The Chevy Volt

[astronut74]

the gas in the volt will sit there forever and i dont know how long it takes for sitting gas to mess with an engine but i am assuming not super long. give it a few years before you decide to buy.

True, the sitting gas could certainly be a problem. But it would be a problem that the consumer caused. You don't HAVE to charge the car every night. Let it run on the motor every few days to keep it circulating. A gas motor that just sits and is never used will of course have problems.
I will say, I have a small problem with the "give it a few years" mentality. If everyone gives it a few years, no research and development will be done, that stuff cost money, and without any income from sales of cars such as this... well, in 15 years, we will still be in the same situation we are in today. Everyone will still be griping about the price of gas and everyone will still be waiting a few more years...

You can bet Toyota engineers are looking for ways to further their hybrid designs and are probably looking at "gas free" vehicle designs as well. Why should GM be left out? The only way they will, is if we, the consumer, leave them out.

[GEJ]

We tell customers of O.P.E.,(outdoor power equipment) based on all the major engine manufactures,the sheif life of gas is two to three wks and then it turns to varnsh.Certainly that is temp related and is much faster in 90 degree weather over winter temp's.The suggestion is to use Stabil all the time.The same would hold true for long term storeage of gas in this Volt.

[Kidhauler]

I think that this car makes more sense than a Prius since it will plug in and run on electric only as even with a prius you are still reliant on gasoline. Two guys at my brothers work have the toyota and are getting around 60mpg. Considering the price of them verses the cost of a 4 camry or a Corrola and the mileage that those cars get around 40mpg it doesn't make sense to buy a prius as it will take so long for it to pay for itself in fuel savings. This says nothing of the devistation that it causes during the production of the batteries. Now if you can get rid of the fuel price then your daily cost of operation of the car is going to be around $1.00 or less for the electricity. This gives you a cost equivilant of a car that gets a little over 160mpg. Given that the volt runs on around a buck worth of power for 40 miles Gasoline is 1.50 per litre today so you would need a car that gets over 200mpg at that cost to equal the cost of the volt. But for the sake of easy math lets put the price of gas at $1.00/litre so you would need to burn one litre to travel 40 miles for a US reading of 160mpg.

If you were to put a solar panel on the roof of your house and a few batteries in the basement or garage you could run this car on nearly nothing most of the year. All day your solar panels charge up you battery bank then at night the batteries charge the car for free. Even if the car takes more power than your solar panel can make in one day you will still cut down on the cost.

Is this car perfect and the solution for everyone??? No. You will always have the one guy in the crowd who says that I cant take it on vacation across the country while towing my 10 000lbs trailer traveling at 100mph with the AC on full blast so its useless. If you want to do that you can always have a extra car or rent a truck for your vacation since your not paying gas to go back and forth to work you should have lots of money left in the bank.

Most peoples comutes are 40miles or less in a day. Numerous studies have proven this that is what this car is aimed at. The middle class working working guy looking for a cheaper way to get to work and back. For that this car could work. If it comes in at a price of $25000 or $30000 I would look at it definatly a 4 passenger car that gets 160mpg for the first 40 miles and then gets 50mpg for the next 600 miles. giggity giggity sign me up.

[Cobra]

If it comes in at a price of $25000 or $30000 I would look at it definatly a 4 passenger car that gets 160mpg for the first 40 miles and then gets 50mpg for the next 600 miles. giggity giggity sign me up.

that whole rant and you end it with that.... lol true if you charged that batts with wind or solar the cost would drop considerably. the 40 miles is fine for me but the people i know in smaller towns in ontario the 40 miles are pushing it but for a start in the elctric car market it'll do.I probably wouldn't keep any gas in the car unless i knew i was going for a long drive but by then that poor little back-up engine might not be working....

[midnighthunder89]

this is not the start of the electric car market.... the EV1 which i find to be a better car not only was semi cheap it was also worked very well with low maintenance costs. also tesla has been making an electric car for a while that gets 220 miles per gallon which means most people could go a week without a charge, and a top speed of 125 if GM made the volt similar to this technology that is already out there IMO they would sell a lot more, for cheaper, due to mass production. which would help make the electric car succeed at least for a little while... once a large group of people buy electric instead of gas prices rising, the electricity costs will rise. and all the environmentally concerned people thinking that the EV is the way to go they have forgotten about the coal plants that burn tons of coal everyday which will increase as more people switch to electric. electric may be a transition point for transportation just like hybrids but will never be the future.

[Cobra]

i ment a start for the company in the market. electric will probably be the future the source of the energy is the next problem tho

[astronut74]

once a large group of people buy electric instead of gas prices rising, the electricity costs will rise.

