Motor Trend is running a volt as one of their long term test cars, so should be some fairly honest reports of problems and actual operating cost.

 

There you go again.....

That statement is a jumbled up mishmash.

First, different battery capacities and driving ranges work better for different people. The PiP is less expensive because it has a 3.6 times smaller battery pack. If a smaller battery works well for you then you buy the cheaper car that has less battery. If the larger battery works better for you then you have a choice of either the cheaper car with the smaller battery or the more expensive car with the bigger battery. Fortunately, we're not all forced to only buy plugins with small battery packs from Toyota. Choice is good.

The Volt design architecture, or Voltec, is a full power EV-centric design that works well for vehicles that have a minimum battery pack size of around 16 kWh. That minimum pack size is required in order for the pack to have a high enough KW power output with present generation Lithium Ion cells so that the car can operate at full power on battery alone. Gas-free is good.

The Voltec design is at the beginning of its technology curve. Cheaper, smaller, and lighter batteries will come along during the next 10-15 years that will lower the price of Voltec cars and allow options for larger capacity packs (16 vs. 24 kWh etc.). The Voltec PHEV architecture will be useful until some time in the future when 300-500 mile battery packs are cheap and small and highway quick recharging infrastructure is available everywhere.

Cheaper plugin cars with smaller battery packs need a blended architecture. A PiP with a 4.4 kWh pack under the rear liftback deck is a good blended design. The gas engine can assist the battery in EV mode when the pack is not capable of outputting enough KW under all driving requirements. A future Chevy Cruze with a two mode hybrid transmission and a smallish pack is another good blended approach until battery prices drop further.

There is no single best architecture. The PiP is not the one-size-fits-all perfect design for all time. As batteries get better, I suspect Toyota will increase the pack size until they get up to around 16 kWh and then they will switch from blended to EREV.

The distinction between one mode and two mode hybrid transmissions, on the other hand, addresses different problem spaces using the same generation of technology. The one mode input-split design used by Toyota and Ford works well for small and midsize vehicles with minimal towing specifications. The two mode design, commercialized by GM, increases the potential for mechanical passthrough from the engine and so works better for large vehicles like SUVs, trucks, and busses.

Although GM patented the modern one mode input-split hybrid transmission back in 1995 they never commercialized it and failed to compete with Toyota and Ford in the smaller hybrid vehicle segment.

Rather than just focussing on Voltec and waiting for battery prices to drop, GM is also working on a blended Chevy Cruze using a smaller battery pack with a blended two mode hybrid transmission which they already have available from a prior FWD SUV project that was cancelled. Ideally, GM would use a one mode input-split design for the Cruze but they have not developed one yet.

I think we can both agree that GM needs to develop a one mode hybrid transmission for smaller vehicles generally while Toyota and Ford are already starting to develop their version of heavier-duty hybrid transmissions for larger vehicles. That way customers can buy the small, midsize, or high capacity large vehicle that best fits their needs from any of the 3 companies.

 

Hopefully you are correct. It was the original Hybrid (Prius) rebate that got everyone entangled in AMT calcs so they tried to avoid that for C4C and later credits.

 

I don't believe Toyota switches from blended to EREV that easily.
Considering the most visible limitation of the HSD the electric path...making it all 100% electric is not the way to fulfil efficiency goals.

 

Chevy would sell many more if the price were in the lower $30's and with the rebate it would put it in reason with other's of it like. Chevy had the same problem with the ill-fated SSR, way over priced for what it is/was.

perhaps Chevy's market mojo is "build it and they will buy"

 

I'm not really sure what you mean here. In order to implement an effective and efficient EREV I suspect Toyota would make some changes to their existing HSD.

 

I don't think that HSD's inherently that limited. The limitation is in battery energy density and cost. Higher output is both made possible and made more efficient with a larger battery but to do that you add bulk, weight and cost as well as needing beefier motors and inverter.

Double it and you're stealing cargo space.
Double it and you're adding more weight and making it less efficient.
Double it and you're doubling the battery cost and would increase the motor and inverter cost as well.

I think they'll stick to the current battery size, cost and weight as the limit and then only increase capacity and capability as those parameters allow. Since cost is big driver I think they'll focus on lower cost at the same capacity rather than increasing capacity. If batteries improve enough in both cost and density they could always begin to offer a larger capacity as an option.

 

Right, I think that is what they will do for the PiP. I wouldn't be surprised if they did an EREV sooner under the Lexus brand but even then I suspect they will watch and wait for awhile first.

 

Easy to make estimations of efficiency...

Mechanical Path ICE -> wheels 97%
Electrical Path MG1 - inverter - MG2 -> 90%?

 

Twice we have had to stick our fingers in the ruckus and lend lease a helping hand. Now, do we really have to take on the General Moters invaders and save Europe from that ruthless ( I wonder where Ruth went) foreign invader???

G - Tablet, they are cool!!
73 de Pat KK6PD Tap-A-Talk Rocks!!!

 

Succinct, perfect, eurotrash...