Chevrolet Volt

[Esco!]

Love the way these guys market this car, the range is 65 km more then enough to go to work and back and pick up the kids he says.

Not sure what town he lives in but probably not Toronto

http://www.torontosun.com/news/2008/09/18/6804846.html

 

[Tangwhich]

I forget the exact statistics, but the numbers are something like 80-90% of Americans would be able to get to work and back with that range. Now granted, if you work downtown and live in Bowmanville, it's not going to be able to take you the whole way, but it will still save you lots of gas.
Plus, once this and other plug in cars become common, expect companies and parking lots of install charging plugs, meaning you'd have a 65 range each way..

 

[Esco!]

I forget the exact statistics, but the numbers are something like 80-90% of Americans would be able to get to work and back with that range. Now granted, if you work downtown and live in Bowmanville, it's not going to be able to take you the whole way, but it will still save you lots of gas.
Plus, once this and other plug in cars become common, expect companies and parking lots of install charging plugs, meaning you'd have a 65 range each way..

Yonge & Bloor to Square one is about 30 Km, so thats 60km back and forth. That gives you 5 clicks to pick up the kids. Also you prolly gonna be in rush hour traffic, will stop and go traffic use more juice???

Me thinks probably.

But you make a good point about companies and parking lots installing charging plugs.

 

[landscaper]

Its got a small gas engine for those times you just have to have a bit more.

The range will go up as battery endurance improves, they are rushing it into production early to try to save their ass.

Cost 30 to 50 K

 

[Bud Plug]

This technology is clearly not ready for prime time. Methinks GM blunders again by going to the market with a clearly inadequate product. Don't they ever learn?

 

[Esco!]

This technology is clearly not ready for prime time. Methinks GM blunders again by going to the market with a clearly inadequate product. Don't they ever learn?

Not to mention I wonder how long the battery will last.

And who's gonna service it when it dies or malfunctions???
Do they have battery mechanics in place throughout North-America???

 

[stang]

Be prepared to walk home on a winter day.

 

[Muskol]

The small gas engine charges the battery, it does not drive the car as well (like the Toyota Prius). The range you're quoting is before the gas engine kicks in to charge the battery. You'll get something like ~400km if you take it all into consideration. It's been a couple weeks since I read about it so I'm sure my numbers aren't exact, but it's not limited to 65km like you are thinking.

Also, no Prius battery has needed to be replaced as of yet and how long have they been available?

 

[Tangwhich]

This technology is clearly not ready for prime time. Methinks GM blunders again by going to the market with a clearly inadequate product. Don't they ever learn?

I couldn't disagree with you more strongly.
Electric motor technology has hardly changed in a 100 or so years.. it's that good it doesn't really need much tweaking. The technology has been ready for prime time, for a great deal of time. The weak link is definitely the batteries, but the NiCads used in the California EVs several years ago have performed and lasted well beyond expectations.. the batteries in this are far superior.
For once, GM is making the right move.

 

[Tangwhich]

Thats's exactly what I was thinking , how does it perform in -25 temps?

The reports out of the testing of the batteries have been that they performed flawlessly with everything they threw at it. Far exceeding expecatations.

 

[Esco!]

I couldn't disagree with you more strongly.
Electric motor technology has hardly changed in a 100 or so years.. it's that good it doesn't really need much tweaking. The technology has been ready for prime time, for a great deal of time. The weak link is definitely the batteries, but the NiCads used in the California EVs several years ago have performed and lasted well beyond expectations.. the batteries in this are far superior.
For once, GM is making the right move.

I hope you're right Tang.
But I get the feeling this whole battery thing is gonna collapse on itself, just like ethanol and hydrogen.

Although I hope I'm wrong and just being cynical

 

[coolcat]

Can someone help me here? M<aybe me stupid but If I understand this, you plug the car in to charge the batteries but yet we are already overusing our hydro and the demand is getting too large for the supply to handle. Tack this into the fact that hydro is aslo skyrocketing in price, where is the savings?

 

[peter4]

The only problem with the Chevrolet Volt is that it's designed by GM.

....... and that it would e built by UNIONIZED labor - therefore we'll have to pay almost $ 40K for it - probably would sell for half that cost if built by non Union labor force!

 

[smiley1437]

Can someone help me here? M<aybe me stupid but If I understand this, you plug the car in to charge the batteries but yet we are already overusing our hydro and the demand is getting too large for the supply to handle. Tack this into the fact that hydro is aslo skyrocketing in price, where is the savings?

When we 'run out of hydro' it is usually during the day when everyone is running their AC, usually in the summer. This is where electrical generation cannot keep up with demand.

There are off-peak hours (like at night) where excess electrical generation goes to waste (they can't really 'stop' the generators). It's at these times that Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) would normally be charged anyways so it actually puts an underutilized resource to use.

This is one of the reasons that PHEVs actually dovetail nicely into the power generation infrastructure. Oh, and did you see how little it costs per KM when you charge from the grid vs gas from the pump?

 

[r_s426]

There will be a niche market for it for sure. Kind of like with the Prius... people were snapping them up to be "green" even though you can get better mileage from many compact gas powered cars, and the premium you pay on a hybrid takes years to balance out in terms of the gas you save.

I have some contacts in the auto industry that fairly senior management types and they say that it will be 5-10 years before there are viable affordable gas alternative vehicles on the road.

I'm not in love with gas prices or pollution, but there's a lot of hype surrounding environmentally friendly cars that I just don't buy into.

However, building the Volt may also give them access to government grants or bails outs for being environmentally friendly and building cars that will break our dependance on oil.

 

[The Bandit]

They said it would cost 80 cents to charge the battery...I doubt that!

 

[smiley1437]

Be prepared to walk home on a winter day.

I was concerned about this aspect too but apparently the battery systems on PHEVs (and HEVs) can be winterized (battery insulating blankets and battery warming systems) for harsh climates.

Not sure if winterization is actually available on the Volt, just pointing out that the technology exists.

 

[smiley1437]

They said it would cost 80 cents to charge the battery...I doubt that!

This guy (http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2008/07/23/by-the-numbers-phevs-vs-tvs/) did the math and it works out to about 60 cents a day to drive 30 miles (using his local energy costs, obviously).

Hard to believe, isn't it?

That's why PHEVs are so freaking exciting. I'm tired of spending $350 a month on gas (and I drive a 2-door)...imagine spending $30 a month (a buck a day) instead?

 

[The Bandit]

This car is worth it just to tell the oil companies to FUCK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL!!!!!

 

[Tangwhich]

Can someone help me here? M<aybe me stupid but If I understand this, you plug the car in to charge the batteries but yet we are already overusing our hydro and the demand is getting too large for the supply to handle. Tack this into the fact that hydro is aslo skyrocketing in price, where is the savings?

There's tons of unused electricity available during off peak hours. Even if half of this province switched to electric cars tomorrow, there would be no problem supplying the power to charge them over night.
It's why when time of use billing comes into effect, you'll see that electricity after midnight will be a fraction of the price of daytime electricity.