Edmunds has the Chevy Volt in their long term fleet

You guys are pretty hard on each other. Personally, I am grateful to all that are willing to serve, and do so honorably.

 

That's kind of an irony. When someone switches over to electric mode ... often the thinking seems to frequently say, "I'm not using Gas, so I can now go balls out" ... as though because one has just increased efficiency by over 80% ... it's suddenly cool and good to burn out, or whatever. Ok, I DO enjoy the fun of fast acceleration once in a blue moon .... I'm just saying. Put another way, I've found that (regardless of that fact that I can blow the doors off the Volt with my Leaf) one can increase "fuel" economy in electric mode(s) just like one can increase fuel economy in an ICE. So ... I've gone from getting 4.2 miles per kWh to 5.3 miles per kwh ... and that CAN be more fun imo, than simply gunning it ... because it actually takes skill. A whole lot more skill.

 

You are exactly right. In fact, I bought a hybrid in some part to encourage myself to drive safer by not riding the accelerator and brake, the same as I do in my wife's Prius to eek out a few extra mpgs.

Even though the Volt has an all-electric drivetrain, it's still using more energy to accelerate briskly than gradually. That can mean the difference between 30miles and 40 miles on a charge. On the plus side, presumably it's still more efficient and less polluting than doing the same kind of acceleration in a gas or hybrid vehicle.

Anyway, as I said, it was a fun change of pace coming from driving two hybrids daily.

 

Hill, 5.3 miles/kwh is excellent. Can you keep it up for a full tank ?

 

I agree, I don't do it all the time. Most of the time I am seeing how much I can keep the green ball spinning in the max efficiency zone. However it is nice to know when I have some range to spare I can also pop into sports mode and have some fun.

Hill,I'd love the chance to compare the Volt and Leaf directly. I only know what I've read about the Leaf but it looks like the 0-60 time is 1 sec slower than the Volt and Nissan governs top speed at 90 mph, while Chevy does 100mph, so I don't know about "blowing doors off".

 

I've taken numerous vacations on a motorcycle. :der:

I've come to the realization that there are a few members here who just plain hate the Volt and/or GM. I've come to term them as members of the VHS or Volt Haters Society. eep:

I appreciate you Volt owners posting here with your experiences and keeping it civil as I'm sure it's rather difficult at times dealing with the VH society. Thanks. :high5:

 

I think haters is a bit strong for most of them. People are just strongly entrenched in their positions and enjoy defending them, its all good. Besides it makes for much more interesting discussion than the Volt Mutual Admiration Society forums

Arguing over which car is the best approach or execution is fun, but its kind of like discussing whether the world should go on jenny craig or weight watchers when the only important thing is it lose weight.

 

No, it isn't... since the weight needed to be loss is the entire fleet, not just an individual vehicle. Consider the big picture.

If a consumer doesn't purchase a Volt, they'll likely choose a Cruze instead.

If a consumer doesn't purchase a plug-in Prius, they'll choose another Prius instead. The current cordless gets about 15 mpg more than Cruze. The compact concept could deliver 20 mpg more. The v model will get 5 to 10 mpg better than Cruze and will offer a much bigger interior.

In other words, GM will have to sell quite a few Volt to offset the impact Cruze will have just to match the overall efficiency of the Prius family.
.

 

There are people in society who always need something or someone to hate, some of them are on TVs or radios. The fact that the Volt is out and it does what GM said it would do, now put all automakers on notice. One hundred years ago, there were more electric vehicles on the road. The gas cars were dirty and had to use a handcrank to start it. In 1911, the electric starter was invented by GM and cheap gasoline made gas cars more acceptable.

This is a transition period. I am looking forward hopefully in my lifetime when hybrids will discard the ICE, muffler and gas tank for good and continue as pure EVs. The ICE is more than 100 years old and it is time to put it in a museum for next generations to go and see what their ancestors used to use to propel their vehicles.

I don't drive a Prius, but I learn in these forums in terms of what it is like to live with these cars. The Volt lease is very enticing if and when it become available in Florida. I hope those who owns Volts and Leafs keep posting about the cars. I want to know about the cars and not the politics.

 

Edmunds found the Volt 1/2 second faster through the quarter and 0.8 faster to 60 than the Leaf (it also goes 11 mph faster) although using the term "blow the doors off" to describe anything involving either of these slugs seems inappropriate.

