Getting a charge from the Chevy Volt
MILFORD, Mich.--It was brief, but my ride in a Chevy Volt was decidedly fun, even exciting.
On Tuesday, I visited the sprawling Milford Proving Grounds in southeastern Michigan, where General Motors vehicles have been put through the paces since the 1920s.
I was one of the lucky few who got the last ride of the day in a pre-production version of the Volt, which was "almost stolen" from the car's development team by Frank Weber, the global vehicle line executive for the Volt, to give journalists a taste of the upcoming plug-in electric sedan.
In addition to being a key figure in the Volt's development, Weber clearly has got a car engineer's love of driving. His high-speed tour around the track gave me a feel for the "driving experience" GM executives tout with the Volt, which is due late next year.
I was prepared for the zippy acceleration. Models will vary of course, but electric vehicles can boast great acceleration--the Tesla Roadster is faster off the line than many sports cars, for instance--and they deliver their full torque at all speeds.
What surprised me though was the handling. As Weber dipped around the couple turns we took, the car seemed to really stick to the road, and I didn't slide off my seat at all.
It makes sense that it felt like the car "hugged" the road. The large, 400-pound battery pack, which is positioned under the back seats, gives the Volt a low center of gravity, and the car has a good weight distribution, GM executives said.
During the drive, Weber--obviously enamored with its performance--said that you feel much closer to the electric car when you drive because of the responsive acceleration. "It's more like flying than driving a vehicle," he said. And, of course, the ride was very quiet as the car was running on batteries.
I've never taken a Lamborghini or Ferrari around a test track, but I can say the Volt's acceleration and handling are noticeably sportier than sedans like the Prius or the alternative fuel SUVs I also drove at Milford.
Watching the video, you can get a feel for how Weber showed off the Volt's acceleration and, on the last turn, the handling.
Under construction
Earlier in the day, I took a tour of GM's pre-production facility at its Tech Center in Warren, Mich., where I gained a bit more insight into the interplay between the Volt's two power sources--its batteries and the internal combustion engine.
The power train, which GM is likely to use in other cars, is designed to go 40 miles on the car's batteries. After that, the engine, which can run on gasoline or E85 ethanol, kicks in. But the car is always running off the electric motors. By contrast, a regular, or parallel, hybrid, nearly always uses both the battery and gasoline engine together.
During the factory tour, though, I learned that it's a tad more complicated than simply switching from battery to gas after 40 miles--one reason why determining miles per gallon is so tricky.
The battery pack for the Chevy Volt at GM's Milford Proving Ground.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)The battery pack, which takes about eight hours to charge in the U.S., holds 16 kilowatt-hours of electricity, half of which the car will use to go 40 miles. After that, the engine turns on to run the generator that powers the electric motor, a switch that should be transparent to the driver.
What happens if you need access to the car's full power to get up a mountain on a long ride? For those demanding situations--in electrical terms, when the car needs more than 50 kilowatts of juice--the Volt will draw on some of the remaining stored energy in its battery pack, explained Andrew Farah, the chief vehicle engineer.
When the car dips into that "buffer," the gasoline engine acts to sustain the battery level so that it doesn't go too low, which would strain the batteries, he said. "We're operating between 30 percent and 80 percent (charge). It's important for the battery life," he said. All along, the battery can be charged with regenerative braking and during deceleration.
For consumers to gauge car charging, an indicator on the top of the dash below the windshield will show when the car's batteries are full. The Volt will also get a power cord and holder to show the owner that a car is getting a charge from a socket.
Weber said drivers will be able to communicate with the car to schedule charging via OnStar or the Web. People will be able to get off-peak rates and override the set schedule, he said. "It will almost be like using a thermostat," he said.
To see a test drive of GM's plug-in hybrid SUV under development, see this video:
Updated on August 15 to reflect that the Volt was a pre-production version.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
I know I'm dying for 2010-2012 to get here. I'd probably replace my SUV, now, if the super-efficient cars were available. Instead, I gotta wait 1-3 years. :p
A subsidy artificially lowers something's price below its cost--that distortion doesn't change the underlying price, it just hides it.
