Will the Chevrolet Volt be a failure or a success?

I am pretty sure the government required the change. That is not GM's fault.

 

Because a mid-size hybrid is getting 50 MPG and a mid-size EV consumes 34 kWh/100m.

A compact plugin hybrid with 37 MPG and 36 kWh/100m consumption is high. A smaller car should be more efficient than a bigger car. The reality is the opposite.

 

I am glad you are not doing my taxes!

 

You missed the whole concept of preconditioning and EREV. It supposed to avoid that.

The reality of how Volt really works is what you would expect from a hybrid. This further proves the Volt not an EREV or an electric car.

 

So much for the Range Extended Electric Vehicle promotion. It is turning out to be a very heavy compact car that is bad in both the hybrid mode and the EV mode.

 

So the volt is doing 25 miles on electricty from your own information under harsh conditions yet it is not a EREV because it runs the ice for one minute after 12 miles? You are making up your own rules.

 

So Corolla is a guzzler? I don't think so but it gets similar or worse mpg.

Gas guzzlers are cars that get less then 21 mpg.

 

Absolutely. This is GM's definition, not mine. ICE is suppose to Extend Range as a backup generator when the battery runs low. It was not suppose to be a Battery Warmer. Otherwise, it would be called BWEV.

Corolla is not a hybrid so you are comparing apples and oranges. I wouldn't say 37 MPG is a gas guzzler but it is not good for a hybrid that cost that much.

Without specifying the size of the vehicle, that's meaningless. 21 mpg bus is definitely not a gas guzzler.

 

Well, I think you may have been answered before, but the original post is mine, so now is on my call.

To be honest, you have to realize Volt as any other hybrid! Is there a doubt over that? Of course not.
Let's then compare it to other hybrids...And stands pretty under average, not even to the first Prius lauched 14 years ago!

Also Volt works as an EV. Pretty well, it can obviously satisfy, but drains that 10% more than the other EVs rolling out. Leaf is 5 seat. Tesla is a sports car. When the PHV Lab Prius was tested, it was proven to spend much less electric energy than Volt. More than 30%, as I remember, but there you have, PHV Prius is still to be on sale. [If it were available right now, also its MPG on Charge Sustain Mode would be here to underline my opinion, back to the 2nd paragraph of my post, but ok]

The border between being a failure or a sucess tends to be straight/narrow when competition exists. And Volt, always marketed as a breakthrough, simply cannot keep up with present/near future other cars. They had so much to time to design/perfecting.

Guzzler may be a broad adjective, I confess. Thirsty, drinking habit, problem?

 

EPA figures are useless - they can't be used for calcualting energy use. They have used the 30% fudge factor. Did that lab use the 30% fudge factor ?

 

i think you're being a bit hard on the volt? 'they had lots of time to develop it'? they havn't had any more time than any other mfg. they all started when they wanted to start. if they started late, it's because they have been dragged kicking and screaming into the fray.
the only cars available so far are the only ones we can judge. and it's really too early to judge any of them, except for the current hybrids.
leaf stands on it's own as pure ev, and volt stands on it's own as extended electric range hybrid. as of right now, neither one has a direct competitor.

 

Yes. But I said car not vehicle,bus or truck.

The EPA actually has a rating for gas guzzler for a car. It is basically 21mpg and cars that get worse mpg are labeled guzzlers.

 

They use the fudge factor for gas cars and hybrids too, so they can be used for comparison purpose. The adjustments were made to be more realistic as revised in 2008.

 

I don't think it's priced to be successful. Did i say that in a previous post? I should have.

 

Since Portuguese is my mother language, I went to my netsurfing to get what means "fudge factor", and this is:
A fudge factor is a quantity introduced into a calculation in order to "fudge" the results: that is, to make them match better what happens in the real world.There was no lab testing for the Prius PHV, it was real world. As same for Volt, even before official EPA testing, average MPGs in charge sustain from many sources happened to converge into the value tested. For EV range and energy consumption, it had less "average" results to compare with.
I agree, let's both wait for that "30% fudge factor" to come in Volt's defense, when applied to the Prius PHV.

 

the new ceo, akerson, ordered the engineers to cut 10 grand out of the car. that should be an interesting experiment.

 

It'll be interesting to see what other features would get cut out as well. It may cripple the Volt. The only thing going for it is the 35 EV miles.

 

Thats easy. Get rid of the union.

 

Change into a BEV, dropping the ICE! Great, I've been pushing that from first day...

 

lol. After the bankruptcy and concessions labor cost is about 11% per vehicle. I would expect given the cost of materials it is less than $4000/volt.

Getting production up to 10,000 cars a month should definitely cut costs, and reduce things like battery prices. I do fear that if they cut costs that much they will be cutting quality in materials. Honda definitely cut costs too far in the insight.