Comments on: Volt: A Chevy facade

By: JayTee

JayTee — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:39:13 +0000

I think that instead of pointing out all the things the author got wrong in this article we should be searching for things he got right.

. I got nothing. You?

By: JayTee

JayTee — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:30:33 +0000

The author clearly knows little about battery technology.

The battery in the EV1 weighed 1200 pounds. Thats about one half the weight of the vehicle. Although GM claimed it went 80 miles on a charge – the actual was more like 55.

Electric vehicles have come light years in the last decade…..and they’re still not competitive with gas/diesel engines. Even with the Federal subsidy an EV costs nearly twice what a gas equivalent costs.

Sure – the Tesla can go 200 miles – but it costs $110,000. The power train alone probably adds $60,000 to the cost of the Lotus body.

By: Jeff N

Jeff N — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:21:03 +0000

“Could it all have something to do with the fact that in electric cars, there’s no oil to change, no exhaust or muffler to wear out, and no spark plugs, hoses, pistons or belts to replace?”

Most Volt owners are going to drive 75%+ of their miles using electricity. At that rate, they will put less than 38,000 miles of wear on the gas engine over 150,000 miles of driving.

If you follow the Volt’s recommended maintenance schedule, you will need to replace the oil once every 2 years. That’s about it…. They suggest changing the spark plugs after 100,000 miles of total driving but that’s unlikely to be needed.

Otherwise, they suggest changing the coolant a couple of times but that also applies to the battery pack and inverter so additionally changing the same kind of coolant for the engine doesn’t add much extra cost. Oh yeah, there is one cheap, simple, easy to replace belt that drives the engine coolant pump so maybe that gets replaced once along the way.

By: Jeff N

Jeff N — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:53:24 +0000

“But that drops to 37 mpg as soon as you’re using the generator – less than a regular old VW Jetta.”

Not really. Bother yourself to look at http://www.fueleconomy.gov.

The EPA combined city/hwy estimate for the Volt is 37. The estimate for the VW Jetta is 34 (diesel) and 27 (gasoline). After the Volt’s battery is depleted, it gets better gas mileage than the Toyota Camry hybrid and better combined mileage than any subcompact or larger non-hybrid car. Most Volt owners will be using electricity for the vast majority of their driving so even modest differences in gas mileage don’t matter much at the end of the month.

By: MyRights

MyRights — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:25:34 +0000

@Automobile Fan, What’s the homework professor? Really you haven’t made any valid points. I see some questions posed by the author, and some very valid ones. Are you working for the oil industry yourself? It’s no secret that they have played a huge hand in keeping this industry moving as slowly as possible. You should be a fan of the earth, not automobiles, because once this place tuns into a toxic cesspool you’ll really not have much to say.

By: jaytee

jaytee — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:07:09 +0000

I assume the author owns a Tesla.

By: Automobile Fan

Automobile Fan — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:31:51 +0000

Raggy Jin: You really shouldn’t be writing about anything auto related until you actually do your homework.

I’m gonna keep this article with your name on it just to remind me not to ever read anything you might right about within the auto industry.

It appears you just don’t know or understand the subject matter you have written about or are bias toward science fiction solutions that are not technologically available yet.