Nice rant, but it fails to address the question of, is it a $40,000 car or is it a $47,500 - $7,500 car?
That said, you *really* want to believe that others are paying for that tax break? I mean, I pay a little over $50,000 in payroll taxes, and other taxes, each and every year. If that $7,500 is coming out of anyone's pocket, it's coming out of mine.
WRT the $7500 tax credit - this won't apply to anyone paying the Alternate Minimum Tax, which is increasingly hitting the middle class.
GM is using custom battery cells with a chemistry that does not explode. This is different than say a Tesla Roadster, which just uses regular laptop cells. Also, a computer in the Volt constantly monitors/controls cell temp and charge state.
I'm also paying the nation's highest sales taxes, and sky high license/plate/registration/sticker taxes, but only after I pay the state income tax that's about to be increased by 2/3. Oh and all our roads are tollways, and they're not a quarter either--they go as high as a couple bucks, and you hit them in sets of half a dozen.
"Free" roads, just like "free" schools and "free" healthcare right? Only free for those who don't work for a living, while the rest of us pay double.
Take the car with whatever level of battery charge you want, drive it around the test course, and require it to have the same amount of battery charge when it finishes. Then divide miles by gallons.
No starting out with a fully battery and ending with it empty to claim mileage nobody sees in the real world (Prius), or assigning a random mileage to the gallon of gas you aren't burning while you repeatedly add energy from the wall socket. If you want to use the gas more efficiently by recapturing some of it with regenerative braking or pulling away on electric power that's fine, so long as you regenerate whatever electric charge instead of adding another power source and attributing it to the gas.
"This car gets 35 (or whatever) mpg but with an electric range of 40 miles you may not even burn a drop driving to work during the week! And even when you do go on that weekend cruise, you can stretch that gallon further with overnight charges that only cost you 5 cents per mile (or whatever)." That's impressive, if not magical, and it's also simple and honest.
You've been corrected (see texaslabrat's reply). Electricity is not free, and since the majority of it will come from burning highly polluting coal, we're only transferring problems from one area to another. The volt is effectively a car that runs on coal....
As for GM, saying this car get's 230-300 MPG (I think that's the new lie) without discussing the real energy source transference is so disingenuous it isn't funny. It IS clever marketing though, and that's all most people can understand. Get a little more realistic and their eyes glaze over and they say things like "but this one goes to 11".....
People only hear what they want to hear, and won't ask the real questions...
Thanks for the nos.. That was helpful.
Also, this assumes that the ICE is 100% efficient. Most real world ICEs are about 30% efficient. That would put the Volt at about 55 MPG. Granted that an engine tuned to a single speed engine, plus no transmission losses, would make this engine a little more efficient than "normal" ones.
Even if the Li batteries tend to be 80% efficient, it would still mean about 73 MPG.
I'm glad you found it useful. Actually, it makes no assumption at all regarding efficiency of the motors...the relative efficiences fall out of the equation since we are looking strictly at energy input versus distance traveled. So, the Volt is very much 110mpg during pure-electric mode travel in a straight-up apples-to-apples way due to its very high efficiency in how it uses the energy available to it while in pure-electric mode. Once the range extender kicks in after 40 miles, the overall efficiency will naturally fall since the range-extending ICE is less efficient than the pure electric mode. In summary...the Volt is really and truly a 110mpg vehicle from a straight-up energy consumption point of view when in pure-electric mode if my input assumptions about charging efficiency etc were correct.
Moral of the story..don't read more into the analysis than is there as you'll just get yourself off-track and come to invalid conclusions. Now, while the apples-to-apples comparison is valid from an energy consumption point of view, I did not analyze the price-per-mile issue since electricity prices can vary so widely from region to region, and even the time of day the charging is done. Where I live, @3.00/gal for gasoline and $0.15/kWh the Volt would be roughly half the cost per mile to drive for my daily commute (which happens to be nearly exactly 40 miles round-trip) compared to my current car assuming all highway driving (@30mpg). With rush-hour stop-and-go...the ratio gets considerably better.
