2011 Chevrolet Volt gets an EPA certified rating of 93 MPGe and 37 mpg in gasoline mode

Then why don't we also remove the EV from the Prius PHV as it disappears even faster!

The Volt is good for someone who drives around 40 miles a day evenly. The drive log for the Volt at GM-Volt.com is showing 140+ mpg over a twenty day period. Pretty good!

Chevrolet Volt Driving Log | GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

For some the Volt is the wrong choice. Does that matter? GM is sold out till 2012.

 

It's the design, not the capacity. Adding more sub-packs is easy for Prius. Enhancing Volt's engine to gain another 15 MPG is an extreme challenge.

Prius delivers 50 MPG regardless of whether or not you plug in. Not doing that with Volt means around 35.
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He plugs in twice per day, both at home and at work. His miles in CS-mode are almost entirely highway. The resulting MPG is 37. That supports the 35 MPG estimate quite well, especially considering temperature so far has ranged from 60's down to freezing.

Let's see what happens below freezing, with an owner who doesn't have a plug available at work, when the Li-Ion chemistry requires warm-up by the engine.
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Too little, too slowly. That's what the auto task-force voiced concern about prior to bankruptcy. And sure enough, it is indeed becoming a problem. How many will be available in years 2 and 3 ?
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Is this a joke? 75% of the miles were driven on electricity and he is tracking gasoline consumption rather than electricity consumption (kWh)?

Of course both fuel sources should be tracked. The fact that the major source (electricity) was omitted to greenwash everyone was a good attempt.

If electricity can be omitted, how about not plugging the Volt in and see how many MPG it will get?

 

At first I thought you just hated the Volt because it was GM and not Toyota. But its worse then that. You simply just don't get it.

Your arguments against the Volt require not plugging it in, assuming it runs entirely on coal or removing the plug in capability all together. You just don't get it.

 

Get what?

Gallons & kWh per year?

Quantity sold per year?
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Read my post again. I am the one reminded of the electricity consumption. Arguments for the Volt ignores the plug because they don't take account of the electricity -- only the gas consumption is reported (in MPG). Even worse, that gas consumption is compared to a hybrid that does not consume electricity.

You are guilty of this "Volt Hoax" also. Your post #41 stated the Volt getting 140+MPG. Wrong, it got 37 MPG. The rest of the miles ran on electricity and you can't count it toward "miles per gallon".

I run my Prius with E10 (10% Ethanol, 90% Gasoline). If I only count the Ethanol consumption, my Prius gets 500 MPG. That's another example of the "Volt Hoax".

I have never assumed electricity generated entirely on coal. I only used the US average from the DOE report. Show me one post where I used only the coal in the electricity.

 

Many Volt fans have decided that only petrol consumption matters. Not CO2, not NOx, not cost. Although I do not share their opinions, I can almost accept their stance until they follow up with "and you can burn petrol anytime you want, for as far as you want, which is why you want a Volt and not a LEAF!"

 

This is a really close minded viewpoint. And this is coming from someone who was (is?) a huge fan of the Volt. I wanted to get one until I realized the lackluster specifications and MPG. This estimation (as others have pointed out) is assuming the driver has the perfect optimum conditions while driving, with recharging capability at both home and work with no traffic.

In reality, the people that can afford the Volt won't care enough to actually use the car efficiently (at least where I live). The people that could take advantage of the car probably won't because they won't care enough to make a perfect set up. This makes the actual MPG when using the gas engine the most important and that is definitely not 140 MPG...

People will drive it like a typical Hybrid.

This is a shortage turned into a marketing trick. Everyone I have called locally is getting less than a handful of these cars and is keeping 1 for demos. That's one less car per dealer because they want to... show it off. I was told by the place I was interested in going that I would have to put myself on a 6 month waiting list to even be considered for leasing unless I wanted to pay cash out the door... in which case I could make an earlier pre-order (also waiting several months).

They just don't have enough.

