The Chevy
Volt is one vehicle we can really get behind. It's hard not to be a little excited over it -- we have, after all, been watching its development for quite a long time now. The electric car gets an impressive 230 miles per gallon in the city (and, all
shaky rating practices aside, that's nothing to scoff at).
Autoblog Green's just taken one of Chevy's 80 IVER pre-production prototypes for a little spin, and they seem to have come away pretty impressed with the car. They report that the brakes are better than most hybrid vehicles, and said that when the engine does kick in after the battery's depleted, they didn't even notice it until they stopped and heard it running quietly. It was a short spin, so they weren't able to gauge, for instance, whether the car can actually pull the full 40 miles per battery charge that Chevrolet claims it gets, but check out their full, detailed observations at the Source link.
posted November 30th 2009 8:02PM
@appsman
When did I say they wouldn't be useful in the rest of the country?
@Ngamer Yes; Detroit, with it's 75 degree year round temps, knows nothing about cold weather.
@Ngamer Admittedly it won't be as efficient in colder climates, but it can use the gas engine to start and warm the car up before switching to electric.
@Ngamer
The battery is heated or cooled to keep it in the correct temp range.
feels odd to say, but I feel like I have some weird emotion tied up in this car! (?) I really want it to succeed. My dad was a big GM fan, and I grew up during GM's death throws. (hi Celebrity Eurosport) It would be nice to see some of GM's "innovation" actually work out! I hope this car delivers. it'd be a nice boost for Detroit cred!
@abelock
throes
@ZeroCorpse DOH! Thanks!
In my humble opinion, its 7500 dollars too expensive AFTER the 7500 dollar tax credit. I know this is new tech and production costs are still high, but at that price I certainly wont bite, thats all I'm sayin.
Why can't it look like a normal car? Do they batteries not work right unless its shaped like a piece of pie on its side?
I drive a Malibu, nice car but $30/week in gas. Volt is base on Malibu, but light on trunk space. basically a hatchback AFAIK.
That's $1500/year.
Round trip to work and home is 50 mi. Not quite worth it right now
With Volt it would be a lot less but my electric bill will go up. In 2011, Volt will be in limited production. By 2012, inflation and economy of scale will make Volt viable.
@kene
Malibu is the Epsilon platform. The Volt is on the Delta II platform. Currently on the overseas Chevy & Holden Cruze/Daewoo Lacetti and the Opel/Vauxhall/Chevy Astra.
Also, as things stand, this car is on schedule for late 2010 as a 2011 model, with sales starting in California.
UnsilentMajority - It doesn't look like a normal car because the batteries due change the configuration of the car. a lot. it's more similar to a hatch back than a sedan. And allot about this cars design is based on aerodynamics.
kene - volt is not based on the Maibu. Malibu is a car that sits on GM's epsillion I chassis. The volt rides on GM's delt II chassis. There isn't any other car that rides on that yet. The Cruze will be on the Delta II chassis, but thats not 'till 2010.
Why would you call this car Electric? when it's really a Hybrid... what a shame, so much controversy for a freaking hybrid, Chevy is doomed! so sad...
@(Unverified)
Actually this is an electric vehicle because the only engine driving it is electric. It has a large battery pack and a range extender / onboard generator (the gas engine) that recharges the battery on the fly. The range extender can operate at very efficient speed and load levels because it is not tied directly to the drive train.
The Prius is really a hybrid because it has two drive trains operating in parallel. That means that its gasoline engine is not able to operate as efficiently.
At some point GM could replace the gasoline engine range extender with a fuel cell or even just a bigger battery. It would remain primarily an electric vehicle.
@(Unverified) Tesla is an Electric car that can run for over 300 miles on a single charge, Volt is not. It might be a little better than Prius since it goes on a single charge for a 40 miles, but prius runs on a electric motor too, until it dies out than the gas engine starts up. What i am trying to say is that Volt as it was advertised, it is not what it is. It is a Parody for an electric car, but still a stone age...
Looks like a prius from the end. and side.. aka.. looks like ass..
Again, is it all plastic?
Why do all these cars (Insight and Volt at least) have to look like a Prius? I *own* a Prius and don't mind its looks, but there MUST be some other car designs out there. Does Honda and GM want everyone to say, "Oh, another Prius"?
@appsman
It's to maximize it's aerodynamic efficiency.
@appsman
You may want to take a look at the body-style timelines of those cars. The first Prius (NHW10) was Japan-only, '97-'01 models. This car was sedan-styled and not hatchback-styled (looks like an Accent). The first Insight was 2000. That in fact had the hatchback rear which the Prius resembles now. The U.S. version started in 2001, but it wasn't til 2004 that it started the hatchback styling.