Its easier to convert 100k power plants then it is 4 billion cars. At the same time we are researching cleaner energy.
This thing will be a flop until they can get the cost down to 20-25K when most of the middle classc can afford one.
Unless you live in a cold region most hotels don't have the plug ins available to charge your care to begin with. That said, it's a fair commenet as travelers would be running on gas/regenerative power like a normal hybrid.
Wallowing pig? You clearly have not driven a Cobalt SS, a new Camaro, or a Caddy CTS. Heck even a Malibu, according to Motor Trend:
Measured against the Honda Accord, "On a curvy road, the Chevy heightens the fun factor, providing superior ride composure, the ability to perform fingertip shifts, and communicative, albeit slightly heavy, steering that carves tighter, crisper lines. Hop on the highway, and the Malibu continues to separate itself, delivering a softer, quieter ride and power that, while down 14 horses, seems to pull more strongly and naturally."
What happens when you need to have the batteries serviced?
Does your typical 50k mile warranty cover the batteries? Or just the moving components?
Do you happen to have a reference on the gov't mandated battery life guarantees?
Say I?m on a long road trip (300+ miles) and after about 40 miles the batteries are half-drained so the engine kicks in to re-charge them. However, as I understand it, the engine in the volt is a puny one (1.3 litres???) and I?m still rolling along the highway at 120kmh. Assuming this was a regular car without an electric drivetrain, a 1.3 litre engine would be incapable of propelling a full size sedan with 4 passengers and their luggage and a 400lb weight (batteries) under the seats at highway speeds of 120kph. Therefore, once the engine kicks in, the batteries are still needed to maintain the speed and, therefore, they are still being depleted, albeit more slowly. Eventually, the batteries will run dry completely and the vehicle is now dependent upon the gas engine feeding electricity into the batteries which is immediately used by the motor, but there?s not enough power being provided by the engine, so the car must slow down. Yes?? The engine cannot generate enough energy to maintain the vehicle speed as such a small engine would not be able to maintain the speed of the vehicle were it driving the car directly.
So what does happen on a long trip? What speed does the car slow down to? What?s the effect on completely drained batteries?
The place I could see problems is a fully-loaded Volt doing an extended mountain climb that exceeds the available battery pack reserves. Based on discussion I've seen on Prius forums, this is only rarely an issue (someone mentioned dropping to 50mph for example). Since the Volt will have a significantly larger battery, the issue should come up even less frequently.
Powered parking meters is not a new idea. This may be the first time you're read it, but it has been discussed widely and for many years. A problem with electric vehicles is that if you don't live in suburbia, you have a recharging issue. Those of us that do, or have, lived in big cities where parking is a problem face currently intractable problems of how to recharge.
High density housing is a reality and as people move back into the core cities it will become a larger issue. Simply saying that city dwellers won't or can't have cars is not the solution.
On another note, a potential solution do drained batteries (though still faced with many issues) is a "quick change" option.Pull into a service station, the battery is dropped out, a fresh one is put in, and in the same amount of time it takes to fill your tank you're on your way. Obviously, issues such as supply, storage, charging, changing procedures would need to be addressed. I'm not suggesting this is the answer, but it would solve "some issues". I can't say if it's practicable or not, but long term there will be NO more gas... Something has to be done...
As for swappable batteries...that's going to be tough to get all car makers to agree on a form factor for standardazation AND a common frame that allows for swapping in the first place (the Volt's platform, for instance, uses the battery packs in such a way to make a "quick swap" virtually impossible). I think by the time such issues could be ironed out that fast-charge technology (in both the batteries and the related hardware) can make enough progress to make battery quck-swapping unnecessary. There have already been several recent advances in fast-charge implementations that promise to make charging (at least to say 80% capacity or so) take about as long as filling a typical gas tank at a filling station.
