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230 mpg

So Chevy is saying the Volt that comes out in 2010 will get 230 MPG!! Of course it is $40,000 but with everything First Generation models are always expensive. But imagine the possibilities in a few years. Price WILL come down mileage will go up. Now the EPA hasn't tested the Volt yet but I could careless what they have to say. They rated my 2010 Honda Insight at 45 mpg and currently I am getting 52.3 mpg (and I drive VERY fast).

So before you say well your electric bill will go up from plugging it in. You are right it will go up but it will go up .35 cents a day!! That is pretty amazing!

http://www.philly.com/philly/classif...tydriving.html

IF it works as stated, AND can handle heavy city stop-and-go traffic, AND can carry a family of 5, AND has the speed and acceleration to handle highway driving, AND if it will be safe, it'll be a great car.

That's a lot of "if"s.

So far, no electric car has lived up to those expectations. Hybrids have, but not straight electric cars.

But if this one can do it, it'll be the one that corners the market, at least for a while, till everyone else catches up.

Good luck.

I have never said I was against the development of electric cars. What I have objected to was the stated REASON for their development: Global warming.

Now... if you tell me that the reason for developing this vehicle is that people will want to drive it, great. I'm all for it.

If you tell me that we need to do it as a matter of energy independence, I'm right there with you.

But don't tell me that we need to develop it in order to save the planet from a myth.

You know what I have said. The only green I was thinking about when I bought my Hybrid was the green in my bank account.

The save the planet with this car will be a good marketing tool. But if I was them I would show a picture of the car with a graphic that reads "230MPG Enough said!"

By the way... if I buy a Volt and it has mechanical problems, what happens next? Can I go to my corner car guy to fix it? Is there anyone outside of Chevy that knows how to repair a Volt? Or am I stuck with a GM servicer, regardless of cost?

An important issue for car buyers to inquire about.

Regular combustion engine auto repair people are going to be lost on an electric motor car.

Elliot

I would imagine that it comes with a warranty. As more of these vehicles comes out more people will get familiar with them and in a few years your corner guy will be able to fix.

You know I bet when the car first came out someone was talking about how they just bought a car. And someone who still owned a horse said wait until you have to get it fixed then tell me how great your car is.

Amazing and very cool. What's the sticker price?

I haven't seen one.
How tiny is it?

How can it be rated for MPG if it is all electric?

Will it have an air conditioner?

I live in Texas, and there is NO WAY I'm going to ride without A/C!!

If it's the size of a smart car, I wouldn't ride around the block in it. Think about what will happen if it tangles with an H2.

I'd rather see the manufacturers develop some hydrogen technology.

What everyone fails to take into this high mileage equation is the cost of building those batteries, and the cost of disposing of them when they die. And they will die! So this wonderful Volt thing will seat two comfortably, and gets 230MPG on what? That 35 cents that someone cited is hypothetical and will vary greatly depending on what part of the country you live, and what time of the day or night you recharge. Then again with the majority of electricity in this country produced from coal how much extra coal will need to be burned to achieve the recharge of all these phony cars? So at the end of it's life what is the net effect on the environment?

Wonderful bit of spin there but another unnecessary and irrelevant Detroit response. These people should really think about what it is they are trying to do, because all I see is someone following up on the profit motive with gulliable people

The world doesn't need another electric appliance, it needs to rid itsself on reliance on them. What ever happened to converting water into fuel, that one still lost in the archieves of the oil companies?

Yeah Clete the steam engine was wonderful 19th century technology. But let me ask you something... even if HHO fuel cell technology wasn't the scam and urban legend it is (it takes more enegy to perform the electrolysis than it generates )... don't you think clean potable water is going to be an even scarcer resource in the future than oil ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by galveston

How can it be rated for MPG if it is all electric?

How to calculate mpg for the electric GM Chevy Volt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by galveston

Will it have an air conditioner?

Yes: How Will Air Conditioning Affect the Chevy Volt's Electric Range? | GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Quote:

Originally Posted by galveston

If it's the size of a smart car, I wouldn't ride around the block in it.

It's about the size of a Civic: Chevrolet Volt | GMtv

Volt's 230 mpg/gal claim is an excellent marketing strategy but the question is ;will it live up to the hype ?

Here is what the EPA said :

EPA has not tested a Chevy Volt and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM. EPA does applaud GM's commitment to designing and building the car of the future - an American-made car that will save families money, significantly reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create good-paying American jobs. We're proud to see American companies and American workers leading the world in the clean energy innovations that will shape the 21st century economy.

