Prius Plug-in and Volt Pros and Cons

That's exactly why I laughed at his comment. There is no doubt the A/C would have been running while I drove.

 

I've got to agree with this, most people that drive these cars, heck most cars, are clueless. It was 105 degrees today in sunny Simi Valley today. I watched my neighbor come home and plug his Volt in. Do you really think 99.5% of any plug in drivers know squat about battery temps? His car is black on black and even if his a/c was on while he was driving it wouldn't matter. I can tell you that cars interior probably hit 140 degrees in ten minutes. If a car isn't designed for this, then the engineers are complete morons.

 

You don't think a Tesla is the highest tech car on the road right now?

 

Besides the Ferarri, Porsche, etc. Hybrids, I'd say Tesla is the highest tech car that's readily available to consumers.

 

So despite all the "cons" of a Tesla Model S, you do agree it's the highest tech car then?

 

Your Volt-owning neighbor will be fine. The Volt will run its compressor to chill the battery while it's charging. The interior temperature doesn't matter to the Volt.

The PiP and other air-cooled battery plug-in vehicles are the ones in trouble.

 

It still never fails to amaze me to see FUD being spread on a site that all through the first decade of the century worked so hard to defend itself from FUD.

I can take my EV anywhere I want to go at anytime. In almost 70,000 miles of drivings Teslas I have never had range anxiety. I guess it none of mine came with that equipment you call standard.

 

Highest as a metric, calls for a quantifier (as opposed to simply 'high tech', which describes a class of technology.) What would highest mean? Most embedded controllers? Most patents? Most inter-device communication (since decoupling is often a classification of high tech.) I'd be quite interested in the results of those statistics.

 

Anxiety is a natural response to uncertainty. Uncertainty can be resolved through knowledge. If you have a true, justified belief that either you can identify power sources within cruising range, or are comfortable with backup remediation, then there should be no anxiety. Zythryn, justified by experience, has a true belief he can find adequate power.

I would expect that finding chargers within cruising range should not be a complicated problem, for normal driving patterns. Augmented with computerized search routines, it should not be a complicated problem for even most unusual driving patterns. I don't think range anxiety is a thoughtful man's problem when owning a Tesla. (And it would strike me that based upon the cost, most Tesla owners are thoughtful.)

 

Right. The Volt's battery thermal management system has its own direct connection to the air conditioning system so it can cool the battery independently from the cabin. Tesla almost certainly does the same. It's all automatic so you normally wouldn't notice it.

However, on a few occasions I have had my Volt's cabin climate controls on "fan only" on a hot day and then noticed cool air flowing out of the vents for a few minutes when the battery decided to cool itself. Even though the battery has its own direct A/C coolant loop connection, it shares that loop and the A/C compressor with the cabin climate system. If the car was turned off there wouldn't be any cabin fan running so you wouldn't be wasting energy cooling the cabin even if the battery is cooling itself.

 

Yes, but one person is the progenitor of it all. The mother-FUDder, if you like...

 

Again, how often would that situation actually happen?

If you don't have a sun/rain shelter or garage, would you really be recharging during the day's peak with a PiP?

 

Gas engine is used to baby the battery if it is too hot. It is one of the benefit of being a plugin hybrid. Reusing the existing hardware is a weight saving feature so there is no need for liquid cooling that can leak and short the battery.

 

It doesn't lock to the wheels. ICE and the traction motor torque has to oppose each other in order to turn the wheels. That's how Volt PSD is set up.

The problem is, the 1.4L ICE is in a vehicle that weights more than the Equinox SUV. The wheels/tires has to be sized to stop safely, increasing rolling resistance. It is a snowball effect.

 

Since he was at a KOA campground, he probably had had access to a 50A 220/240V connection. Which is why he most likely stayed at a KOA campground to begin with.

 

There are lots of people who charge at work.
I hope to be able to charge at work sometime but they won't be giving me carport to do it in.