The Volt will get you Laid according to Lutz

You seem to mixing up the accounting with the physical amount of gas consumed. Filling the tank is far from the only expense when it comes to driving... you must also include the cost of the a vehicle itself.

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If you purchase a $40,000.00 volt to get laid, there is something wrong with you.

 

I don't think that is what they are doing in the quote as the sentence is talking about the driving mileage expense in plug in electric mode (2 cents per mile) and contrasting it with gasoline mode. "GM estimates that the Volt will cost about two cents per mile to drive while under battery power compared to 12 cents per mile using gasoline priced at $3.60 per gallon." (from GM's 9/16/08 release.)

It is possible that they were referring to some "generic" 30 mpg vehicle rather than the Volt. If so their choice of wording is poor. If when the ICE turns on they are using it both for propulsion and charging, then it is likely to be running high load and that will not produce Prius like mileage.

 

people spend a lot more money to get laid, or Porsche would go out of business.

I somehow doubt the Volt or Prius have the same getting laid factor...

Now Tesla Roadster, thats another story...

 

Not all cars are designed to do all things. If your transportation needs require regularly driving more than 40 miles a day then this is clearly not a good car choice for you. As such, it does not sound like its a direct competitor for a Prius or any other current hybrid type technology. On the other hand, my Prius isn't a bit of good to me when I want to tow my trailer or boat, but I don't therfore conclude that its not a good car.

 

Yea, that quote from Farah about running on CS mode would make the Volt a series hybrid. To be accurate, it is actually a plug-in series hybrid -- not a good one because when the battery pack is cold, it will start driving with gas engine before the battery can be warmed up.

 

I was just going by what Lutz said about Volt being an electric car with range extender. I now learned more about Volt's operation from the engineers. Volt is indeed a plug-in series hybrid.

72 hp seems a bit low for a car that will be about 400 lbs heavier. Prius gas engine peaks at 76 hp.

 

Prius and HCH can transfer gas engine power through the mechanical path. HCH directs all the 1.3L power while Prius directs most of the 1.5L power through the mechanical path. Prius uses Atkinson cycle ICE with a bit better aerodynamic so it ends up with better MPG than HCH on the highway, despite larger displacement.

Volt on the other hand will have 1.4L with the following disadvantage:
- About 400 lbs heavier car
- Believed to be using the inefficient Otto cycle 1.4L gas engine (HCCI is not production ready)
- All the gas engine power must be converted to drive the electric motor -- conversion loss (mechanical -> electric). Assuming Otto cycle is used, 1/4 of the converted power goes to the e-motor while 3/4 goes to recharge the battery -- another conversion loss (electric -> chemical). I used 1/4 because 18 hp is used to maintain highway speed out of the total 72 hp from the gas engine.
- Volt has worse aerodynamic and wider tires to compensate for the extra weight.

Due to above reasons, Volt should get less than HCH and Prius in CS mode.

 

Not only that...
- Do you have a place to charge the car overnight?
- Do you want to spend more than $40,000?
- Do you drive less than 40 miles a day?
- Are you willing to use gas for the long weekend drives?

If one of your answer is NO, then you are probably better with Prius or Insight II with a small city pure EV car (such as Mitsubishi MiEV).

 

That's how GM is describing it. But since they'll never actually market it, and since they are constantly changing their announcements about specs and price, this whole discussion is kind of pointless.

Let's wait and see if they actually build and market the car, and if I'm wrong and they do, let's see what its real-world specs are. I bet Consumer Reports will test it as soon as it hits the showrooms.

 

Yup, totally pointless. They are not even sure of the operations and seems to be making up as it goes. It is as if they are going at the direction toward where the public got excited. A car designed based on public reaction is just a stunt to get the $25 billion loan.

 

Well, here is the latest contradicting information.

"In contrast to popular (and our) impression, once a driver uses up his 40 or so miles of electric power, the 1.4-liter gas engine generates electricity to power the electric drive motor, but does not recharge the batteries. After the 40 or so miles, the battery becomes 400 pounds of uselessness, at least until the owner can plug the car into the electrical grid for a recharge."

 

Thanks for posting that. Now all the folks who were giving me grief for correctly reading what GM wrote can ask themselves why they didn't notice it as well. :fish:

Those batteries will essentially be a lot of dead weight to an underpowered gasoline engine in "range extension" mode. :ballchain: