Volt price cut

Don't you ever have to pee?
I can understand not wanting to stop on a long trip, and just getting it over with. Then the desire to even go to a gas station probly drops farther with PHV ownership. But when you have to stop, you might as well get some other things done with it.

 

That was funny, at least if you have any sense of humor on the topic.

 

GM is cutting prices, and it may simply be ZEV and competitive pressure. It can't hurt. Headline $27, 500 after tax credit and low cost of operation is much more likely to get consumer interest, especially at dealers who are discounting further. It can't hurt that the price cut will lower sales (and excise) tax as well.

 

So you are saying it is okay to be lied as long as it is not GM level. FT-86 missed the price target just like you said about the Volt. Yet, you are okay with it, or rather don't care since this is Toyota, and side step the issue.

As a car enthusiast, that is a major lie by Toyota to their customers. GM style. You don't know about the FT-86 means you do not like cars, but rather just a GM hater because they took Government money, which is all you care to talk about. FT-86 is a legend in Toyota's history. And cult following with Play Station kids, WRC racing, and Anime followers. That is how big FT-86 is. Now we know you know nothing about car history....

 

Eventually, all those tax credits will evaporate,
so it is good that the Volt MRSP is finally dropping.

New high tech whether it be a smartphone, I-pad, Personal computer,
or social networking depends on a critical mass of users which help support
its adoption and popularity. For the Volt to make significant market share gains -
the Volt driving community needs to much larger - lowering the price entry
point for a Volt goes a long way in that direction.

 

I don't always like stopping at a station that has a higher gas price, nor do I always stop for gas. Pee break, get something to eat done. Gas stations aren't always where you want to eat I like the option going 550 miles+

 

Or even driving half a mile or more away from the Interstate and finding gas significantly cheaper and better quality food.

Bob Wilson

 

jeeeez - way off topic that I "don't like cars". It's transportation. I like to get from point A to point B. I used to have a sport car & outgrew it. ok I looked up your FT-86. Looks like a datsun 300z? Sport car. Are you angry it cost more than originally anticipated? Am I up to speed now?

If someone says 'GM has poor mileage'. The answer is not, 'Toyota has poor mileage too'. If someone complains, 'you're too angry'. The answer is not, 'you get angry too'. If a political party member does wrong, the answer is not, 'your party is wrong too'. That's called 'deflection'. It's what 5 year olds say, when they get hit. "He hit me first!" "Toyota lies too!" I don't know what you want me to with that. How 'bout this. Ok, you win. There's no more issue to discus here. And I don't like cars ... so I guess that means something too. I'll have to ponder whatever that is ... but thanks for pointing it out ... and that Toyota lies like GM, i guess. But I am glad the Volt costs less, if it matters. If it helps.
.

 

What is the deal with 4 passengers vs 5 passengers, anyone knows? I'm curious as I eye Volt as my future car (if it gets cheaper).

 

If you look at pictures or even sat in one, it really makes no sense to me why there is no 5th seat. GM claims the battery is living under there. Why can't they make it a child seat? A 4+1 if you will. My baby carrier would go perfectly right there and my baby would not notice the fat tunnel in the foot area. Mazda did the same thing with the Mazda5 minivan. There are 6 seats with an empty space in the middle instead of just padding it for a 7th seat.

 

The battery pak design, A t-shape came from the EV1 project, and GM had a similar battery shape in an EV1 4 seat prototype. They chose this for center of gravity. The ford transit connect, then tesla S, then bmw i3 have integrated the battery in a flat floor. This appears to be a better design. None of these have a front engine, so exhaust temperatures may be a problem, but the rear engined i3 appears like it can do this in a phev. Its likely a better design, but the volt would not do it until a redesign. The gen II volt will likely share a platform with the cruze, which means they won't be able to easily do what ford, tesla, and bmw have done. Toyota did place the tesla battery pack flat in the rav4 ev but this is a taller vehicle.