The costs numbers were crunched at Atlantic Magazine . You need to drive it 158,000 miles to break even .
GM's Volt Offers Amazing Mileage, But At What Cost? - The Atlantic Business Channel

It is a nice looking car
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblogg...chevy-volt.jpg

It's a new product. Early adopters will pay more. The price will go down as the technology reaches some form of economies of scale. Good independent reviews are indeed needed to offset the marketing spin from the big corporation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 450donn

What everyone fails to take into this high mileage equation is the cost of building those batteries, and the cost of disposing of them when they die. And they will die! So this wonderful Volt thing will seat two comfortably, and gets 230MPG on what? That 35 cents that someone cited is hypothetical and will vary greatly depending on what part of the country you live, and what time of the day or night you recharge. Then again with the majority of electricity in this country produced from coal how much extra coal will need to be burned to achieve the recharge of all these phony cars? So at the end of it's life what is the net effect on the environment?

It looks to be the same size as my insight which fits 4 people comfortably. The price tag is $40,000.00 but like I said First Gen anything is always expensive (example the Iphone) but the next Gens will probably be cheaper.

I have no idea what impact it makes on the environment but as I said in my previous post I don't care. I think it is a nice looking car. I actually already know one person who is chomping at the bit to buy one (he is a geek like me). I gave the 35 cents a charge because I was using my off peak hour rates from PECO. They assume most people will probably charge it over night. Or just plug it into your neighbors outlet and it is free (JUST KIDDING).

Quote:

Originally Posted by spitvenom

Or just plug it into your neighbors outlet and it is free (JUST KIDDING).

As I run to register my new startup: lockable outdoor plugs. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

As I run to register my new startup: lockable outdoor plugs. :)

You know I could see that being a problem unless they have some weird plug that has to be installed at a persons house.

I can just see the next great new excuse for being late to work:

"Sorry I missed the meeting. My extension cord broke."

Quote:

Originally Posted by ETWolverine

I can just see the next great new excuse for being late to work:

"Sorry I missed the meeting. My extension cord broke."

Or I ran out of gas! LOL! Oh wait...

Quote:

Originally Posted by spitvenom

It looks to be the same size as my insight which fits 4 people comfortably. The price tag is $40,000.00 but like i said First Gen anything is always expensive (example the Iphone) but the next Gens will probably be cheaper.

I have no idea what impact it makes on the environment but as I said in my previous post I don't care. I think it is a nice looking car. I actually already know one person who is chomping at the bit to buy one (he is a geek like me). I gave the 35 cents a charge because I was using my off peak hour rates from PECO. they assume most people will probably charge it over night. Or just plug it into your neighbors outlet and it is free (JUST KIDDING).

You don't care?
You should care where all the materials for those batteries comes from. There is a hugh dead zone up in Canada around the mine. Then it takes hugh amounts of energy to refine and transport the materials to China for further refinement. Then it is returned to NA to be made into batteries. Which are now toxic materials and will need to be disposed of in a hazardous materials land fill for all eternity to worry about. There is no common sense in this sort of fool hardy technology. I am all for making things better for the environment. But just because it looks green on the surface does not make it so when you take into account it's total foot print on the environment. This has already been proven again and again with the Prius and the Honda hybrid car.

Yes you would think that enviro-friendlies would be appalled at the strip mining at the lithium(for lithium-ion for future tech batteries which are less toxic ) ,and nickel ,and cadmium mines (both toxic in landfills ) .

The supply of lithium is very limited and most of it will be an imported mineral... from South America and China.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

yes you would think that enviro-friendlies would be appalled at the strip mining at the lithium(for lithium-ion for future tech batteries which are less toxic ) ,and nickel ,and cadmium mines (both toxic in landfills ) .

The supply of lithium is very limited and most of it will be an imported mineral .....from South America and China.

I thought that L-Ion batteries were dangerous. Don't they have a habbit of exploding or catching fire when used in laptops? I thought I heard a story about that last year, with one company doing a recall of all its computer batteries.

I was speaking specifically of toxicity and resource availability but yes they do explode sometimes because of over-heating .

That issue is being addressed so they can be made into hybrid batteries.
Technology Review: Lithium-Ion Batteries That Don't Explode

ET I know Dell had a big recall on their batteries for this problem I think like 4million batteries.

Dell to recall 4 million batteries - CNET News

Let me rephrase that Donn. It's not that I don't care. But I do a lot of driving. On any day I am in my car for at least 3 hours (except the weekends). I have a long commute to work. Plus all the other driving I have to do.

When it was time for me to buy a new car I needed something with GREAT mpg. The insight was coming out at the same time and I like the look of it. Plus the price of the car was less then I wanted to spend on a new car. So it just made sense to get it.

I was already aware of how they make the battery and shipping it to Japan then back to America. I understood all that. I am not some eco warrior. I am just a guy who was spending WAY too much on gas and now I am not. That is why I say I don't care because financially it has been a big help. Plus I got a $500.00 rebate from the PA DEP.

Oh and one thing I have found interesting with my hybrid it has an oil life meter on it. According to the manual you don't change the oil until it reads 15% oil life. I have had the car since the End of March and I just got below 50% it has a little less then 7,000 miles on it. So I save with Oil changes too.

