Chevy Volt Tidbit

Wow, what dedication!

Can you tell the framerate ?

 

Very interesting. I would have guessed you have to mash the pedal to the floor for 75 mph on a long 8% grade.

Is that what you are doing, or is my math wrong ?

 

It is mostly pedal to the metal, but the point is that it is possible to maintain that speed in a Prius on the gasoline engine alone. There are plenty of vehicles (sometimes older ones that no longer have the OEM horsepower remaining, or just plain crappy ones like this bright green Daewoo I passed last time) that just cannot keep speed. You can gun it down the side of one hill and enter the up portion at 80mph but within a few seconds you are going 55mph again. In the Prius, it is no problem.

 

Daewoo -- lol. Go ahead, call it a Chevy ;-)

How noisy is it in the cabin from the ICE ? I am such a wimp, I don't think I have ever gone much over 4000 rpm. I just cannot bare to look at the mpg afterwards.

 

It sounds quieter than when I did it in a 1990 Subaru Legacy But then again so does a 747 takeoff...

It is not quiet but it is not loud. It is quiet enough to carry a conversation in the cabin and not be annoyed. You wouldn't even know the engine was on if we were driving the RX, but in the Prius since it is quiet so often it becomes more noticable.

It is the same sound as if you floored it from a stoplight and seconds like 1-4 is the sound it makes the whole way up.

As a side, the RX will easily go triple digits up the same grade by accident if you aren't paying attention. Traffic rarely allows this though.

 

The grade of I70 is a lot lower than 8% for most of it. I would be suprised if it is over 6% for more than 1 mile. Pikes peak highway has an average grade of 6.7% and is much steeper than I70.

 

I believe you have misunderstanded the article. It states that the driver would, ideally, turn on the mountain mode 10 miles out from the slope to climb. Likely to build up a buffer in the battery. There is no stated range limit for this mountain mode.

 

You can't just time the video unless you know for sure that it was shot/encoded correctly. For example, if it was shot at 30 but encoded at 24 w/o dropping frames, that would account for the discrepancy you measured.

I'd guess that they didn't rig up a stopwatch for a PR video that is irrelevant in the grand scheme...

 

While I don't doubt that many folks wish to do this, and DO do this... I can't help but wonder how many NEED to do it? When I'm in the mountains, I'm usually pulling a trailer and that *legally* limits me to 55 mph right there. And practically, I purposefully choose to go a bit slower than that.

Our sense of "need" is sure screwed up these days.

 

Talking about the charge sustain mpg on the plugincars site here. With input from an official Volt guy... and he's ticked.
GM Fervently Denies Sub-30 MPG Fuel Economy Claim for Chevy Volt | PluginCars.com

 

That's all well and dandy but it assumes that the average consumer is not a complete idiot and ignorant of how their car does or should work. I am guessing most will not even know about the button, others will not know where to find it.

 

300/8 = 37.5 mpg cs mode is, I think, best case. We'll see.

My take is that the low production volume is appropriate because they are taking orders from the small universe of buyers who will turn over 41K before credit for a 40 mile EV 4 seater compact sedan with an ICE of secret efficiency.

Take the SOC down to CS mode, run the epa tests in CS mode, release the results. If GM were transparent, they would have done that by now. The smoke & mirrors and pretend outrage over leaked data they say is misleading is solely their own fault.

 

I think that Phil guy can lose his job. Lack of communication resulted in frustration which lead to bashing the poor blogger... right out on the internet.

 

GM and its mouthpiece were (are) being idiots.
The car was put through hoops on a track, and the CS mpg reported. Just like the EPA cycle -- if you drive a Volt in a similar fashion, you now know what the CS mpg will be.

The "cycle" was never hidden. Now, I don't doubt that, were the Volt to be mainstream news, some people would walk away thinking "hmmm ... 28 mpg," and not put the result in the context of the test, but if that bothers GM, they can publish other data points. Just like Nissan. The GM mouth accused bloggers of 'lazy journalism', even though the data is perfectly accurate. I interpret the accusation as an expectation of GM that they will have absolute control over what Volt information is seen and when. Hah! No blogger worth reading is going to wait for GM to approve a story before it is published. Otherwise, we could all just read the official GM site. GM has turned 'communication' into an exercise in 'communication control', and they -- as usual -- are making a mash of it.

I don't buy Sexton's defense of GM's conduct as being reasonably gun shy after the "230 mpg" circus. After all, GM has been happy to disseminate estimated AER for 4 years, when they thought it good PR.

 

"our" need? speak for your self. I know I know ... you were being diplomatic. One of those rare moments.
When I pull a grade in the prius, I often tuck behind a semi who only has enough power (pulling a couple full trailers) to do 40mph if their lucky. Man, with the drafting, AND the lower speed? Is it any wonder some folks get above 60mph?

 

I wonder how many Prius owners, like myself, read every thread about the Volt? In truth, my 2010 Prius is delivering on every want or need I have: quality, comfort, economy, ride, climate control, ..... I even like the NAV, and my FM reception is good. The fact is I am bored reading about Prius ..... what did you name your Prius? favorite color? and etc.

The Volt, and what I percieve to be many shortcomings, is a much more interesting read. I have said all along, the Volt is a very pricey, niche vehicle where the niche is poorly populated.

 

It doesn't matter how expensive or who it is for.

The purpose of the Volt is to improve GM's green image. This publicity stunt is partially/mostly funded by the tax payers so GM got a great deal out of it.

It also enables the Voltardic claims like "It can go further in full electric than your Prius" or "Prius is yesterday technology, move over, here comes the EREV".

In summary, it is only for the bragging rights while ignoring the cost and the practicality of the car.

 

I tend to agree on this point due to the fact that GM is only producing such a small quantity of the vehicle. However, GM is well aware at this point that gas prices will dramatically affect sales of vehicles and they need a backup plan. Once they have the volt in production, they could always increase production if they had to.

Now, WHY ALL THE BASHING ON THE FUEL ECONOMY? I'm at a total loss on this. Why does everyone expect the Volt should get the same fuel economy as a Prius? it is not a Prius, it is a much larger, heavier car. A better comparison would be the Toyota Camry Hybrid. That is much more in line with the Volt, and the Camry Hybrid gets 33/34 mpg. So I think as long as the Volt can compete in fuel economy with the Camry, then I'm not going to worry about it. Besides, if I had a Volt I'd probably never run a drop of gasoline through it anyway.

 

The size of the Volt is closer to the Insight than the Camry. Volt is based on the Cruze (Corolla/Civic/Jetta competitor).

Consider these hatchback cargo capabilities:

Prius: 21.6 cu.ft.
Insight: 15.9 cu.ft
Volt: 10.6 cu.ft