>> From what I can gather, it outperforms the GM offering
>> in pretty much every category...
Then you haven’t gathered enough.
After 80 or 100 miles, give or take, the Leaf is a shiny doorstop until you can recharge it*. Stop for gas every 300 miles or so, and in the Volt and you can drive indefinitely.
The first 40 miles are only intended to cover the “typical daily usage” of about 75% of Americans.
And that’s pretty much the whole point. Do you have a typical, <40mi/day driving pattern? You will rarely use ANY gasoline. Drive a bit more than that? You’ll use gas, but less than in a normal car. Need to go on a road-trip? No problem, just gas up.
* = By the way, the full charge on the Leaf takes over 24 hours from a 110v outlet. Volt’s 110v full charge is complete in 8-10 hours. Each can also charge from a 220v circuit (must be hardwired) in about half the time.
According to chevy, the volt charge take 8 hours on 220 and 16 on 110, so essentially the same as a leaf.
That makes sense.
To Battman,
In my reply I said:
>> Then you haven’t gathered enough.
Now that I reread that, I realize it probably came off sounding unnecessarily snarky. I should have said something more like “Here’s at least one major advantage... range between charges.”
In any event, my apologies. I really didn’t mean for it to sound like that.
Thanks for an excellent reply. I’m not pimpimg for the volt but it’s good to see someone at least look at the fact sheet. Also it seems to be unknown to FReepers that coal is only 47% of US electric power generation.