Who's going to volunteer to be the test dummy for that car?

"Yeah, we KNOW that they used to explode. But don't worry, we've got the kinks out of it now. It's perfectly safe..."

Yeah, right.

Elliot

I would drive that car in a heartbeat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

I would drive that car in a heartbeat.

Yes, I know.

You trust your government too.

Yes. Canada is a good place to be.

You do know that the VW TDI diesel cars get better fuel economy than any of the current crop of hybrid's don't you? With a much smaller total amount of damage to the environment.
With current technology that is before us today hybrids and all electric vehicles make absolutely no sense. It is feel good technology to keep the enviro wackos at bay at best.

Oh I absolutely hate VW. I wouldn't drive one of those POS if someone had a gun to my head.

The diesel spews out fumes that make me gag.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 450donn

You do know that the VW TDI diesel cars get better fuel economy than any of the current crop of hybrid's don't you? .

Actually it only gets 41 mpg my Insight gets 48MPG or I should say rated at 48mpg. I can get 58 MPG in my insight also. But I will be run over on I-95.

2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Diesel Rated at 41 MPG Highway, Starts at $22,640 - Car News - Auto Reviews - Car and Driver

Quote:

Originally Posted by needkarma

the diesel spews out fumes that make me gag.

More deisel cars please!!

Hi Tom not speaking about steam but the breaking down of H2O into H and O and burning same to produce energy and it is not an urban legend just needs mega bucks to perfect and no I don't think there will be a shortage of water it doesn't need to be potable.

Tom desalination plants exist in many parts of the world so the technology to convert from oil exists in that respect and it is possible to power those from wave technology so no additional carbon in the process. When we get our snouts out of the oil trough who knows what we will be able to do. It is our thinking that needs to be liberated

Quote:

just needs mega bucks to perfect

Yes that's the problem with most of the alternate energies... The allocation of large expenditures on a pie in the sky promise of something better than what we have . As of today it takes more energy to split water into it's basic components than the energy it would produce... and while we are at it ;what energy source would you use to do the separation? Right now these electric cars are going to plug into outlets to use electricity created by the burning of fossil fuels .

Quote:

Originally Posted by spitvenom

Actually it only gets 41 mpg my Insight gets 48MPG or i should say rated at 48mpg. I can get 58 MPG in my insight also. But I will be run over on I-95.

2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Diesel Rated at 41 MPG Highway, Starts at $22,640 - Car News - Auto Reviews - Car and Driver

I used to get 46 mpg in my '95 Mazda Protégé. At the time it cost me about $6.50 to drive to Dallas, 6 hours away.

That's pretty sweet speech!

Quote:

Originally Posted by speechlesstx

I used to get 46 mpg in my '95 Mazda Protege. At the time it cost me about $6.50 to drive to Dallas, 6 hours away.

AH! The good old days:)

Ok. I went to the site and sure enough, if you run the A/C, your range will be less.

No statement about how much less.

So now we are looking at a car that will run somewhat less than 40 miles on a full charge. What speed will that be at? Not 70 mph, I bet.

I see it has a tiny motor that charges the batteries.

How do you go on a trip in it? If the motor will not pull the car at highway speeds on its own, then it will not charge the batteries fast enough to keep up with demand.

So what you have is a car suitable for short commutes only, and it costs $40,000!

I watched the commercial for it, and it appeared to be racing along at about 15 mph.

Would it be a hazard on the freeway?

Of course, you know why Government Motors is doing this don't you?

They can factor the mileage of the Volt in to offset the mileage of those SUV's to meet Café standards. Smooth.

You talk about this as if it were all new. Company I worked for on the early 90's had an electric car for town use which could travel about 50 Miles per charge at reasonable speed. It was about $3,000 Dollars more expensive than the standard model. There hasn't been much development since then and at $40,000 it's a rort .

It was a fun device to drive, slow pickup and non existent braking, so generally dangerous on the open road and that is something that has to be solved with electric cars

While GM is developing this $40,000 pig to sell the American sap consumers ;and as other automakers try to keep up with the ever increasing government regulations and mandates for safety and MPG requirements that greatly increase auto costs;Government motors is also developing (with the help of our tax dollar and $20 Billion investment in the company) a $4,000 car for overseas sales.
A $4,000 car from GM? - MSN Money

http://www.instructables.com/files/d...8HQ.MEDIUM.jpg

It will not create one new job for Americans because it will be made overseas... likely in China . Bet the UAW feels like they backed the right horse .

So here's the plan... buy a fleet of GM $4000 car ;and immediately trade them in with the Cash for Clunkers plan... that nets $500 profit/car . You could probably get enough cash to buy one of those American versions of a cheap small cars that satisfies all the regulations and mandates... the Smart Car... with it's $16,990 MSRP .