First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next week

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Before the bashing starts I would like to say I'm happy GM had sold their first volt, I think the Volt is the first car that Gm had sold that shows that they have a chance and can build a greener car than they always have. Hopefully after 10 more years of improvements and learning they will be a serious green car company. Every day that goes by is one closer to the earth being damaged beyond repair. I continue to hope people and companies work past their greed and start working on solving the problems we are having on this planet.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

I'm not bashing but pointing out that this isn't GMs first "green" car. Do you recall the EV1?

General Motors Holden, an Australian subsidiary of GM made a hybrid big car prototype in the late 90s, with lots of help from the CSIRO, a government agency but did nothing with the technology. http://www.fastlane.com.au/news/holden_ecommodore.htm

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

I said "Sold" i wrote it that way because i know they leased the ev1's and never intended to sell them.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Oh . . . wait a minute . . . GM promised they'd beat Nissan's Electric car (the Leaf) to market with GM's electric car, the Volt.

Oh . . . wait a minute . . . the first Leafs are already in production.

Oh . . . wait a minute . . . the Volt is NOT an electric car. Oh well, what's just one more broken promise.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Since neither the price nor the efficieny goals have been met yet, not to mention emission-rating, some of us ask "did what?" Is it bashing when you judge by their own original goals?

This is a big milestone, but not a competitive release. Remember what happened with Two-Mode...
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Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

I have my doubts how well PHV in general will compete against HV or EV, but if I am wrong, Toyota will tack on a bigger battery to its 14 AER PHV, and then GM will have to compete based on reputation, reliability, and cost for the most part.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Volt is greener than a comparable non-hybrid but it is not as green as Prius or the Leaf. It comes close but with a very high price tag. I hope whoever that can afford buy the Volt, instead of a gas guzzler.



Note that Prius and Leaf are 5 seats mid-size cars. Volt is a 4 seats compact while Tesla roadster is a 2 seat subcompact sports car.

Source

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

I think it worthwhile to point out that GM has decided for now to build the Volt in the HUNDREDS, and delay until the future anything approaching mass production. The why ? is an interesting question, one I cannot answer with confidence at the moment.

Prototype stage ?
No market ?
Inadequate support post-sales ?
Manufacturing problems ?
All of the above, and more ?

When the car is running around in 10s of thousands it will deserve to celebrated as a mass market release, for now it is a PR gig. Same for the LEAF, by the way.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Dennis, which pollutants are measured ?

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

That chart I posted only shows CO2 in tons. Check the source link I provided for more detail.

It was derived from their eRating that took account of the total life cycle based on the US government data. I posted another thread about eRating comparison between Prius, Leaf and the Volt.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

I agree, something is fishy about the graph. I am highly skeptical that petrol combustion ("gasoline") in a Prius only accounts for a couple percent of the CO2 lifecycle. Maybe in the first year only, but that is hardly a useful measure.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

It takes fuel to generate electricity. Currently in the US, 51% of the electricity comes from Coal. They generate a lot of CO2 and that's the reality of it now. The chart is based on the average (of all states) emission data from the US government.

As you pointed out, Solar and Wind won't produce any CO2 (just during manufacturing) but they still represent a tiny part of how we generate electricity in this country. Renewable energy is the direction we want to go.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Great point. The chart is for annual emission yet they included the manufacturing of the car which only happens once in a life cycle. It is a bit confusing. We should only look at the top two (pink and brown).

This is their explanation:

It correlates with the GHG chart from DOE report below. A standard hybrid (Prius) ~270 gram/mi, pure EV (Leaf) ~290 gram/mi and PHV40 (Volt) ~310 gram/mi. Non-hybrid is way on top ~390 gram/mi.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Few things to note. Ironically this first customer was a Prius driver (and we all know about the Prius bashing coming from GM management this week).
The Volt is not rated PZEV like the Prius and many other regular gas cars so it does have higher emissions when on the gas mode. Some say this was done to avoid having to provide a 10yr/150K battery warranty in states like CA.
Also I agree GM is beta-testing these first target customers. Over the last year they promised MANY fleet tests of Volts out in the public with either utilities, government fleets or others. I cannot find one instance where this actually came to fruition. Instead, all testing of Volt models this year has been done by GM employees/engineers internally except for the last month where they did release a small handful to some enthusiast to try out before public release. Its like they are letting the public test them out and work out the kinks they didn't find themselves and this is a very carefully orchestrated PR show.
I do wish the best for GM and the technology but not seeing it yet. Its almost as if the Volt was designed to just barely meet the requirements to be classified as an EV and get the max federal rebate ($7,500) rather than a true EV with on-board generator like they claim.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

True for Nox, Sox etc but NOT CO2.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Huh? They are building the Volt in hundreds yes... hundreds per WEEK! They are clearly in mass production mode now.

Hah! They are all sold out for 2010-2011. We all know there is a market, for the Volt, Prius and Leaf.

Link please. Otherwise its pure FUD and more of your typical Volt bashing.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Its because the chart is wrong. It does not properly account for the emissions used in making the gas itself. It takes a ton of power (oil, gas, electricity etc) to refine crude oil into gas.

According to most its 7.5KwH to make one gallon of gas. The Leaf can go half as far on JUST THAT as the Prius does on the gas itself. Add 50% into the gas equation and it will look quite different.

Watt's Next: Your Thoughts - NYTimes.com

"It takes about 7.5 kwh of electric power to refine a gallon of gasoline. An electric car can go 25 miles on that much power. So your conventional gasoline car is already consuming just as much electricity as my electric car. —"