…up to 40 miles.”

Whenever I hear a manufacturer say “…up to” I start to worry. That usually means what some professional test driver was able to achieve under ideal conditions, and of course, as we all know, “Individual results may vary.”

Instead of “…up to 40 miles.” I’d like to know the actual single-charge range under typical driving conditions. What would a normal person get driving in stop-and-go traffic, with several items of electrically-powered equipment turned on such as the sound system, air-conditioner, headlights, or the heater and defroster in the winter.

So GM, instead of saying “…up to 40 miles.” how about telling us the expected range under typical, real-world conditions.

The sheetmetal looks like a Cobalt sedan with a Cobalt hatchback tail. Smells like inbreeding. Perhaps for a bold new look maybe GM should have studied more.

I hope the drivetrain is more revolutionary, but the exterior design needs more than tweaks. If it goes south, at least GM can finger the battery makers.

Why don’t they have it covered in canvas, or painted with some distorted geometric shapes as they usually do when they take a pre-production model out on the road?

Usually they are worried about industrial espionage or freelance photographers getting a scoop, but not this time.

I agree with #1 – “up to” is a very worrisome phrase. I would expect that they’ll be a bit more sure about how many miles you’ll be getting once it’s actually released.

excited for the new volt. anything with a battery is a huge step for GM. just please don’t let it look or drive anything like the plastic prius.

Took a look at this post with an open mind toward the New GM and the New Chevy Volt.

But what do I see? A car which couldn’t possibly look more like a Toyota Prius, with performance claims which are both improbable and not clearly better than what is already on the market.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe the restructuring of GM was important and necessary – but this looks like a disaster in the making.

They should not believe their own ad campaigns hyping innovation – they should deliver some.

This is almost a joke. The EV1 which the geniuses at GM smashed had a range of close to 150 miles on one charge with the NiMH battery. Here is the testimony of one driver: ” Total for the day’s drive on one charge: 146 miles with 1 bar/5 miles range remaining.”

The same geniuses sold the patent for the NiMH battery to Chevron who locked it up. The Toyota Rav4 Electric is also reported to have a range of about 150 miles with the NiMH battery.

If our Administration really wants to bring on an electric car revolution, it will force Chevron to make the NiMH battery available for electric cars.

Explain to me the advantage of the volt over my new Prius. What is the new technology that the Volt uses that my Prius does not have?

Blue Flame: There’s all kinds of “typical” driving. In my experience with an EV, you get best first-charge range going about 30 to 35mph steadily — that’s how I get to work, mostly on four to six-lane boulevards with nicely-time stoplights so I stop only a couple of times on the commute. I have confidence that the Volt would get me to work and back without burning gas. Slow stop-and-go, like getting the kids to school and then shopping in the neighborhood, is also a good duty cycle for an EV with regen braking. Where you’ll lose out on the initial “up to 40″ mileage is in heavy freeway traffic, where you sprint to 65mph and then slow suddenly for traffic and then accelerate heavily again, all the way into the city. If that’s typical for you, ride the train.

Claims of quality and features before commercial launch often ends in a past fantasy after the launch and when customer actually uses it. And we also need to see how Eco-friendly it stands against promises of the manufacturer.
Even in tough times GM is trying to bring this out is worth appreciation.

“Explain to me the advantage of the volt over my new Prius. “

The main difference is that in the Volt, there is no mechanical drive to the wheels. The Volt is a true “series-hybrid” while the Prius is a “parallel-hybrid.” (Diesel-electric locomotives are also series-hybrids.)

In the Volt, propulsion always comes from electric motors at the wheels, which will get their electricity from the big battery. After “…up to 40 miles” the internal combustion engine will start, but its only function is to turn a generator to keep the battery recharged. There is no direct mechanical link between the internal combustion engine and the drive wheels.

The Prius is more complicated and needs sophisticated gearing, sensors, and couplings so that either an electric motor or the internal combustion engine can be connected directly to the drive wheels.

The Volt is less complicated, in theory, should cost less than a Prius. (But don’t hold your breath with regards to cost. The Volt will probably come in at $40-45k.)

i am underwhelmed by both the exterior design and the performance claims of this overpriced dog.

it looks like a cobalt bred with a saturn and should have been strangled at birth. GM just does not get the idea of attractive design right. as it is it is no better than the homely toyiota prius which gets better performance, has an excellent track record, and is much cheaper.

as for performance – ‘up to’ could mean with a tow-rope and a tailwind. and how long do these batteries last and how much will they be to replace? way too many questions remain to think of this as anything more than vaporware.

Lyle,

The volt is a plug-in hybrid. You can charge it in your garage.

-jon

Pre-Production? And what was before that: pre-pre-production? What nonsense. Obviously, too many old GMers still at GM still playing the same old game: PR for what they’re trying to push and PR against everything else. Wake me up when there’s some reality.

To clarify, as a ‘car guy’ (but no fan of GM) for those who are confused about the Volt…

It is significantly different than any of the existing hybrids, like Lyle’s Prius, because its powertrain runs ENTIRELY on electricity. The engine doesn’t drive the wheels, as it does on every hybrid currently made (that is, on cars like the Prius you can use batteries up to a certain point, then the engine kicks in to move the car. If your battery gets low it is recharged by braking (regenerative brakes)), and the car will be running entirely on gas until the battery recharges. In city driving the stop/go cycle keeps the battery charged… but on a long highway drive there is no braking to recharge the battery, and the car is running the same way as any small car with an engine does… 100% on gasoline.