After all, it economies of scale can drive down cost of production so they should not use the R&D and cost to manufacture as justification for a 40k sticker price . That will sure price out lots of consumers.
It will take millions of plug-in electric cars before overall electric demand is affected much.
The math is that hard...instead of ranting how about just figure it out yourself?
8kWh times rate of electricity = cost to recharge car overnight. This isn't 4th year calculus we're dealing with here....
news flash.. this car is NOT meant for consumers. This car is a marketing tool, intended for wealthy individuals that can afford to purchase what they want when they want.
In 2020, things may be different and YOU might be able to afford an electric vehicle, but if you're worried about the price today, you're not a potential customer. OTOH, there are great alternatives like the prius available today.
A $32k car (after subsidy) is hardly a car for the "wealthy". It's certainly not going to be competing against the $9000 hyundais or kias for price..but it's not out of reach for the middle- and upper-middle class who would normally buy vehicles in the $30-$40k range anyway (but for whom saving $100 or more per month in fuel costs would make a noticeable difference). But I agree...someone who is worried about $1/day to recharge probably isn't in a position to purchase ANY vehicle..much less this one.
Perhaps with such a large open bed area in back, a larger battery pack could be put in underneath the floor with extended range/capacity.
In Home Power magazine, a few issues ago, there was an article about a lady in Anacortes who bought a electric vehicle to use for commuting. She installed a solar array to charge it. Her SUV was used only for occasional trips with several people on weekend camping trips. The electrical vehicle cost less then $40,000; thus leaving some money for the solar installation.
Answer the Volt is too later too late.
Try to think more than one-dimensionally on this issue...
Maybe you didn't hear that man-made global warming from C02 is a fraud. A con game. A power grab. Yet another excuse to raise your taxes and lower your freedom. Want some proof? How about this study?
http://surfacestations.org/
It shows with evidence that 90% of our 1221 US surface temperature recorders are placed next to artificial heat sources (like asphalt drives, air conditioners, electronics, etc) which didn't exist 100 years ago. There's your 1 degree temperature increase over the last century.
I'm not sure if that's deliberate or accidental, but it seems to be a common pattern among climate change alarmists. If one shows that average temps have actually dropped the last ten years, the subject gets changed to the 100 year trend. If one points out the bogus data behind the fake 100 year trend (like I did), the subject gets changed to melting glaciers. Did our evil USA C02 become self-aware and migrate so it could only attack glaciers? Or could the glaciers be melting as part of natural temperature cycles that have been in play for millions of years?
Are the scientists measuring glacier-melt as incompetent as those measuring surface temps in the USA? I don't live near a glacier, so I can't say. But I bet the solution to glacier-melt will be bigger government and higher taxes.
As for your question on whether CO2 decided to attack only glaciers...Ironically the answer is "yes". And that's a piece of the physics that so many people (including so-called scientists) don't seem to understand. On the whole, water vapor has a MUCH higher impact on greenhouse effects than does CO2 thus CO2 plays a trivial role in warming over most of the globe. I'm sure you'll agree with me there. However, in the polar regions and high up in the mountains there is precious little water vapor. The effects of higher concentrations of CO2 become more pronounced in those areas as it becomes the majority driver for greenhouse effects, and the localized temperature gains are higher than the global average. For instance, Alaska has reported a whopping 3 degree F increase in the mean temp (and 4deg F in the far north near Barstow) over the last 30 years which has been responsible for the melting of the permafrost and ice floes. Next, people point out that the sun is the greatest driver of the climate..and once irrefutable proof the arctic and alpine temperature increases are pointed out they blame it on solar cycles. Which is very intuitive, until you look at the mean solar irradiance for the past 30 years and see that it has been decreasing, on average, from the point recorded in 1979 til now (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/IRRADIANCE/irrad.html). If anything, the earth (and especially the arctic regions) should be significantly colder now with thicker ice compared to 1979 if based solely on solar output. The excuses are running thin, wouldn't you say? But yeah, I'm sure it's all just a grand conspiracy to raise our taxes.
