Is it fair to say GM will eat a lot of money on battery warranty work?

I agree a Leaf will have lower overall maintenance costs without an ICE to maintain. I think a key flaw in your analysis though is not recognizing that the Volt will only have ICE maintenance equal to an ICE car with a similar number of engine hours run.

So far I have almost 10,000 electric miles and 4,000 gas miles. I haven't had an oil change yet because my engine's only run for 4,000 miles, not 14,000. (and the computer hasn't told me too, oil life still displays at over 70%).

If I only run my ICE 1/3 of the time I'll have 1/3 the maintenance costs (related to the ICE) compared to someone doing the exact same driving routine in a pure ICE vehicle.

 

Actually, if you follow the recommended maintenance schedule, the LEAF may actually have higher costs because Nissan tells you to flush and replace the LEAF brake fluid every 2 years which is several times more expensive than replacing the engine oil and filter in the Volt every 2 years.

 

GW; i agree with you 100% and not saying that the Volt does not have a significant niche in the automotive market because it does along with any other plug-in be is a extended range hybrid or straight electric

if the 90's were the decade of SUV's
its obvious that 2000's were the hybrid era
and 2010's will be the EVs and ER era.

fact is, EVs will never cover all our needs and anything burn gas even occasionally is not sustainable. what gas we do have we should be conserving it for the long haul and the sooner we do that the better off we are.

 

I'm still processing that the Volt is as heavy as an Equinox SUV. Road hugging weight, indeed.

 

Hmm, made me check: PIP is only 195lbs less than a RAV4.

 

It's only 10 to 100 pounds heavier than the Lexus HS250h.

 

Good comparison. Compares to the HS250h the Volt is more efficient even in CS mode. And without the PSD the driving experience be more refined. Sticker price is similar, too.

A Volt-like EREV would make a good luxury car.

 

The Volt IS a good luxury car.. It is by far one of the most luxurious cars I have ever driven from one of the big 3 except maybe a Cadillac. It is obviously no Mercedes, but it would give a large majority of cars a run for their money.

 

That's funny , I though was saying it "would be", in the sense may it would be their next car :welcome:

It was ranked second in the "upscale midsize" cars by USnews. It ranked infront of a number of cars, including a Cadillac and Mercedes. (And its the only time I've ever seen a compact car in the "midsize" rankings!)

Best Upscale Midsize Cars Rankings | U.S. News Best Cars

 

Cadillac ELR | Electric Hybrid Car | Cadillac

 

Checking Fuel Economy I found the Volt is only 1 cubic foot shy of the mid-size classification.

 

I saw that website. Now if they'll show shots of the interior.

 

lol. The car feels bigger than it probably is to me. I am only 5' 6", so to me the Volt feels as big/comftorable without being overly huge. I can see how someone that is 6ft tall would hate it though. I do not think the ELR will differ much from the Volt. It would cost to much money to do so. I think they may replace the white/grey trim panels with faux wood trim, and put in the nice Cadillac leather seats. A big complaint among Volt owners is that there are no power seats in any version of the Volt. I think they saved that option for the ELR. In my mind it is just more stuff to break, so I really like the stripped down version (which isn't really bad off, just don't have leather seats, or the NAV but I saved $6000). I need to take newer photos of the car. I still haven't shown you guys my L2 charging setup. I was going to dig a post, but I found the best place to put it was on the existing back porch post on the house. Cord is long enough to reach the port with plenty of slack, and it is hidden out of sight so I don't have to worry about someone glimpsing it.

 

Remove the battery and you've got it.

Tom

 

My sister drives a Lexus. IMHO, compared to the Lexus, the Volt is about even with my old Honda Civic on the "luxury" scale. The first thing I expect of a "luxury" car is extreme comfort. The Volt was not. It did have more power than my 2004 Prius and better handling. Overall, I thought the Leaf was a nicer car: more fun to drive and much more comfortable. I paid no attention to the "features" of either car, since I only had a single test drive in each, so I cannot comment on them.

But luxury? The Volt is not.

 

I have to agree. There is no way that the Volt or even the leaf could be considered a luxury car. Both of the car makers have luxury divisions - GM with Buick and Caddy and Nissan with Infinity and if the cars were luxury we would be talking about the Buick Volt or the Infinity Leaf. In both cases there have been rumblings of an upmarket version of the car. With the Volt there has been talk of taking the European version the Ampera and using the unique styling as a starting point for a Buick version. There have also been reports that there will be an Infinity using the Leaf's drive-train.

 

I just bought a Lexus CT instead of a Prius for 4 'luxury' features: no-squeak, high quality interior materials, excellent seats, and excellent suspension. These tend to be I think common denominator features most people will agree on. I gather the Volt has an excellent suspension, but not the other two.

My fourth 'luxury' requirement was safety. I wanted dual knee airbags, and neck whiplash protection. I don't know where the Volt stands in that regard, and I am not sure how common this feature is across the 'luxury' lines. I have little doubt though that in short order the IIHS and other crash test authorities will incorporate neck protection data in their requirements for 'top pick' cars, and the current Prius offering will be downgraded as a result. By then of course Toyota will incorporate neck restraint into the Prius as a feature or standard; I only mention this to say that to my knowledge no current so called non 'luxury' car can be bought with leading safety features, so whiplash protection for now is part of the definition of luxury.

 

Perhaps it's a better fit in the "near luxury" category. A base BMW 3 series in europe is also considered as "near luxury." And while base 3 series doesn't have the top interior appointments, it has driving dynamic going for it. Coming from an X5 4.6is, I don't think of Volt as a luxury car in a traditional sense. But I find it to have acceptable luxury items in electronic features to make up for the hard plastic and manual seats. Plus the driving dynamic isn't going to put me to sleep, IMHO.

 

Yes, but the low end 3-series is a completely different beast - I bet in Europe you can still buy it with roll-up windows. They also do not care over there - they know that it is an amazing car to drive. I do not think that I'd even say it was near-luxury - to me it is the top car in the lineup of a standard brand or the entry level of a luxury brand - for Toyota Corp. the Lexus ES and Toyota Avalon are cars that I'd call near-luxury.

My Mom does not know much of anything about cars - if you were to put a Cruze and a Volt next to each other and not tell her about the drive-train I'd bet you that she would not be able to tell you which one cost twice as much as the other.

Put a traditional gas engine in the Volt, take out the hump in the back seat and a remove a bit of the required whiz-bang tech (smart phone app, touch screen, etc) - it would be a car that started in the $16-18k range and it would be considered just fine, probably better than average, but not best in class - have you seen the interior of the VW Golf - it is way better though you are stuck with VW's legendary lack of relaibility.

 

Personally, I've never been interested in luxury. Safety, efficiency, and low-pollution are more important to me. My sister's Lexus is wonderfully comfy to ride in, and I once hired a company to drive me from L.A. to the Mexican border, and the car was a Lincoln Continental, and that was wonderfully comfy. But given my druthers, I'll take an efficient, low-polluting car. I bought my Tesla for being electric, not for being a sports car. And while it's not bad to sit in, it's not as comfortable as my Prius, and the Prius is low on the scale of seating comfort of the cars I've driven.