This is why current hybrids get better MPG ratings in city driving, and lower on highway–the opposite of a normal car.
These types of hybrids improve gas mileage by keeping the engine shut down during what is the highest fuel-use/lowest mileage part of everyday driving– accelerating from a stop.

The Volt has a small engine, but it isn’t connected to the wheels… it only runs to charge the battery (or to keep it charged). So if you leave your house and drive 20 miles downtown, you will have used zero gasoline–only battery power. That isn’t true at all with a Prius, or any other current hybrid.

Think of it as an all-electric car with a generator under the hood to make electricity, rather than an engine, and you have a better idea.

Hope this helps clarify for some folks. All that said, there’s no way you’ll catch me dead in a Volt. I’ll stick to high mpg, efficient diesel for now.

D

To all you people who have negative thinking towards Detroit no matter what they try to achieve, I say, move to Japan. Comparing everything to a Toyota Prius is crazy, it’s the ugliest thing ever coming from a car company, as a matter of fact Toyota is known for making ugly cars but well received, go figure. I wonder about today’s tastes, mediocrity wins. I LOVE CHEVYS, CORVETTES, CADILLACS, BUICKS, GMC. PONTIACS, FORDS, MERCURYS, LINCOLNS, CHRYSLERS, DODGES, JEEPS, DESOTOS, OLDSMOBILES, PACKARDS, DUESENBERGS, CORDS, STUDERBAKERS, AURBURNS, AMC CARS…..AND IAM SURE I LEFT OUT A FEW OTHERS, YES NICE HISTORY OF GREAT CARS MADE HERE IN THE GOOD OLD USA. Not Japan.

The Volt concept car would’ve sold on looks alone. The car in the photo above is simply ugly. They should’ve just put the Volt’s mechanics in a Chevy Malibu (which is a beautiful sedan).

GM has hyped this vehicle for so long that anything less than perfection will be seen as a let down. For the same money, one could by the new, well-regarded, Ford hybrid.

Car aesthetes must realize that aerodynamic efficiency does not afford the styling appeal they feel accustomed to. Volt looks fine.

Wouldn’t we all feel better knowing GM is begging the government for money for cars like this, instead of to pay fees to Wall Street snake oil salesmen?

Notice also, Honda fears to tread on the complex ground of Toyota Synergy drive, holding to the much simpler Integrated Motor Assist.

Volt takes this a step further. Very cool.

I was skeptical of #7’s claim but then ran across a Wikipedia article covering a patent encumbrance of large automotive batteries.
read it. It should at least set you thinking.

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries

(Scroll to the right for the entire URL)

#7 has a good point. Thanks.

Desertstraw, the EV1 was not a full-size car. It makes no sense to compare it to the Volt, and it’s silly to pretend otherwise.

Style, looks, appearance. C’mon, quit it!

We need practical transportation, not babe lures. This car should run well and not break down. With batteries that don’t pollute when exhausted.

Lyle – the difference between a Volt and a Prius is that your Prius is powered mainly by gas, and the Volt is powered mainly by electricity.

Your Prius’s gas mileage gets some help from electricity stored in a small battery charged by braking, while the Volt is powered mainly by electricity, stored in a larger battery charged by plugging it into a socket in your garage, with some help from gas when it goes beyond its electric range.

Most Americans don’t drive more than 25 miles in a day on average, so even if the Volt doesn’t quite get 40 miles from its battery in the real world, most drivers will rarely need to refill its gas tank.

So, the advantage of the Volt is that it allows you to drive mainly on electricity, but you can still fuel it with gas if you need to. The advantage of electricity is that it’s much cleaner than gasoline – both for air quality and global warming – the price is a lot more stable than gas, and cheaper (although you’ll lose a lot of that cost advantage from the added price of the car), and it’s mostly domestically produced.

To me, that all adds up to an alternatively fueled car that’s much better than any other option on the market today, at least of any car that’s anywhere close to affordable (the Tesla gets over 200 miles on a charge, but it’s, well, pretty pricey).

I’m still not totally convinced they’re going to end up selling this car, just based on Detroit’s history with plug-in vehicles – I’ll believe it when I see it – but so far I don’t see anything to make someone skeptical about the technology. What they say they’ve designed so far looks like a car that will really maximize electric driving, while keeping the battery relatively small (compared with a fully electric car) and allaying worries about being able to travel a long way and needing to recharge on the road (since you can fill it up with gas).

After years of the same old automobile technology it is great to see GM do something innovative. I hope that they remember to build in quality. They have a reputation for building junk and that needs to be overcome.

It doesn’t look that bad to me. Its body style seems to me a mix between an Acura Integra and a Chevy Malibu.

It runs and you can plug the thing into your house? So what if the gas-combustion has to kick in to recharge the batteries after 40 miles? It’s a step in the right direction. Why all the haters?

How is Chevy going to sell this car? Here’s my take, in a nutshell: the media income of the US family means the target consumers can’t afford it.
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