Electric power plant efficiency - coal, NG, nuclear (all about the same): 40% (The rest is heat dumped into the environment.)
Electric grid efficiency: 92% (a published, probably optimistic value)
AC to DC converter efficiency: 85% (guesstimate)
Efficiency of charging a Li-ion battery: 85% (they get hot)
Efficiency of electric motors: 85% (they also get hot)
Overall efficiency (product of the above): 22.6%
Compare with modern clean diesel cars: 45 - 48% This seems an obvious choice to me !
People who live where they get cheap subsidized electricity think they are getting something for nothing, but ultimately society (we) must pay the total end-to-end cost.
Conversion efficiency from sunlight to carbon entrapment: 1%
Carbon entrapment plus geological upheaval plus geothermal heat and millions of years later, we get oil. Massive amounts of energy wasted here to get oil, imagine millions of years and the tremendous pressure and heat plus the energy required to bury the carbon sources.
Then we spend energy to drill the ground, pump the oil, refine the oil, distribute the oil. Then factor in the 45% efficiency of modern diesel cars, it is like multiplying it with zero so that the overall efficiency from the sun to move the wheels will be near zero.
More than a million times better efficiency is when you charge your batteries from the sun using today's solar PVs.
Solar PV to charging your battery will have minimal losses, and there are no grid distribution losses. Overall efficiency from the sun to your wheels could be had at 10% if you use cheapo solar PV and near 30% if you use the more high-end ones.
And you can't use the argument of using biodiesel, just at a start, the best efficiency that you will get from plants or algae would be miniscule compared to today's solar PV. By far, the solar PV is the best source of power that you can use to charge the Chevy Volt.
Solar PV and EV are perfect match for your commuting needs. The Volt will let you have that choice of not using any oil at all if you keep your daily range within the vehicle's state of charges. Not buying a drop oil from the people who hate us is simply priceless, it beats all types of overall efficiency calculations.
Some issues: 1) Modern power plants can exceed 50% net efficiency. 2) Your quoted net efficiency for diesel cars is WAY too high. If you want to try and stick by those numbers, please provide a reference with real data...however those numbers are more like the ideal at-the-flywheel efficiency and not average at-the-wheels efficiency. Net efficiency to the wheels is significantly affected by the transmission and differential as well as driving conditions (the effects of which electric cars are largely immune from). Not to mention you fail to mention all the energy and labor (including military labor) it took to get the diesel fuel from the oil well to the filling station. In today's economy, when broken down to the lowest common denominator with modern macroeconomic models wealth is basically equivalent to units of energy available to produce goods and services. The fact that the Volt is 2 - 6 times (depending on the comparison used) more efficient in terms of dollars per mile means that it is more energy efficient in the grand scale of things. You don't think the utilities are going to be giving you free energy out of the goodness of their hearts, do you? Think about that when you are pondering "end to end" costs...
A standard hybrid recycles energy. You burn diesel (or gas since I have yet to see a diesel hybrid) and accelerate the car. When you brake a normal car losses all the kinetic energy while a hybrid converts at least some of the kinetic energy back into potential energy which is then be recycled. That's why hybrids are efficient. More so than gas/diesel cars by themselves.
Most power companies are regulated monopolies. They are not subsidized. I live where Hydro Power is a big part of the power generated. Lucky me. It's cheaper. In time maybe not.
The mining of nickel for the batteries in Canada has a significant environmental impact as well - think acid rain - not to mention shipping it from Canada to Wales, to China and then to Japan, all on a carbon producing ship. NASA astronauts have practiced driving moon buggies on the deforested area surrounding the nickel mine. According to CNW Market Research (the source of this information), a Prius has an energy dollar per mile cost (over the lifetime of the vehicle) of $3.25 compared to the Hummer H3 with a cost of $1.93
Keep researching? Yes. But don't bring something to market just to make people feel good. Our environmental care should be driven by facts not political power-brokers.
