CR says Volt too pricey

Great overview. They touch on many shortcomings and point out the misleading MPG. It is great to see them cover the electricity consumption in detail.

Without mentioning anything about emission, CR concluded that Volt is green. It runs on electricity doesn't mean it is green. Volt is a car with SUV ideology - has "what if and safe to have" features. It is an electricity hungry car that gets okay gas mileage with acceptable tailpipe emission.

 

Lol what a stupid computer the volt has.

So if you only use electricity, the screen should praise the driver saying "INFINITY MPG!!" - which is obviously not true....

65mpg is the true figure for electric only, which IMHO, is quite sad for such a touted EV/hybrid. In Consumer Report's example, the Volt's true mpg over 155 miles was 58.2mpg. Now, that is not what you're paying for gas, since electricity is much cheaper. But it finally shows that the Volt is not that much greener than the Prius.

 

That assumed gasoline can be converted to electricity at 100% efficiency. Power plants are only 50% efficient so go figure!

What's more sad is that GM is taunting Volt as an electric car yet, it displays the consumption in gallons (not kWh). How misleading is that? That's like saying Prius gets infinite miles per kWh.

 

clever.

 

I'm going to break this down further - pay attention ladies and gentlemen:

Let's compare a Volt and a Prius over 200,000 miles. I'm going to give the Volt some major advantages -- let's say over those 200,000 miles its all electricity and NEVER uses gas. Let's also say Consumer Report's figure for was a little high (5.7 cents per mile) so I'll round down to 5 cents per mile. CR's figure for the Prius is a little unfair (6.8 cents per mile) as it assumes an average fuel economy of 44 mpg -- we all know that this a low-end figure, but I won't change it!! Again I want the Volt to have as much advantage over the Prius as possible.

Prius: 200,000 miles x 6.8 cents/mile = $13,600 spent on gas
Volt: 200,000 miles x 5.0 cents/mile = $10,000 spent on electricity

The average initial price difference between the lowest package Volt and highest package Prius is (and I'll even throw in the Volt's $7500 rebate!): $33500 (Volt) - $30000 (Prius) = $3500.

The new Volt is at least $3500 more expensive than a new Prius anyway you shake it. Add that to the cost of electricity over 200,000 miles ($10,000) and that's $13500. Remember the equivalent energy cost of a Prius was $13600. So how much more does a Volt save you over 200,000 miles? A whopping $1000.

Remember, these are in the utmost ideal conditions in order to make an argument for the Volt. Here are the fallacies and why it goes nowhere but downhill for the Volt:

1) You're never going to use ONLY electricity (i.e. 5 cents/mile) over a 200,000 mile lifetime.
2) Not everybody will reach 200,000 miles on the Volt -- will it even be possible? Who knows.
3) A Prius gets more than 44mpg, and therefore would yield a figure lower than 6.8 cents/mile, shrinking the Volt's margin of savings
4) I rounded the cost of electricity down. Had I used CR's figure, it would also shrink the Volt's margin of savings
5) Not everybody will receive the $7500 rebate
6) Not everybody will choose a low-end volt over a high-end Prius, so the initial price difference will be greater than $3500

So as you can see, it's very unlikely you would save more money with a Volt, than a Prius.

 

Don't forget that Prius is one size class bigger and tailpipe + evaporative emission is much lower than the Volt.

Lowest Prius starts at $23k while lowest Volt starts at $41k.

 

The Volt is horribly expensive compared to a Prius. A realistic capitalization difference is $15k, or about $1000 a year just in interest. That is more than I pay for fuel.

Soo compared to a Volt ... My Prius costs me $15,000 less to buy, and my fuel is free.

 

By MSRP, yes.

But Prius below msrp are widely available, it is easy to avoid dealer add-ons, and taxes are about one half.

 

+1. And as I dilineated, you will never come out on top with a Volt as much as a Prius.

 

It is funny that Prius was compared to a smaller non-hybrid (Corolla) to justify the hybrid premium.

Now, we are comparing Volt with a bigger hybrid (Prius) to justify the plugin premium.

 

"It is built on the Chevrolet Cruze platform and comes nicely equipped. And with such elaborate engineering, you shouldn't expect it to come cheap; ours cost $43,700, including options (but with a $5,000 dealer markup, it set us back $48,700)."

What an OVERPRICED TURD, and that 5k dealer markup makes it even more assinine!

So much for a car for the masses!

 

I wonder if CR included $2k for the 240v charger. Without it, a full charge would take 10 hours and the pre-conditioning feature would be crippled - rely on gas engine to warm up.

The advantage of a small battery is the 3 hours full charge from the regular plug. Low hanging fruits are the sweetest, so I claim.

 

Sounds like they did, but it still took a long time... link

He was said the five hour time to recharge the Volt was "annoying" and was also critical of the power of the Volt heating system.
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What I got a kick out of was this rebuttal article posted the following day: link

Notice how the PHV model is always avoided in comparisons, how the no-plug Prius is holding its own without any need? Just think what the situation is next year, when the plug-in provides that big MPG boost for way less than what Volt will still be selling for.
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I read that article today and it was funny. The author sounds like he's about to refute CR's claims, but then doesn't follow through. You know why? Because CR NAILED IT!

 

Here's a quote from the CR article, "...ours cost $43,700, including options (but with a $5,000 dealer markup, it set us back $48,700). Consumers will be eligible for a $7,500 electric-vehicle tax credit, which should lessen the sting. Some states offer additional incentives. "

What pisses me off is dealers willing to charge outrageous profits in the form of "dealer markup" and consumers willing to pay outrageous profits. In this case, the dealer's markup nearly cancels out the Fed's tax credit. That's just not right, on all sides of the ledger. And all this for a car that we're concluding may have no cents per mile advantage over Prius. This just doesn't make cents!

 

Welcome to the world of government subsidies, aka- "corporate welfare". And this is but one tiny example.

 

The Chevy Volt has all ready been a success even before the first one was ever sold!

How? The Volt, in the eyes of GMs' board of directors is nothing more than a chess piece to acquire and receive taxpayers' stimulus money.

The Volt did this - convincing Congress and the inner beltway bandits in Washington to fork over yours and mine hard earned dollors. The GM board fully knows the Volt can never save the corporation, nor will it. The Volt DOES give GM some time, to try to turn itself around or enables the board of directors to sweeten and enhance their "Golden Parachutes" on their exit from the company.

Where do I get this info? - Business Week, Forbes, and CNN, for starters. Also having an ear to some industry inside info doesn't hurt either.

You got to give GM credit - we taxpayers are being takened for a ride. We, and generations after us will be paying dearly for the GM stimulas bailout, even if GM goes belly up!.

What stinks about the Volt and the bailout caper is, how many small family run businesses hav received any, if at all, stimulas money?

Answer: very, very few.

Back on topic, the Volt, like the EV-1, will more than likely be a short lived product, typical of GM short term planning.

DBCassidy

 

Especially if they continue to allow this type of shenanigan.

One Chevy dealer emphasizes "suggested" in MSRP with $65,590 Volt price tag — Autoblog Green

 

Power plants are closer to 25% efficient because of waste thermal loss, generation loss, and transmission line loss. That is why distributed power (e.g. solar panels on your house, solar hot water, local windmills) makes more sense, including reducing the need for expensive upgrades to the grid.