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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: dmathews3 (Feb 15, 2009 12:03 pm) I think the plan is to build them in the US for American buyers, and in England for European buyers. Make sense now?
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Replying to: stephen987 (Feb 15, 2009 9:03 pm) |
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For 40K+ I better get 135d European Delivery 
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The base rate in Southern California is 12 cents per KWH up to 10KWH average dailey use. If you use the Volt every day and add 8KWH per day to charge it for a max of 40 miles you will push up your home power useage into tier 3 at 21 cents/KWH, tier 4 at 25 cents or tier 5 at 27 cents. These rates are expected to rise 20% in 2009. This means you will pay at least $2 to $2.40 for every 40 miles in a perfect world. The Volt will need to do better than this to get my buy in. This makes a Honda or Toyota Hybrid much more attractive but still not worth it. The only way to make the numbers work is if the roof has photovoltaic cells on it to charge the batteries off grid. Electric car charging demand will force up utility rates to match closely the value of gas as it rises. Even swap from being held hostage by oil companies to being held up by power utilities......unless you generate DC to charge yourself !
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Replying to: option7 (Mar 05, 2009 11:14 pm) |
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Who would pay $40k for a small car that looks like a Civic. I don't have a degree in marketing, but it makes much more sense to me that GM should aim for lower profit / higher volume so that more cars can be produced to keep the workers employed.
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Replying to: 9394 (Mar 09, 2009 12:14 pm) GM isn't in business to keep the workers employed, though. Right now the only thing keeping GM in business is the hope of a multi-year federal bailout. Politically speaking, they have to be able to demonstrate the capability for innovation. The Volt shows that capability much more effectively than, say, the Malibu or Cobalt, no matter how excellent (or how profitable) those cars may be. |
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This one is for those who doubt (ahem, Gary) that GM or Toyota can put a safe, well-tested Li Ion battery on the road, read this: link title As the company completes work on the battery for the first-generation Volt, it's also developing batteries for the second and third generation of the vehicle, which involves evaluating different battery materials and cells to find ones that store more energy, making it possible to use fewer of them. The lab has two main sections: one for evaluating battery cells from various suppliers, and one for evaluating the performance of battery packs--cells packaged with electronics and systems for cooling and heating the cells to keep them at an optimal temperature range. The battery packs contain a type of lithium-ion cell that can be degraded by extreme temperatures. Inside the lab, the packs are charged and discharged while being subjected to high and low temperatures as well as extremes of humidity. Engineers can also simulate different altitudes by placing the packs in barometric chambers. So the engineers can simulate conditions along a humid, hot coastline at sea level, or atop an arid and cold mountain. They can also mimic road conditions with a machine that shakes the battery packs. Elevated temperatures, which speed up the aging process of battery materials, are being used to confirm a ten-year lifetime for the batteries with about two years' worth of tests. In addition to being tested in the battery lab, the packs are being subjected to tests in actual vehicles both on the road and in a climate-controlled wind tunnel. So far, more than 100 battery packs have been built for testing.
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Replying to: larsb (Jun 10, 2009 8:46 am) |
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While it's not surprising that the lights in the Volt group have basically been switched off while GM reinvents itself (could resist the pun  ), I think it illustrates that the Volt, or any other EV with limited range and a high price tag for that matter, is NOT the answer for what ails the North American auto market. The Volt seems to be an answer to a question that nobody is asking.
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