Thanks for the info that the battery is actually 16 kWH (equi to 80 miles if fully depleted). The Solectria (modified Chevy Geo Metro) that I was testing in '98 would give about 30-40 miles to a charge. Granted, we were doing only short 3-4 mile runs at a time till the battery depleted. I was wondering, why after all these years the range was only 40 miles, but your article clarified it.
BACKGROUND: the car Is being designed to be used only for short trips of about 40 miles powered by a 400 pound Lithium Ion battery and a 149hp electric motor which provides about 4 miles of driving per kilowatt hour of electricity. In other words the battery holds a 10kwh charge which will power the Volt for about 40 miles. It has been estimated that this will serve the daily needs of most users going to and from work. The car is then to be plugged into a standard AC electric outlet and recharged during the night and be ready in the morning for another daily 40 mile trip. Learning from their previous electric car disaster the EV1, GM is also including a 100hp gasoline engine with 7gal gas tank that will drive a large generator that will power the electric motor if/when the battery can no longer do so. This is take place primarily if the driver continues to operate the vehicle after driving it for 40mi and not recharging it. The gas powered generator is not allowed to recharge the battery under any circumstances.
PROBLEM 1: is purchase price. I do not know many people who are ready, willing and able to pay $40,000 for a small car to drive back and forth to work on a daily basis. Sure there are a few that will buy it but not nearly enough to make this product profitable. And all of the current ?hype? that it gets 230mpg is all smoke and mirrors as new measurement standards are being developed by the EPA.
PROBLEM 2: is operating costs. Most areas of the country have ?tiered? electrical rates based upon the amount of usage. In my neck of the woods (CA) electricity costs $.26 per kwh at the tier 3 level which is easily reached during the summer due to AC. In other words recharging their Volt on a daily basis is at the highest rate that they are paying for all other utilities which is greater than the baseline rate quoted which was estimated to be about $.11 per kwh or $.03 per mile cost. Realistically it is more likely to average $.05 per mile which ?equates? to about 60mpg and would be as high as $.0625 per mile equating to 48mpg at the tier 3 rate. Additionally, today?s gasoline prices are going down and electric rates going up putting a damper on the long term outlook. When driven more than 40 miles the volt is no better than most hybrids on the market today that cost a whole lot less and deliver about 50mpg.
PROBLEM 3: when everything is running according to plan the gasoline engine, tank and generator are ?excess baggage and costs? used only for an emergency. I think that it would be a lot smarter to eliminate them and have warning lights indicating when the battery is getting low and will need recharging. The EV1 was too limited in mileage for this to be effective.
PROBLEM 4: if the driver wishes to use this car for much longer trips or on vacation the battery becomes 400lbs of excess weight and there is no easy way to temporarily remove it for this usage. I think that GM should include a switch that will allow the driver to recharge the battery while driving more than the 40 mile limit making it more like all of the hybrid vehicles that are now available.
PROBLEM 5. most people are not going to like having to plug in their car every night to recharge it especially in the winter or when it is raining. Additionally many drivers do not have easy access to an AC outlet, especially those who live in apartments and some condominiums.
PROBLEM 6: we have all been using Lithium Ion batteries for the last 10 years in our cell phones and laptop computers and have not experienced one to last more than 3 years with good functionality. And we do not subject these devices to outdoor summers of Arizona or winters of North Dakota. The battery in the Volt costs about $8,000 and will have to be replaced about every 3 years regardless of what the warrantee states. GM will not be able to continue to support or sell additional Volts until this problem is solved which will require a totally new design which is being partially funded by our government at this time.
