This was my assertion. I am not sure why you got so touchy since you are saying the same thing, except at 40 mph instead of 70, which was Lutz assertion when he revealed he had been lying about the Volt being a series only hybrid. From here: 2011 Chevy Volt: Hybrids Aren't Electric Cars, Volt Confirmed a Hybrid.
PR will spin and compare to the biggest NYPD gas guzzler. Volt will not be chasing down criminals. It will be used to give out parking tickets. My criticism is the cost effectiveness. Hybrids provide the best bang for the buck. The mayor is cutting down on education and spending wildly on the Volt and the future taxi cab (Nissan NV200 EV minivan). We don't need a 3,800 lbs compact vehicle to give out tickets. When the EV taxi cab is charging, it won't be operating. We have to consider how long it will take to charge to operate taxi for an hour. I understand the good intention. NY will get more chargers and speed up the plugin adoption. However, 61% of NY electricity is still from fossil fuel so Volt is not going to cut down on emission.
My statement was in regards to your calling the pure electric range hype. The car does in deed stay in electric mode until the battery gets low no matter what speed. I was simply adding some information. That Lutz lied, is really old news. Did you no gm went bankrupt too? Really. How the engine powers the car doesn't really change the fact that it doesn't need to use the engine until the battery is low. Get it? I'm not sure what the point was of all the crying when it was found out that Lutz was not an entirely honest ceo. Did you know tobacco executives lied to congress and actually knew smoking causes cancer? It was NYC PR and neither I nor they implied they would be chase vehicles. You did say that it was replacing some other vehicles, which means we can expect fewer of then on the street. NYC said that there will be 70 new EVs and fewer gas guzzlers. You decide the hype, but the facts should be able to be confirmed by what the cities vehicle mix is next year. The city also mentioned other uses than putting out parking tickets. For that why don't they just use bicycles? Save the whole car thing. What does weight have to do with it. They could use bikes. The cost to the city is exactly the same. Hey your mayor is out of control. My governor is out of control. But the volt is a tiny part of it. I doubt $1 of education money is going to the volt. I don't know what in the world NYC spends so much time on cabs and lawsuits about cabs for. It will most definitely reduce emissions from the current mix of vehicles.
Relax austingreen i never said any such thing about ev range. My only assertion was that this is not a series hybrid as it was originally sold, but parallel hybrid. No biggy that Lutz lied. I think. Wait, isn't that a bad thing? I guess not. Anywho... what was that whooshing noise ? Oh, just someone's integrity flying out the window. Where was I? Oh yes, he lied about the car and gm has called it an ev, which it isn't, and then said it was a series hybrid, which it is some of the time. Then they admitted it was just a plug in parallel hybrid, and had only beaten Toyota to market by one model year. Next year it will have more head to head competition, and then people will remember it's a chevy. "Wait a minute," they will say with alarm, "we've been driving a chevy?!" Whereupon it will promptly break.
My statement is still factually correct, and obviously I did not get your point. I clearly described the volt as a phev in the thread. I never said there would never be any gearing to the ice which is quite beside the point. After the battery is low the engine generates the the power. In conditions of higher speeds or moderate speeds at higher loads some is geared through motors to the drive train, I didn't mean to cause you confusion with my terminology. Its quite general, and no I never mentioned serial. Your statement is factually incorrect, but also quite beside the point..The prius phv, at least in demo form, runs in blended mode, the volt runs in EV mode while the battery has sufficient charge. This along with the size of the battery are substantive differences. It never runs as pure parallel hybrid like the honda insight. The prius is blended, then parallel/series hybrid. The volt is pure EV, then serial or parallel/series hybrid. If toyota was actually shipping commercial prius phvs I would also support this purchase, and not go - Oh its not a real PHEV, the battery is too small and it can at most run in blended mode. That would be whining like,...... I'm not sure why you are yammering on. You could have corrected yourself instead of this self righteousness. I would think that Lutz leading GM into bankruptcy would be the character flaw, and gm enabling software to make the volt more efficient would be a minor thing. But go figure, if you can't see the forest for the trees, you might think a Sequoia is a prius. Remember the Prius battery is going to die, it will break talk from those sure the prius would ruin america. You sound quite like those commentators. Wouldn't it be better to celebrate vehicles getting more efficient than dwell on minor thing. Look at the car as what it is a PHEV, and not what you think it represents. Its a free country. Feel free to get all upset about a hoax, but the facts don't support your argument.
Down here in Georgia the biggest killer of mpg in patrol cars is that they NEVER get shut off during the shift. If the officer/trooper/deputy stops for a call, engine running with A/C on. If he/she stops for lunch? Engine running with A/C on. If officers/troopers/deputies were paid an mpg bonus we'd see a sudden improvement in mpg. Why hasn't the USPS switched to Chevrolet Volts? This vehicle seems perfect for their use. Very few postal routes are over 35 miles
Because the post office has largely switched to private cars. Except in large cities, the post office pays contract drivers to deliver the mail, using whatever means they want. Tom
And because mail trucks are right-hand drive for easier access to mail boxes. Not to mention the $40,000 price tag.
The right-hand drive part isn't a huge issue. We have many vehicles delivering mail in vehicles with conversions to RHD in my area. I guess really the lasting 30 years is the big issue. iPad ?
Funny, saw a ford fusion hybrid with a sherifs please sign and insignia plastered downtown by court building where all the police park for free... forgot about N.Y getting the Volts...
Some don't bother with the RHD conversion and just drive from the passenger seat. Considering the mail truck's lifespan, an auto-stop and/or hydraulic hybrid add on would give the most bang for the buck. At least until a real efficient replacement is found or commissioned.
But, here are a few facts. The original postal vehicle (LLV for long life vehicle) was 42K each in 1987 dollars due to uniqueness and limited production run (not to mention a Gov't contract) and averages 16MPG. The fleet (approx 100k) is overdue for replacement and currently costing USPS about 524M (2009 stats from USPS site) per year to maintain.
The USPS is broke and losing money and is preparing to close a bunch of local post offices, eliminate Saturday delivery, etc. Buying anything new is unlikely to be on the table. BTW, the U.S. is the only industrial country in the world that does not subsidize its mail service. Congress says the USPS must provide mail delivery to every household in the country (though not always to every house!) but does not provide any money to meet this obligation.
