GM: Volt reaches 2 million miles, 1.3 million of them gas-free

I have the plans for my PHEV conversion ready and I am just waiting for the odometer to hit 100K. As for tax credits, that generalization is not true. It does not qualify for any federal credits, but my state does offer them. The 4kwh enginer kit comes out to about $300 cost to me. The hymotion ($10K) conversion comes at a cost of roughly $700-$800, the rest is all covered. Now there are limited slots available, and you must register, and it must be done professionally, and it must be inspected, and a few other things. But you can't beat that!

I wont get any of those credits though since I am doing it all myself with my own design.

 

2nd that. my state provides credits for ANY EV related costs. WA does not have an income tax so they supplement with a state sales tax of 8.6-9.1% depending on your location (range varies so may not be accurate but its close)

but any purchase related to EV's is tax free. this saved me a good chunk of change when buying my Leaf (about $3,000) but also saved me when replacing the batteries on my Zenn a while back and around here sales tax is a pretty big chunk. it basically made my Zenn batteries about $75 cheaper

 

I am quite confidently predicting that Toyota will not do that. They will probably have a price premium at launch and be in demand, but Toyota has been in the hybrid game longer than anybody, has been studying PHV for a long time, and they are hardly reinventing the wheel which, for GM, they more or less had to do with the Volt. All Toyota really has done is changed the battery from nimh to lithium and thrown a plug in to boost its charge. Otherwise all just tweaks to the third generation of a car that's already been out for a couple of years.

 

I know what electricity is worth, I used to make 16kw of it an hour along with 200k gallons of fresh water and my buddies over in the reactor room made the steam to push planes off our flight deck to their death for you as well.

You people that act holier than thou because you can afford a currently niche toy are outrageous.

 

Hey, we're a capitalist country where people can spend their money as they like, and say what they please. I don't like my country fighting wars for oil, so I spent a chunk of my money on an electric car. Twice. The first time was the little Zap Xebra 4 years ago. (I'm not counting the disaster which is still being repaired.)

Of course you're free to consider me outrageous if you like. I cannot make any good argument against someone who says that nobody should have enough spare money to buy these cars. But until the Revolution comes and takes my money away I'll enjoy my niche toy. And until the fascists take away my right to express my opinion, or someone convinces me I'm wrong, I'll keep saying that burning gasoline is bad for the economy and bad for national security.

 

ok, let me give you my "holier than thou" answer to your original question of
"how many coal miners have died powering EV?"

the answer is ZERO. coal miners died because Big Business saw a way to make money and to put it bluntly, most coal companies value their profit margins much higher than they value their employees.


how is that for "holier than thou?"

 

Another answer would be: About the same number of coal miners died powering your EV as died powering your refrigerator.

Of course, many of us don't get any electricity from coal. And if we lived in a sane country, none of us would get any of our electricity from coal.

 

In addition, not one of those reactors generating steam to push catapults so planes could fly people to their deaths did squat to stop 911. Nor will the carriers stop the next 911 which ironically may actually involve nukes. But it's my silly hope that if we stop sending the huge percentage of our petro dollars over to people intent on killing us (because we're over there setting up dictators), then not only will the Alqueda flight school dollars dry up ... we might actually curb our huge national debt ... should we stop building so many reactors that push steam through catapults on carriers. I call that two, for the price of one.

.

 

Do you guys use any petroleum byproducts? Plastic, etc...

 

I like your cat. (And your Tesla.)

 

I never knew that they used steam in the catapults on carriers. I guess I thought they used electric motors or maybe really big rubber bands. If we hadn't squandered so much money over the years building nukes and aircraft carriers, we could have made our country energy independent. We wouldn't have needed Arab oil, and we could have let the Arab people overthrow their dictatorial governments instead of giving those governments money and weapons to use against their own people. We'd have had money for the development of the electric highway and we'd have cars now that would have made the Volt and the Leaf and the Xebra seem pitiful by comparison. But I have nothing against soldiers themselves. During the years I was protesting nukes in N.D. I was arrested by a number of different airmen (the Air Force being the military presence there) and they were always polite, courteous, and respectful (as I was also, in accord with the principles of nonviolence) and I actually liked them. We had a slogan: "U.S. Air Force: Good people; bad product." But that's interesting about the steam. It's gotta take a LOT of pressure and a LOT of volume. How many gallons of water do you have to boil, and at what pressure and temperature, to launch one airplane?

We should all just be hugging cats instead!

 

We've seen what the middle east looks like without oil dictatorships. Somehow even worse, like Afghanistan pre-2001. This is also how I think these countries will end up when the oil runs out. The US is certainly too militant, though.

 

It sound like a good project. Good luck.

I am quite sure you can see the error in your reasoning. You ARE waiting until your warranty is up and doing the work yourself. The car won't be programmed as well to stay in EV mode. Of course this will be less expensive than buying a new PHEV, but you are not comparing similar items.

 

Before the West overthrew the Ottoman Empire in WW I, the Middle East was a far more tolerant place than it's been since. As for Afghanistan, outsiders have been trying to set up shop there ever since the outside world learned of its existence, and nobody's ever succeeded.

 

I am waiting for the warranty to expire mostly because I am hoping by that time I will have enough time to actually do it. At my current rate it will be before this time next year.

It will be programmed better than the OEM PHEV from what I have read. You can make the GenII do full EV up to the physical limit of the MG output instead of the 62mph limit. Transitioning back to blended mode however is more difficult, but I think it can be seamless. But I am doing this for fun, not financial savings or anything like that.

 

66.66% miles covered by electricity falls short of the 78% that was hyped.

To calculate the cost per mile, I plugged in the number from Motor Trend's calculation and used the national average for Premium and Regular gas prices. Please check my math.

Volt costs 0.8 cents per mile less to operate than a cordless Prius. It should since it is a compact and Prius is a midsize. Considering the cost difference in the purchase price, a cordless Prius is a better buy without the hassle of plugging in.

Things will get interesting if I calculate the Prius PHV cost per mile.

	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5
0	Distance Traveled	miles: 2	000	000
1	Premium Gasoline price/gallon: $3.89
2	Regular Gasoline price/gallon: $3.65
3	Electricity price/kW-hr $0.12
4
5	Chevrolet Volt
6	Gasoline
7	Gallons used 18	018
8	Cost $70	144
9	Energy used	kW-hr 607	207
10	Electricity
11	Energy used	kW-hr 491	429
12	Cost $58	971
13	Gallons equivalent 14	582
14	Total
15	kW-hr used 1	098	636
16	kW-hr/100 miles 55
17	Gallons equivalent 32	600
18	MPG equivalent 61
19	Cost $129	116
20	Cost/mile $0.065
21
22	Toyota Prius (51/48 mpg)*
23	Gasoline used	gallons 40	000
24	Cost $145	800.00
25	Energy used	kW-hr	gasoline equivalent 1	348	000
26	kW-hr/100 miles 67.4
27	MPG 50
28	Cost per mile $0.073

 

There's an assumption in the above that the Volt will spend 2/3 of its miles in electric, or IOW, that it will drive only 52.5 miles per day. The Prius is therefore a more useful car since it can drive as far as you like, or need, without losing efficiency.

 

Why MT numbers - why not EPA ? What is MT's number for Prius ?

 

You mean afford as in get a car that is cheaper than Prius ?

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I did use EPA figures and used MT's table to calculate.