PROBLEM 7: is depreciation. With technology changing so rapidly the value of a 2011 Volt will decrease rapidly. What else is new?
re: problem 2: You are very naive if you think that gas prices will remain this low once the economies of the world recover. They are already on the way back up in case you've not noticed.
re: problem 3: It's a feature, not a bug. It's much better to have a "sure thing" when it comes to range rather than relying on an idiot light to prevent someone from getting stranded away from a charging station. Until there are charging stations everywhere, liquid fuel range extension is the only way to fly for the masses.
re: problem 4: It's a feature, not a bug. The built-in engine/generator are far too weak to be used in isolation. Unless you really want to try and pass someone on the highway with only 70hp on tap...even a Prius has a battery pack for such a purpose.
re: problem 5: Most people who have garages are/do. That's the vast majority of the people in the area where I live. Those who live in apartments and such sure..but even lots of those have covered parking where electrical outlets could easily be installed.
re: problem 6: That's because consumer lithium ion batteries typically get charged to 100% capacity and discharged to 0% which DRASTICALLY reduces their livespans. By limiting the charge to 80%, and the discharge to around 30% (not to mention these are custom-built for the purpose, unlike the Tesla which is using off-the-shelf laptop batteries)..the lifespan of the Volt's batteries can indeed reach the expected number of discharge cycles as has been predicted by GM. Your assertion that they will need to be replaced every 3 years is completely unfounded.
re: problem 7: Like you said..what else is new? Every car depreciates. Duh. Wait until gas gets close to $4 again and I think you'll see the light.
Problem 2: Still chaper than Gas now. Definitly cheaper than gas later.
Problem 3. You could say the same thing about fat americans. Lose some weight. See #1 above. Staging how much "battery" you need can save money and weight. Also you don't need a full blown gas motor. A smaller to charge the batteries is all you need. Less sever duty, less weight.
Problem 4. Same as 3, except it's a hybrid and the batteries are used to recycle energy. It's how the car runs. Not a problem at all.
Problem 5. I don't like filling my car up with gas and wished it just "ran" but it doesn't. I manage to plug in my laptop, I can probably plug in my car.
Problem 6: Regardless of whta the warranty states is your pessimistic opinion. However what was the proble,? We already know that the batteries need replaced at some point.
Problem 7: Depreciation isn't a problem specific to the Volt. We all drive used cars. Depreciation is normal in most all things except key collectables.
If it stays in idle mode a lot of gas could be wasted on a rolling terrain. Whereas constantly cycling on/off would mean a lot of wear on the engine.
Well, I'm sure the engineers will figure it out.
- by rgraham145 August 16, 2009 5:46 PM PDT
- Electric car trivia:
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (88 Comments)I'm a retired GM employee (staff architect) and was peripherally involved in the development/engineering
of the original GM electric car, which was first named the "IMPACT".
My team designed/built a Development Lab (southern Calif) for the electronic controller portion of the Impact.
The engineers who worked in this Lab were assigned the task of building a controller that could convert DC
voltage into a variable and lossless current in order to power a portable electric motor.
Electrical hobbyists know the problems of controlling the speed of a DC motor connected to a battery--resistors
create heat and waste valuable energy.
So, the creative engineers at GM SoCal developed an electronic controller which converted the DC battery current
into variable AC which then powered a synchronous AC drive motor with very little power loss.
Thus, the drive-by-wire, step-less, electric accelerator pedal was born.
I was given a ride in one of the test "IMPACT" and was impressed with the acceleration and lack of engine noise.
Since the original test vehicles were powered by lead acid batteries the range was limited and a tow truck was constantly
on standby for retrieval.
As the development progressed the name of the EV was changed from "IMPACT" to "GM EV1" and in a December
1996 promotion several hundred people in Calif were signed up to lease the vehicles. Actor Ed Begely Jr. was one of the
more recognizable.
Since the response the "EV1" was so positive (everyone loved the car) I signed up for the lease program when the battery
packs were upgraded to NIMH in '99--extending the range another 30+ miles. But shortly before the delivery of my EV1 was
scheduled I was informed that due to the GM/Gov CARB suit the program had been cancelled.
Lesson learned--the fed is much more supportive of alternative energy and the EV technology has quantum improvements,
coupled with over two decades of GM R&D of electric vehicles, giving me the faith that the VOLT will be the next MODEL "T".
I am currently on the VOLT waiting list.