PS, I am the furthest thing from a Honda fan.
who cares about hybrids (or pure electric cars) when cars with hydrogen fuel cells are already being made?
@mrqs
Fuel cell vehicles are basically electric vehicles with a hydrogen battery. That being said, the battery tech is extremely expensive. It is economical on the space shuttle, but not cars.
@nate345 yeah, i know, (tho' it's a hydrogen powered generator, not a "hydrogen battery") the difference comes from not having to charge the car for bloody hours every time you run out of juice (which'll be every time you wanna go anywhere)
@mrqs Was this even serious? Hydrogen Fuel cells are currently still ~500k a piece and the tech is still "5 years away" - as it has always been.
@(Unverified)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_FCX_Clarity
@ Chevy - This is your chance to regain our trust-- please don't f*** this up.
American auto companies are doing it all wrong. The battery itself is pointless. Having a gasoline engine in the car is a waste. Going half-assed on what's supposed to get America off foreign oil? Priceless.
Instead, we have to go to Israeli auto. Yeah, that's right - Better Place headed up by Shai Agassi. Charge up not just at home but at WORK - at the parking lot, at the mall, at the movies. What matters is how you pay for electricity not how you carry it around! And if your battery is gone and you need to get going just roll into a battery change station and robotically get a new battery in less time it takes to fill a tank with gas because you don't own the battery - you lease it.
Leave it to the Israelis to come up with a solution that requires NO compromises and actually IMPROVES on owning a gasoline car. It's cheaper because electricity is cheaper and you're not paying upfront for the battery. It's more convenient because you're not taking time out to pull into a gas station every week, you're filling up in the parking lot. And on the rare occasion you need to take a road trip? You're back on the road quicker than your gas guzzlin' buddy.
Sorry, but I look at this stop-gap measure and can't help but be sickened by corporate idiots who lost their vision with Henry Ford after seeing TRUE INNOVATION that's coming out of ISRAEL.
www.betterplace.com
@blash: let me guess you are from Israel..
The battery replace/recharge thing isn't anything new, but the biggest problem is the availability.. Why buy such a car if you can only recharge it at a few places now, and therefore why put recharge places up if there aren't any cars.. it will take years before there are enough recharge places as there are gasstations..
And the other point is, almost all electric cars are pretty ugly, so why would you ever want to drive an ugly car like that even if it would be better for the enviroment.
@blash
The billions of dollars we waste on Foreign Aid to Israel could pay for quite a few charging stations in the US, but I guess propping up that country is more important than spending it here at home.
The gasoline motor is a BACKUP system because battery technology has not progressed enough to realistically make an electric-only car. That's why these cars are called extended-range electric vehicles. 40 miles on electric power is great, and would normally fit into most consumer's daily driving habits, but many people would still be afraid of being left stranded if there was no backup.
Battery technology is progressing fairly rapidly (at least in labs), but until the 300+ mile range that consumers are accustomed to today with a tankful of gas is achievable, most electric cars will need some kind of way to extend their range. Unfortunately until batteries do catch up, cars like the Volt are going to have to carry the extra complexity and cost of having 2 fuel sources. Cars like the Nissan Leaf forgo the extended range and use just battery power - it's a much simpler way of doing things, but you are at the mercy of the batteries and then having to wait hours to recharge them if they run out.
You can't learn to run before you learn to crawl and extended range EVs are just the beginning. If in 5 or 10 years batteries have doubled or tripled in capacity, GM could rather easily take all the ICE components out of the Volt and turn it into an electric-only car - that would actually make the car much easier and cheaper to manufacture.
@Hazdaz
Did you even read my post? Better Place isn't talking about charging stations, it's talking about battery-swap stations.
"many people would still be afraid of being left stranded if there was no backup. "
" electric cars will need some kind of way to extend their range. "
If your "tank" runs low, just pull into a battery swap station where you swap your empty battery for a fully charged up one. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHHvjsFm_88 Electric cars "fill up" FASTER than gasoline cars. Most people will never even need to go to a battery switch station anyways, just plug in at home and work. Watch an average EV user who also DOES need to "fill up" his tank spontaneously and in the middle of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU7I90AooOE&feature=channel
If you think that we waste billions of dollars in foreign aid to Israel, then you're extremely shortsighted. For all the billions we put in to help keep Israel defended we get TRILLIONS out in everything from Israeli-startups that each of them alone have the capability to drive trillions of dollars worth of capital (imagine if this REPLACED everything we know today) to Intel processors, many of which are manufactured in a fab in Jerusalem and are designed in Haifa. You tell me how much the Intel processor market is alone and then we'll talk about "wasting" taxpayer money on Israel.
Why can't they make good looking cars.. my god, who the hell want's to drive in these ugly cars like a Prius or this volt.. And the prius really isn't anything better than a regular economic car..