 

As mentioned in earlier posts, this is not the case.

As soon as GM switches from an Otto cycle engine to an Atkinson cycle (or Miller cycle) engine like the Prius it will immediately jump to around 50 mpg in gasoline-only mode.

Remember that at least 70% of the mpg gains of the Prius over a similary sized vehicle are due to running an Atkinson cycle engine.

 

Huh?

Prius is a FULL hybrid. The continuous interplay of motors & engine is what provides the efficiency gain and compensates for the loss of power from not using Otto.

If Volt doesn't use Otto, how will it deal with having less power available?
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GM already uses an Otto cycle in a optimal efficiency way (they are not stupid, although have shown glances of being LOL).
It is not possible to increase efficiency of ICE-GEN-BAT-MOT that to an extent of beating ICE-HSD efficiency.

I have to add the incredible Voltec, with its 3 clutches. Making the ICE Miller will obviously decrease reliability even further, because of a compressor/turbo.

Is there a future for Volt 1Gen?
Recall every one, and deal again with other project.

 

In exactly the same way the Prius does. With a battery, and a motor to compensate.

The reason the engine in the Prius can extract 25-30% more energy per gallon of gasoline than an Otto cycle engine is because it has a 30% longer expansion ratio and can be run in the optimum throttle / rpm map most of the time.

For the same reasons, we should expect the mpg of the Gen2 Volt to increase by around 25-30% when they switch to Atkinson cycle.

The only reason GM didn't give the Gen1 Volt an Atkinson engine is because they had a deadline to reach and a factory churning out thousands of these 1.4L Otto units already.

 

The Prius is still the best hybrid on the market. Regardless of price.

 

+1

He just doesn't get it. He thinks
- as an independent goal reduction of oil consumption is worthless
- electricity generation will not get greener
- Oil will not get dirtier

 

Still there is another challenge for Volt to achive that 25%-30%: HSD drives from ICE whenever needed, and Volt charges the battery, even if not needed (10% of SOC). No way.

 

You know what they say about people living in glass houses.

-- A goal is only as good as the result, and guess what ? your results are zero, and will stay that way or close to it. Certainly not worth subsidy.
-- Not while you add appliances and increase demand on a grid that does not have excess green energy to deliver.
-- Likely true, but how much dirtier than coal can one get ?

You, like so many EV advocates confuse ideology with practical results, and you make do with bullet points rather than logic. So from my standpoint it is you who does not get it.

 

oil's dirt ... coal's dirt ... nuke's dirt ... do they matter? They are all finite resources. They will all hit their peak capacity production, then spiral ever downward. Use 'em all up now or later ... either way ... we'll have to find something else to fuel/create power. We better get busy.

 

Nothing is infinite but nuclear is about as close as you can get. With reprocessing we have 10x as much fuel as we have today, we just need to get the political will to do it. With alternate fuel cycles there is no real limit (unless you consider 5000 years a limit)

 

Talking about a volt powered by 100% coal is like talking about a Prius powered by 100% Canadian tar sands oil and then sent to a bad refiner..... Its bad but not likely to happen.

If I got a Volt (not likely) or a plug in Prius (possible) it would be 30% nuclear and have some hyrdo as well.

 

I did not say it doesn't mean I didn't get it. Oh yea, I get it. I think electric is the future but we are in present. I am seriously thinking about getting an EV for my next car. A good hybrid like Prius gives the best bang for the buck in terms of cost, low emission, performance, technology, range, etc... I welcome choices but Prius set the standard and everything that follows has to be measured against it.

Nissan should claims Leaf is cleaner than a gasoline car, almost as clean as Prius, and in the future it can be much cleaner as the grid gets cleaner. That's the truth. Marketing it as zero emission is not right.

GM should not count the miles driven in EV (grid power) toward the miles driven with gasoline. It is not right to add electric miles to the miles driven per a gallon of gasoline. That's called Volt Hoax.