I can agree with that. But the fact is that no one, except the oil companies, wants to be dependant on petroleum anymore. Including electric companies. That's why there is so many wind farms popping up, so many man hours going in to research and development for electric companies to find new ways to get cheap energy sources. I read in our local paper a while back that they are looking into ways to harness the power of the Gulf Streams current to power houses here in Florida. Just yesterday I was reading on the internet that if just 1% of the Sahara desert was utilized for a solar panel energy field, it could provide enough energy for the entire world!

[Cobra]

lol that's funny i never even thought of using such a baren useless place to get energy

[potskie]

Meh the electricity issue is not really an issue once you get the tree huggers to stop with their super anti nuclear crap. Nuclear = the cleanest / cheapest source of electricity there is. Yes there is always that hint of danger but there is with any form of power generation. Not to mention the fact the technology has greatly matured since chernobyl and three mile island. Which is why The Ontario Governement is making a huge push at expanding the pickering and bruce plants output capacity and also building a couple of more plants. Also in Ontario we have almost no coal or fossil fuel plants left and they are trying to faze the last few out very very soon.

Some where on this mess I call an organized hard drive I have plans I drew up to power an M-Van using an electric motor and a ton of batteries. I've seen some builds using jeeps and thought I would try to apply that to a van. From what I've seen they average around $3000. The batteries being the most expensive piece of the puzzle.

[Kidhauler]

I had thought of taking the brushless electric engine and battery out of a electric forklift and bolting it to the transmission in the van and seeing what would happen.

[Rileysowner]

Something like the Volt would be less useful for me and most people in small rural towns because simply to get where I need to get I would use the battery up one way. Having said that, in a city the 40 miles is not a huge issue. I have thought of getting a scooter for summer driving, but again being in a rural setting most of my travels are highway driving, so then one needs the larger style and fuel savings start to diminish. If I was in a city, I would have purchased one long ago. As it is I am looking for one of the old 1.0L 3 cylinder Suzuki Swifts. My mom had one and they are really easy on gas, either that or I need to get the Sunrunner back on the road.

[Kidhauler]

I don't think it is fair to compare a Tesla car to the Volt. One is aimed at middle income working class families with a expected price less than $40000 the other is a $100,000 sports car. you can't expect to get top of the line performance from a mid prices sedan. Thats like buying a Chevy Cobalt and then complaining that is doesn't do 150mph and get 300miles per gallon. You can't have it all for nothing.

Yes the EV1 was the start of the modern commercial car market. Yes I think it was a better car than the highbrids they are selling these days. Since the Volt is the closest thing we are going to get at a cost that the average working stiff can afford and it can be run on pure electric power for the vast majority of people I beleive it could be a winner. If you could get better batteries for it you could probably get a longer distance on the electric motor.

[kings-x59]

yup the tesla costs more than my house, not working for me. giggety giggety indeed, another quagmire fan I see
The life cycle cost of the prius is more than a ford expedition from the standpoint of the energy required to produce it, the amount of gasoline used, and most importantly the decomissioning cost(i.e. the junkyard and crusher). I'm sure the dealers gloss, very quickly, over the fact that it's going to cost the smiling new owner of the prius that they will have to pay a $3000 epa fee if they have to scrap their batteries and have them replaced. But of course..shorts never occur in automotive electrical systems..do they.
Now that I think about it, I'm looking forward to the recall on the prius..may short and burn to the ground with that kind of DC voltage.
I like the idea of using a solar cell to recharge my car, with gas prices the way they are, that could actually pay the solar panel off in my lifetime.
You don't just have to be in a rural area for a 40 mile limit not work. A drive from Cypress to Sugarland in the Houston metro area is about 43 miles. I can see getting stuck for 2 hours in the 290 traffic, which happens more often than I'd like, only to have my batteries tap out. I can see it now, tuner mags for electric cars, get more torque from your GE electric motor with an intercooler for overclocking the energy management processor, get extended range using solar trickle chargers wired in series. We are in trouble..

[Kidhauler]

I can see getting stuck for 2 hours in the 290 traffic, which happens more often than I'd like, only to have my batteries tap out.

I think you are forgeting that unlike a gasoline engine when you sit still in traffic in a electric car it uses no energy as the motor is not moving.

As far as solar panels not paying themselves off in your life time depending on how many panels you mount on your house they can actually make more power than you use. For example you are at work all day and the house is using very little energy (just running the fridge and freezer) once your battery bank is charged up to 100% the panels keep making power which is then fed back into the line going to your house from the power pole. You can actually watch your hydro meter turn backwards. This means you are adding power to the grid and the power company has no choice but to buy it from you at the going rate. This is the law in all of North America so instead of getting a power bill you could be getting a check for a few bucks a month from the power company on top of getting free power.

[GEJ]

Got me thinking how well this Volt would do in a crash.If one was involved and broke the batteries,would you have to call out the hazmat team??.Yeah-you could say that isn't much different than any other broken battery in a crash,but the amount surely would alot greater.