Yes we have.
So what? I see the need and it's my money.
Buy your own stuff and do what you want with it.
If I'm going to a place where I know there is nowhere to charge my car, and I want to travel locally on the batteries when I arrive, being able to charge the batteries with the engine would be a great idea to me. I could hit a switch a few miles out, and have a charged battery on arrival.
http://www.chevrolet.com/pages/open/default/future/volt.doHmmm, let's see, the biggest and most obvious one is EFFICIENCY AT A RANGE OF RPMS!!!!!!
A generator is designed to operate a peak efficiency at a single point in the rev range. A car engine is designed to operate over a wide range of RPMs.
See how Volt compares
The Volt propulsion system is powered exclusively by electricity. When its battery runs out of charge, it uses a small amount of gas in its onboard generator to create more electricity - enough to keep the Volt going for hundreds of miles.
Wow some of really look like idiots.
This is a low volume production car that is first gen on top of that. Only making 10k the first year they will sell out in no time. To put that in perspective GM usually makes/sells over 30thousand Corvettes every year, a car that starts in the high 40k and “makes no financial” sense to anyone.
Hell anything larger then a Chevy Aveo, Honda Fit, etc… “makes no financial” to the majority of buyers out there. Lamborghinis, Corvettes, and large SUVs that are only driven to the store by 1 person still sell plenty each year even though there are Cars/Trucks that make more financial sense.
The Volt is a first Gen product and if it works out and they can get the Battery tech down in cost and maybe more storage room will be in a lot of cars in our lifetimes. Look at the history of the Hybrid from the Insight to first gen prius to what we have now. Toyota admitted they lost money selling the first gen hybrids. Now they probable make a good amount of money and it helps their image as well.
The Volt will be around for at least 3-5 years. Unless it is a major failure its Tech will be around much longer.
/Comic Sans :twisted:
Why would you want to drive just on batteries though? While you're sitting in the driver's seat it doesn't make any difference at all whether it's powered by batteries or by the engine. The car will drive exactly the same. Having that option will have zero advantage to the consumer and many times if the consumer used it they'd end up getting WORSE performance. As a company Chevy has zero interest in spending time and money on features that don't provide any benefit to the target market.
uhhh... .0033 cents per mile?
did they ever run on the gas engine?
Whoever was asking about the "stale gas"
Have you solved the stale gas problem?
Im not so worried about that. Most people are going to use up some fuel at some rate, probably faster than six months. Fuel is certainly going to be good for six months without concern. Most people are going to take one or two long trips in six months. Were not designing this vehicle as a pure EV for a reason. Most people realistically while theyre going to get their 40 miles and theres going to be five days a week when they may never use any gas at all, theres a strong likelihood that they are going to use enough gas that this isnt going to be a significant problem for most people.
http://gm-volt.com/2009/05/26/volt-...-volt-gas-tank-size-and-stale-gas-management/
"most people"
pariah doesn't take trips more than 40 miles.
i guess he just won't charge it a few nights and force it to run on gas.
"most people"
pariah doesn't take trips more than 40 miles.
i guess he just won't charge it a few nights and force it to run on gas.
My shitty lawnmower manual says to dump old ass gas into my car since it supposedly can burn it without problems. I just throw it out but that is what it says. As mentioned, put some stabil in there.
This whole thread seems idiotic. No, this thing isn't more cost effective than riding your moped to work, but if people actually purchased cars from a cost effective standpoint the only cars anyone would buy would be used $3000 4 cylinder econoboxes. How many of you are currently driving those? I drive one, but most people sure as fuck do not!
Boo whoo! Wha! I can't believe this first of its kind car doesn't only cost $10K new, get 6000 miles per charge, tow my boat and excrete gold bars from its tail pipe! It only would work for my entire commute all year round and I'd have to buy a whole 9 gallons of premium gas once a year! I can't afford that along with my BMW payment! No one will ever buy one! GM should only make stick shift Aveos without stereos or air conditioning!
These things will fly off the lots. They aren't making that many of them at first and enough people do want them. $30K is expensive, but its not like people don't regularly buy cars in that price range already. And most of them are generic luxury cars that don't have the novelty factor of something like this. The prius sold and it makes no financial sense and looks retarded.
They have to start somewhere on this stuff, and this is a pretty damn good initial entry. I could see myself buying one if they shaved 5-10K off the price and I'm a cheap bastard. It'd help if it wasn't a GM but you can't have everything.
Whoever was asking about the "stale gas"
Have you solved the stale gas problem?
Im not so worried about that. Most people are going to use up some fuel at some rate, probably faster than six months. Fuel is certainly going to be good for six months without concern. Most people are going to take one or two long trips in six months. Were not designing this vehicle as a pure EV for a reason. Most people realistically while theyre going to get their 40 miles and theres going to be five days a week when they may never use any gas at all, theres a strong likelihood that they are going to use enough gas that this isnt going to be a significant problem for most people.
http://gm-volt.com/2009/05/26/volt-...-volt-gas-tank-size-and-stale-gas-management/
"most people"
pariah doesn't take trips more than 40 miles.
i guess he just won't charge it a few nights and force it to run on gas.
"most people"
pariah doesn't take trips more than 40 miles.
i guess he just won't charge it a few nights and force it to run on gas.
Batteries are wicked expensive, so that is surely the reason. I bet they could easily do 80 but raise the cost some thousands to do it. It's not that the tesla CAN do 200, it's that it HAS to do 200 because it has no backup. Imagine if it only did 40, its sales would suck!It's just the PR spin GM decided to take with the car. Also keep marketing costs down with social media since this is a high cost car due to new tooling and what not. I'm sure they could have fitted the car to go further, but decided to do the 40mi route and put a spin on it by stating stats of how a majority of Americans only need that much distance each day. I mean the Tesla Roadster can do 200+mi so the battery tech is there. Maybe it was a weight, fitment, and cost issue.
This is also a hilarious complaint. When electric cars are talked about, everyone usually goes "Oh well I couldn't possibly drive that! It's range is to short, I go on long trips occasionally so it would never work!" Now one comes out that has a solution for occasional long trips and the complaint is "This can't ever work for me because I NEVER go on long trips! Impossible!"
And here's a stupid obvious way to solve this problem if it kept you up at night. Don't charge the car up every once and awhile and just let it run on gas for a week or whatever.
Only briefly skimmed but if some of you are actually complaining about stale gas (btw I HAVE used gas a year old and I believe it is the reason my lawnmower got screwed after and required a carb cleaning, so I think 6 months is as long as you should go without stabilizer) then you are just "lookin' to hate". Hell, if you've gone 6 months without going through a tank of gas you are a perfect candidate for this, assuming you're driving at all.
Batteries are wicked expensive, so that is surely the reason. I bet they could easily do 80 but raise the cost some thousands to do it. It's not that the tesla CAN do 200, it's that it HAS to do 200 because it has no backup. Imagine if it only did 40, its sales would suck!