Chevy Volt a heep of $hit

[bearman]

I heard you guys talking about the Volt on the Amp Hour and were sketchy on its function and stats.  Here you go.  Numbers to chew on.

I belong to a local car club in Illinois, USA.  A local Chevy dealership brought a Volt to a monthly club meeting so club members could test drive it and view it.

I spent some time talking with the salesman and reviewing spec sheets on it.  Here are the numbers given to me.

One charge provides 40 mile range.
One charge is supposed to be equivalent to electric usage of an average refrigerator running per day.
The car is totally electric.
Vehicle weight is about same as average compact car.
There is an on board 1.4 liter gas engine that runs a generator to charge batteries, run main motor and car accessories.
Total range of car is supposed to be 391 miles.   They had to get that last mile in there.  No rounding I guess.
So, 391 miles minus 40 mile per charge is 351 miles on gas charging.
The car has a 9 gallon tank.  351miles/9gal. = 39 miles per gallon.  Prius does better than that.
The car is priced at $44,000 USD.  There is supposed to be a $7800 US Gov. discount for a limited number of initial buyers.
The battery has an 8 year warranty to initial owner only.
No price is avaialable for replacement cost of batteries or disposal fees.
Car has tons of torque per one member who test drove it.  He squeeled the tires supposedly.
They will be sold to limited market in sevaral cities across US initially..
They will be available October of 2011.
They are disturbingly quiet.  Several guys joked about getting run over since you can't hear them coming.
The salesman said don't laugh one of the other sales guys did earlier that day.

WHAT'S THE POINT.  People are lazy.  I can see users not bothering to charge the car and running it on gas only.

Personnally I think it is a heep of $hit and not the answer to a problem.  Cool technology but pointless.

Bearman

[saturation]

Thanks bearman, great info. 

How long does it take to charge the batteries alone?

FWIW my econobox standard gas engine gets 33 mpg, gets the same range and upfront costs $13k, new, back in 2000.

The Prius in EPA tests does about 50 mpg.

This website is very good.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bestworst.shtml

$44k doesn't include dealer 'prep charges' and taxes when sold. 

The top dog, Nissan Leaf?, does 100 mpg, its $33k base minus $8K in Fed tax benefits, or ~ $25k, not including dealer prep, taxes and options.  Before you jump to them look at 'fuel economics' cost/mi which includes the cost of the car and maintenance such as this calc.

Assume the best of the best at 100 mpg, you save ~ $1000 annually on gas vs my 33 mpg ecobox doing 12,000mi/year.
 
After 10 years, I'd save on gas $10,000 if the price of gas were the same, but my gas car being $13,000 is ~ in cost to the Leaf,  assuming maintenance is the same.  If gas prices were to double to $8/gal, I'd break even in 5 years with a Leaf. 

[sacherjj]

I don't understand why we can't get an efficient diesel genset to charge a battery system.  This has to be more efficient than that.  While the rest of the world has real useful small diesel engines, the US emissions system is screwed up to favor the gas engine, which winds up polluting more.

When I see a red light 1/4 mile ahead, I let off the gas and ease to the light.  I see the Prius drivers who notice a red light when it is 10 feet in front of them.  I had a friend bitch that the Prius only gets 35 mpg.  But then you can't even have enough technology to cure stupid.

[scrat]

I don't understand why we can't get an efficient diesel genset to charge a battery system.  This has to be more efficient than that.  While the rest of the world has real useful small diesel engines, the US emissions system is screwed up to favor the gas engine, which winds up polluting more.

Don't worry, Obama done his best so that Fiat will be able to sell to Americans our cheap new(?) technology cars
Just think that some basic mechanical parts of the small gas engines Fiat still produces are the same since about 30 years ago!

Jokes apart, there are some interesting diesel engines around that achieve good performances (for example the small Fiat one, 1250cc, >90HP, really low consuming), and they say the anti-particulate filters work...

[sacherjj]

I get frustrated by my power hungry fellow Americans.  I'm 6'5" tall and have trouble fitting in anything.  Match that with the need to haul things routinely, puts me in a Ford F-150 pick-up.  I got it used and with the most efficient engine available.  I cannot fit in small pickups, like the Ranger.  

All the diesels in pickups are for more power.  That is sometimes needed.  The other half of the people driving them seem to be compensating for short comings between their legs.  I guess the auto Ad Agencies have really done well with the idea that you can't be a man without a "REAL" vehicle.

Why can't we get a mid sized truck with a beefy 4 cylinder diesel?  It should get near 30 mpg if driven intelligently and have the capability for moderate hauling.  We had to go for a Korean car to get something with decent mileage that I could fit into for the second vehicle.  Kia Rondo.  Great all round hauler.  Not sure why Ford makes almost no cars that fit tall people, but the Koreans have no trouble.  Man it would have been nice to get the 4 cylinder European diesel model (forget the name for the Rondo over there.)

Don't get me started on the "Ethanol" solution (I live in Indiana, where Corn is King.)  Producing 1 gallon of Ethanol (which has 85% the power of gasoline) uses over a gallon of gasoline.  But government subsidies to produce corn, the staple of every damn thing we do, makes false economies.  No, we don't need High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Ethanol burns cleaner and makes you pay more for less fuel.  Stupid.  

Ugh.  I need to stop ranting.

[Bloch]

WHAT'S THE POINT.  People are lazy.  I can see users not bothering to charge the car and running it on gas only.

LOL no that is not the point at all.

Gas is just to cheap in USA !!

I pay 12.42kr pr liter

That is 47 kr pr gallon.

In $ 9,20 !! for 1 gallon.

[ilikepez]

The charge time is supposed to be 4 hours with a 220 volt 30 amp outlet. 20 hours if you just use a 110 volt 15 amp outlet. Its a bit larger then the Prius, more in the size and weight class of the Toyota Camry hybrid which gets 31/35 city and highway.

Diesel engines are more expensive, so while increasing the fuel efficiency it supposedly would increase the price by an extra $4000 or so at least according to one article I read.

I would consider buying one, most of the time I only drive probably 15 miles or less a day but every so often I like to drive to Seattle which is 90 miles away, and I like to go camping at a lake about 250 miles from my house.

I won't because the price is so damn high. Someday if they get the battery prices lower it would work well for my driving habits.

[RCMR]

But hang on, didn't the scientifically illiterate snake-oil salesmen of the world tell us that we could double or treble our mileage just by using jam-jars filled with water and baking soda under the hoods of our cars?

Hook em up to 12v and they'll create hydrogen that is "more combustible' than gasoline and has far more energy than gasoline (but only on a weight-for-weight basis).

In fact, if you listen to some of these idiots, they'll tell you they've now got their trucks running solely on water!



Woohoo... Nobel Prize territory!

Of course the auto companies aren't using this technology because they're in league with the oil companies to make sure we remain forever tethered to their pumps.

Some people are so thick!