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Hybrid Vehicles Chevrolet Volt Will the Chevy Volt Succeed?
544 messages, Last post on Oct 28, 2009 at 1:11 PM
You are in the Chevrolet Volt Forum. Your Host is pf_flyer
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Replying to: giny1 (Sep 23, 2008 11:38 am) I'd like to, but they seem to want to keep a narrow focus here. Link to a thread or start one if none are appropriate. I haven't heard about anything with a 300 mile range. |
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http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=132112 
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Replying to: toyota4life (Sep 23, 2008 4:51 pm) In contrast to popular (and our) impression, once a driver uses up his 40 or so miles of electric power, the 1.4-liter gas engine generates electricity to power the electric drive motor, but does not recharge the batteries. I don't see this as a problem, unless the engine is not powerful enough to fuel the car in all conditions. If the 50 mpg is still valid, then this is just a good nudge to always plug-in. I guess it could make for some wasted energy though. |
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Let's see.... I can buy a very reliable Prius with a fair amount of room for $23K and get 50mpg. Or I (supposedly) can buy a Volt in a few years for $37K that can go 40 miles if I recharged it with a plug, then I use regular gas. And I wait to charge it. And I pay for the electricity (probably less than gas cost, true). How many miles would I have to drive to make up that ~$14K difference in purchase cost? Sorry, I think GM is toast here.
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Replying to: toyota4life (Sep 23, 2008 4:51 pm) Only an utter fool would actually want the engine to charge the batteries. All you want is just enough to keep things moving along until you can plug in again. "After the 40 or so miles, the battery becomes 400 pounds of uselessness, at least until the owner can plug the car into the electrical grid for a recharge." 400 pounds of uselessness, hmmm? Gee, you don't think this author has an agenda do ya? I'm sure the batteries are still perform a function (such as capturing free braking energy) and are not "uselessness". But I'm sure this author knows the system inside and out...
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Replying to: tlong (Sep 23, 2008 7:51 pm) Or I (supposedly) can buy a Volt in a few years for $37K that can go 40 miles if I recharged it with a plug" Then I guess you would not buy a Prius for $23K when you can buy a 36 mpg car for $13K. You can't make up that difference either. As for the $37K price tag this is new tech and new tech is always expensive. I remember when a 50" plasma cost $20K.... early adopters snapped 'em up and they didn't fail.
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Replying to: eaton53 (Sep 24, 2008 3:06 am) By re-charge I'm assuming the author means a full recharge. I'd like for the author to explain exactly why you'd want the ICE to fully recharge the battery pack? And if it did how would this increase it's electric only range? And as you said, since the battery pack is always powering the electric motor how can it be considered 400 lbs of uselessness? His statement implies that after 40 miles you might as well not have the battery pack. Does the author think that the ICE generator is directly powering the electric motor? Yes this person obviously has an agenda but his total lack of intelligence in this matter discredits whatever point he's trying to make. A way to describe the Volt configuration that possibly even this author could comprehend is that the ICE maintains the battery's charge at 30%. Is this re-charging? It's comparable to asking whether an air conditioner cools a home or just maintains a temperature? You can't maintain a temperature without cooling and likewise you can't maintain a state of charge without re-charging. |
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Replying to: eaton53 (Sep 24, 2008 3:22 am) The difference is that $23K is still around an average price for a car. $37K is a premium price that many fewer can afford. It's not just "is it a good value?", it's also "can I afford it?". As for the $37K price tag this is new tech and new tech is always expensive. I remember when a 50" plasma cost $20K.... early adopters snapped 'em up and they didn't fail. Well the first Insight and Prius didn't cost more than an average car price. When the plasmas were $10K I suspect there weren't many buyers other than early adopters. So according to this logic, GM may have a $27K Volt in 2010, but it will really be 2015 before they have a competitive product?
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Replying to: tlong (Sep 24, 2008 8:03 am) Regardless when the Prius first came out Toyota sold it for a loss. Gas prices were relatively cheap and it was very hard to justify the practicality of spending the premium for a hybrid when you could save thousands of dollars by going with a Corolla instead. The GM's executives were saying about the Prius pretty much what you're now saying about the Volt. In retrospect GM now admits that they made a big mistake. BTW, Toyota is also planning to release a plug-in version of it's Prius. It will only have a 10 mile all electric range and the estimated price premium over a regular Prius is expected to be around $6k. Since you don't think the Volt will be a competitive product even at $27k how competitive will a $29k plug-in Prius be with only 1/4th the electric range? |
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