Which means until at least a 2016+ my or later gen II you will have a 4 seat volt. BMW chose to make the i3 4 seats also. Both bmw and gm's market research seemed to say two seats would hurt sales a lot, but 4 versus 5 would not matter as much. I don't know if they are right or wrong. If you want 5 seats likely the ford energis are your best value today, but are only 21 mile range versus 38. Or you can wait until 2015 to see what gm and toyota end up doing on the next generation phvs.

 

It operates similar but not so much according to the power demands of propulsion rather than the charge state of the battery.

Generally, it runs the ICE in cycles to provide electricity to the electric motors and excess stored in the battery. Once the battery is charged an adequate amount, it will switch off the ICE and use the battery again, repeating the cycle. There is a speed band where it will clutch the ICE to drive the wheels but it is fairly narrow, somewhere around 65mph I think.

I might be going deaf, but I can't really tell when the ICE is running and when it is not in the Volt. I can definitely tell the difference in my 07 Prius.

 

Thanks! For me, 4 vs 5 seats is not a deal braker. I was just curious.

 

I dug up this link if you want a more in depth description.

http://www.plugincars.com/exclusive-video-want-know-exactly-how-chevy-volt-powertrain-works-95344.html

 

In why the Volt only has four seats? GM kept the battery lay out of the EV1. A T-shape with the pack going down the middle and behind the rear seats. The skateboard arrangement with the battery under the floor is the best for space and weight distribution. The Tesla S uses it, but it and other BEVs don't have exhaust and emission controls systems to compete for the space.

Supposedly, the pack can be rearranged to allow a 5th seat. This may not take pack cooling, weight distribution, and crash worthiness into account. The Volt has increased EV range and efficiency with an improved battery chemistry, while keeping everything within the current battery space.

If the question is what's the big deal with 5 seats in a compact car? Well, when some people go out with 4 of their friends, they want to take their car so not to be the one stuck in the middle seat.

It is the safest place for a baby seat. If GM doesn't manage to get 5 seats in the next gen, just making it possible to mount a baby seat in the middle will help sales to families.

 

Yes, once the battery is run down and it switches to HV mode, the Volt is roughly similar in behavior to the Prius. Unsurprisingly, there are some noticable differences too.

Even when the Volt battery is "empty" and the car is in HV mode you still have a larger battery and electric motor than a Prius and the working size in Wh of the hybrid battery buffer might be slightly larger was well so the engine tends to start and stop less frequently in a Volt as you are driving.

Mileage tricks are a bit different as well. The Prius is more adept at getting high mpg with brief engine starts and stops at lower speeds in city driving so drivers tend to pulse the engine up to around 40 mph and back off to stop the engine and then glide. A different strategy works best in the Volt.

I find it works better in a Volt to drive electric up to 40 mph (and easier due to bigger battery) and then if it needs to it will start the gas engine in series mode and within a few seconds at steady low torque at ~40+ mph it will switch to parallel/serial mode which is more efficient. Once it is in parallel you can drop the speed down to 35 mph if you need to but much less or sudden accelerations will either flip it back to serial mode or shut off the engine.

While the Volt engine is running at those speeds (under about 63mph) in serial/parallel mode it will also be charging up the battery as you drive down the road so subsequent slower driving can mostly be electric only.

If you are familiar with your driving route you eventually learn when to momentarily press the accelerator to nudge the engine to start up when the battery buffer is on the low side and you are driving faster than 40 mph in order to efficiently build up charge in the battery for later slower driving.

On a warm engine I can drive around city streets like this and get 42-50 mpg with minimal effort. A Prius in similar circumstances can do much better and is more forgiving of technique.

 

Wouldn't it be better to use CS once the car is moving when battery charge is nearly gone? I mean basically to use EV mode during acceleration, then use CS mode to have the ICE do the cruising at speed. I hear it can get in the mid to high 40s in CS mode.

 

This is good news that the Volt price will drop making it more affordable and available to more people. This will also mean Toyota must up its game with the next generation Prius and Plug In.

I do not understand why there is so much personal investment by individuals in a specific brand when we consumers all win as competition improves the content, performance and price balance by raising the bar for all the companies.