I wondering how long it will take to recharge? And that 40 miles seems.. well, not much. I have to take almost daily +60 mile journeys and I'm not interested in leaving 1 day in advance just to recharge it for 9 hours halfway there and to be able to say that "I'm green". My good old Mercedes will be enough for me, thank you very much.
@(Unverified)
It takes 6 to 9 hours on the 110 volt compact charge kit in the car. With the external 240 volt kit, less than 3 hours.
60 miles of driving would get you a mpg rating of roughly 150 mpg (40 miles electric and 20 miles gas at 50 mpg). You would also have to pay for about 8 kwh of electricity ($.40 to $.80). A 60 mile jouney costs a volt owner probably about $.60 + .4 gallons at $2.63 current US average ($1.65). It costs a 30 mpg conventional car owner $5.26 or $3.61 more. If done daily, that amount saved would be $108.30 in a 30 day month or $1317 a year. Compared to a 15 mpg gas guzzler, you would save $8.87 per trip, $266.10 monthly, $3237.55 yearly. At 4 dollars a gallon which will be the norm within 5 years, you would save $ 13.80 per trip vs the 15 mpg SUV, $414 monthly, $5037 yearly. @ $33,000 after tax incentives, it makes sense economically for a good % of the US population when compared to the majority of the couple hundred car models sold in the US, given that they have the credit for the extra initial car cost.
@nate345
i'd gladly pay a few grand a year extra if it means not driving in a car ugly enough to scare small children
Some people may recognize it from Transformers: RotF as Jolt.
I think it's a nice car, 40 miles may not seem like much, but that'll get me to school and work, and back.
I'm kind of looking forward to it.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Acai-Fire-For-Men-Review---Does-Acai-Fire-Really-Work?&id=3004634
Some people may recognize it from Transformers: RotF as Jolt.
I think it's a nice car, 40 miles may not seem like much, but that'll get me to school and work, and back.
I'm kind of looking forward to it.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Acai-Fire-For-Men-Review---Does-Acai-Fire-Really-Work?&id=3004634
Every new Chevy Volt comes standard with a new copy of Duke Nukem Forever and Starcraft 2!!!!
looks like a civic to me
This car has been waited just too long. The design is starting to get old. Especially the back of the car is really ugly. Interior is okay for the time being but I can see it getting old very quickly. Front can still hold the gate with the blue ligghting, etc. As long as Chevy keeps dragging its feet on this vehicle, it will be rather a failure than success because by the time it is out, there will be competitiors taking over the market from Europe.
why does every "environmental" car look exactly the same?
prius, insight and volt
they all look the god damn same!
I'm not a fan of Chevy, but this technology really is the future, as is super efficient, relatively clean today, and could be cleaner in the future if the power grid is cleaned up.
Way to go Detroit. Just as ugly and aggravatingly uninspired-looking as ever. What the hell is it with Detroit's designer's? Make that GM's designers, especially. Are they afraid to fire people up there? (Oh, right, recession) Even that stupid Chevy bow-tie badge nauseates me. That badge was fine until, what, the late 60s?
As long as GM continues to show how trailing edge they are in both their output and their culture - there's not a chance I'll ever buy one of their ugly, embarrassing heaps. At least Ford is progressive enough to have a successful global presence with much more desirable vehicles. Oh, I forgot, the staunch, old, white Ford guys in Detroit never allow the cooler global versions to come to America .. wouldn't want to startle the dumb American buying base, would we? Thankfully the Fiesta is on it's way to our shores after years of customers begging for the European models.
Go Detroit! There are a few of us rooting for you.
it kind of frustrates me that people are even calling this a "change" in design. look at the concept and this side by side. aside from Volt being written on the back, and both being hybrids, they are two completely different cars. Chevy knew what they were doing and built up hype over something they were never going to build.
the original Volt concept was gorgeous and original. this new piece of crap is completely uninspired. when the American auto industry folds, we won't have to look far to know why.
america complains about the prius being ugly yet they invented one uglier and fakes out the specs, its even worse than the prius and in 2011 the new prius will come out with at least 60mpg because it will be part ev and fuel
yeah i was trying to explain why this thing is ugly. i don't like the shape either. the concept was really nice looking but they built this thing to be extremely aerodynamic. the concept wasn't at all. it was more aerodynamic in the wind tunnel backwards!! people couldn't really fit in it either, so a lot of things had to change. just remember that a hybrids design is more functional then pretty. if you want to buy a chevy for $40,000 that is pretty, they build the camro ss. :)
Don't know what some people's problem with it is, as for me ...I rarely drive over 40 miles in a day. I would look forward to 230 mpg.
civic lines....