What are you getting when measured at the wall? I've been getting upwards of 3.5 measured at the wall in my Volt. EPA is 2.8 or thereabouts. I've been assuming a good Leaf number is 3.8 or so.

 

^^ Charging losses are 15 - 20%

 

Which is why he is measuring at the wall to see how much power goes into the car...

 

I was actually of the opposing view for a long time. 40 miles in EV mode (on 8khw) followed by 50MPG plus sounded great. The admission of parallel hybrid mode, the 37MPG in CS mode, and the "25-40" EV on i think it's now 12kwh? have all taken their toll. After i bought a prius last year i got tired of the endless prius bashing on the gm-volt site, and all the data on the prius PHV was the final nail in the coffin. It's a hybrid, and it's an electron munching, gas guzzling hybrid. If you want an EV, the leaf is better. if you want a gas car, the prius is better. if you want a PHEV, the prius PHV is better. that is, if what you're interested in is less emissions, reduced cost and best efficiency. if you have some other goal then yes, all bets are off and maybe an Escalade is better than a prius.

 

Do you have the cost information on the PHV Prius? I've been anxiously awaiting it and would love for you to share.

I want an EV, but need more range in a day than the Leaf can deliver, and I can't afford a Tesla roadster. My old Prius was dying and I wanted a new car with a plug, the Volt was a natural fit. If the Plug in prius were available I'd have looked very hard at the comparison, but since it wasn't (and still isn't) there was no real need.

I have a relatively short term lease (3 Years) on a remarkable car that drastically reduces my oil consumption and fuel costs compared to my prius. In 2014 hopefully there will be several new and amazing plug ins or longer range BEV's to choose from, and I am glad to look at them all. In the meantime I couldn't be more pleased with my decision or the car I am driving.

 

If you drive in excess of 100 miles a day on a regular basis, then your Volt is outputting more emissions and costing you more than a standard prius. Sorry, that's just a fact.

You know i don't have PHV costing info, but we definitely know that even if it's $41k (which seems unlikely) then someone like yourself driving in excess of 100 miles a day the PHV TCO and overall emissions would be lower.

I'm not going to tell you you made a bad/wrong decision, you could have gone and bought a V8. What i'll say is that your decision was not the most ecologlogical or economical. I just disike the idea that GM is moving people away from that most economical/ecological choice via spin or outright lies. Supporting GM in any way is not something i can do, just look at the rubbish Lutz is spewing about 42mpg cafe being as difficult to implement as a fleet of magic hover cars....

 

I must have misworded that, I meant there are regularly some days where the Leaf's range is inadequate (about one a week), not that I exceed it everyday.

and if you're saying my most ecological /economical choice would have been a PHV prius, I have to discount that and remind that that is not a choice yet, maybe next year it will be for some, maybe in 2014 it will be for me, but in 2011 it is not.

I wasn't looking for the most ecological choice but I wanted to promote a technology that was moving away from our dependence on oil (as I did when I was an early adopter with my prius 8 years ago). The Volt goes farther in that regard than any other car I can afford.

 

[smacks self in head] I could have had a V-8!:doh:

 

Your household has another hybrid for the long range. What are the chances of you and your wife taking two long trips (>73 miles) going separate ways. You were saying that happens once a week and there was no work around?

I would think if both of you make a long trip together, not separately.

 

ok, this is getting a little more personal than I am completely comfortable with, but if you must know:

We live in Delaware, which is a small state about 120 miles long, we live in about the middle so a trip to either end is about 120 miles round trip (as the crow flies, more in practice). I am an attorney, and while I drive to the office most days, about once a week I need to run to a courthouse in either Wilmington (upstate) or Georgetown (downstate), its not a regularly scheduled trip, varies depending on the demands of my case load.

My wife works for the department of education in a position that allows her to drive to one building most often, but on a very regular basis must attend meetings in schools all over the state.

It is possible that only one of us will be long distance driving on a particular day, but it is not predictable and car pooling is not practical (no way to tell if her destination will be near the courthouse and I can't kill too many billable hours waiting for a ride back to the office).

When I wasn't sure if I would be able to get a Volt in a timely manner I was looking hard at what accommodations could be made to use a Leaf, but it basically came down to trying to rely on public transport every time I had to go to court, and our public transport is not really well developed here.

If the Leaf improves to be able to reliably deliver a 150 mile range under the worst case conditions, I would definitely go that way. Hopefully it will be able to in just a few years.

 

Thanks, it makes sense without a doubt now.