Posted on 07/27/2010 12:04:22 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The guy is wrong. Not only can the competition do it, but they do it better. Nissan has the Leaf for short driving in the city. The Leaf is an all-electric, while the Volt is a hybrid.
Nissan also has the Altima Hybrid, which has the range of 700 miles per tank of gas, far exceeding the puny 340 miles of the Volt. Two months ago my daughter drove her Altima Hybrid from Kansas to Denver, almost 500 miles for her, and only used half a tank of gas. She has a heavy foot meaning she drives fast. The car cost her about $24,000 new. There is no advantage of buying the overpriced, puny Volt. Too little too late to the game!
But, what about those people who have to run several errands during the day? For example, were I to lose my mind and buy this POS, I live about 20 miles from the nearest shopping centers and, when I run errands, it is not unusual for me to drive a total of 60 - 80 miles round-trip.
Detroit (among the primary culprits) has created the image of a mobile society that allows us to live away from city centers and commute to the places we want/need to go so that everyone can enjoy "country" living. If there were a chance that I would waste my money on this, I would have to follow my wife driving the car with my SUV and a trailer so that when the charge is gone, I could load it up on a trailer and get it home. We both know that charging stations will not be installed at shopping centers, hotel/motel facilities and the like to accommodate these vehicles for years to come.
This is a classic example of Washington putting the cart before the horse because they pushed this vehicle out the door before the technology necessary to support it was available. And, how many people are going to throw $41K on a car that remains in the garage (with the monthly payments for the car and the insurance) in hopes that the supporting technology is eventually going to catch up to the places THEY go??
Obama didn't think this one through thoroughly (what a surprise!) and GM will discover that they threw a lot of R&D money away on something that likely has, at best, a tiny market among the most fanatical environazis who will resort to their Volvos when the batteries are out of juice.
In THEORY, electric powered cars are a good idea but, in practice, until the supporting technology is available, they are impractical.
Barry will have to get back to you on that.
(crickets)
Yeah, maybe inside a building, or on a golf course.
That right there should tell you everything you need to know.
Not to mention the tiny gas tank that needs premium gas.
Only a dope with money to burn would buy one.
Small block, dual glasspacks, 5 Speed, narrowed Ford 9", tubs.
True enough, and probably the real reason for the fedgov attack on Toyota.
I see nothing wrong with letting the brain-dead RATs be the guinea pigs for the electric car market, and when the shortcomings are universally understood from personal experience, even by RATs....it's dead.
Nope. The gas engine would kick in. That's the whole idea behind this car -- it's a straight electric for short commutes, and a hybrid when you need the range.
It runs on purely electric mode for 40 miles, then will run on gas electric as far as you want to drive. It works like a locomotive, the engine turns a generator, the current runs an electric motor. That is more efficient than running the mechanical energy directly to the wheels. It can also be less expensive and more reliable if engineered correctly.
Once again, the pure electric range is not the same as the total range. It has a very small gas tank so the total range is apparently only about 300 miles, but you can refil the gas tank and keep driving cross country just like a normal car.
The theory is sound. I don’t think GM is implimenting it is the best manor as I mentioned in the post above, forget the pure electric range, only provide enough storage for performance and regenerative braking and reduce the price.
I disagree.
The only reason locos use edrive is because with the low coefficient of friction on steel wheels / rails, they have to power all the wheels. A mechanical system to do this would be too complex.
Again, I don't see the point. As others on this thread have pointed out, there are other hybrids that do the same thing for half the cost. The Volt just comes across to me as a tax on stupid.
But, Government Motors is pushing it as a $41k ELECTRIC-powered car, NOT as a gas/electric hybrid. Besides, you have already indicated that you are “interested”, even though the price is steep.
Hybrids as sold today are a cludge.
The Volt is closer to a good engineering solution but they saddled it with $20,000 of batteries it really doesn’t need to make it more PC.
I would not buy a volt, but I would buy a diesel electric car it designed for efficiency and value.
There are many reasons to get rid of a mechanical drive system in a car.
They are heavy, complex, generate a lot of drag and take up valuable space. Also, most cars are not AWD because of the cost, weight, and drag. Getting rid of the mechanical drive will make driving more than two wheel less complex in a car just as it does in a locomotive.
I don’t see anything that looks ready for prime time yet, I definately would not buy a Volt, but I think they do point to the future.
So your problem is with the marketing, not with the car? I understand why GM is positioning the Volt as a competitor to the Leaf rather than the Prius, when in fact it's kind of both -- the Prius doesn't let you drive gas-free for any distance, and the Leaf doesn't let you keep moving when the battery runs out.
Besides, you have already indicated that you are “interested”, even though the price is steep.
My commute, for the last 15 years across three jobs, has been less than 20 miles each way. So yes, the Volt makes a lot of sense to me conceptually. I've said for years, and posted here, that an all-electric car would be useful to me, but only if it's cheap enough to be worth maintaining two vehicles instead of one. The Volt would let me have both with one insurance tab and one parking space. It needs to be less expensive, though.
(sigh) Forget I said anything. You like the car, you buy the car and drive it in good health.
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