Test Drove a Volt today

That's a very accurate assessment. The general consensus among car enthusiasts is that the interiors of American cars are aesthetically displeasing compared to their Japanese competitors. Big dials and buttons that don't belong where they should plague even today's American cars. The Volt is no exception.

Take a look at the 90s Hondas, Toyotas, etc and you'll see the interior is very streamlined. Very slick. Very playstation-y.

 

Wow. I never really heard car enthusiasts say I would have bought the chevy but this camry has a much nicer interior. Oh it may be because car enthusiasts don't buy camry's. My lexus GS had a very well done interior. I bought the prius inspite of some of its awful interior decisions, I won't name them here so as not to insult anyone that simply loves it and knows no better. The audi's seem to have great interiors to my taste. Some GMs and Fords are really awful. I did like the interior of the pre-production volt on my febuary test drive more than the prius though. I guess its just a matter of taste. The volt's interior could definitely have been done better.

They actually did make some statements to the press about their plug in and how advanced their lithium was. That isn't the problem I have with them though. They then went bad mouthing lithium, saying it really costs twice as much as nimh and isn't ready for cars. I'm sure their statements are fairly common as they own most of the battery company that has a near monopoly on nimh car batteries. But toyota let its leadership role slip and now GM, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Ford, Hyundai, etc just about everyone has beat them to the advantages of lithium batteries. Its just one of those pesky disadvantages of vertical integration, sometimes it pushes you behind. The aquisition of sanyo looks like a good move to catch up though.

 

I can see that glossy white plastic looking really scratched and worn after a year or two, anyone with an iPhone can attest to that!

 

The battery from JCI-Saft and LG Chem are good for 1,000 deep cycles. That's not good enough to use for PHV. For EV, it'll need 150 miles range in order to get 150,000 miles reliability. Imagine how much it would cost.

For PHV application, you need higher power cells (rather than high energy EV cells) due to lower number of cells required to drive the car. I believe this is why PHV Prius' battery pack is heavier per kWh.

In summary, the next generation tri-metal 2,000 to 3,000 cycle lithium battery is coming and Toyota will be using it (a true automotive grade). I am not disappointed with Toyota at all. They said they don't want to be the first but instead the best.

 

The result of the Volt test drive sold a Prius or you test drove a Prius before?

 

I'm not sure where you keep getting your figures. The JCI-saft are designed for more than 3000 deep cycles. Ford is putting them in the transit connect shipping end of the year or beginning of next year. The thing is initially sold only in fleet sales where they can test rapid charging life with a fixed depot. The range is 80 miles. Public rollout for non-fleets should happen in a year. This fleet rollout is what the phv prius was leaked to do. Toyota publicly stated their lithium was not ready. My disappointment is that they didn't work with someone that had batteries ready to go, and this puts them behind. I don't doubt that they can catch up.

 

Thas because everyone who wanted a Prius, already has one.

 

Knowledge of battery chemistry is way beyond my abilities .... but I suspect that some of you are being too critical of Toyota's R&D. From everything I have read, the battery in the current (and past) prius is near ideal for the design circumstances. Inexpensive; long lasting; tolerant of many recharges; stable in all kinds of weather, reliable; no issues .... and it appears to meet all design performance parameters.

I am satisfied that when the PHV comes along, Toyota will make an equally intelligent choice in the battery selected for that application. I have read here on PC that the Leaf battery cost $18,000. No thanks ..... I will stick with the tried and proven for several years before venturing into new technology with an $18K potential failure.

 

They blasted it after that, and fakely talked about nihm lasting 400,000 miles. I they were supporting it, their would be a phv prius before mid 2012. There are those inside the company that support lithium, and they were over ruled. Now that everyone else has anounced, toyota has not choice.

Toyota was claiming $1200/kwh. Now that panasonic has bought sanyo they are talking about $500/kwh in 2015. Nissan is talking about $9000, 24kwh battery pack in 2012. We will see. There is a large investment in toyota in nimh and the biggest competition was sanyo which is now part of the toyota group. BMW, Mercedes, and Hyundai partially chose Lithium because of the toyota/panasonic monopolistic pricing. This has been about business not technology.

The nimh adds extra weight and reduced performance compared to a lithium battery. It really is unknown how long a lithium battery will last in the easy hybrid cycle.

 

I'll chime in on the price issue too. And I'm not much for being an early adopter on new vehicles and there WILL be bugs as I am sure there were with the initial Prius came along.

 

Do you have any souce that can back up those statements?

 

Aint no such thing as a crappy pic when the subject matter is cool

.

 

for the number of people who were complaining that GM didnt make a "hybrid" and now that they do, the same people find something to complain about within the car (i will admit i dont like the white buttons either, i would have them black)

i will seem biased here, but everyone says gm still makes junk, then why did they outsell everyone (including toyota) for the last 17/18 months (ford beat them by a small number once)

once the volt comes around my area, i will test one out, and will even try a new prius. and give a honest opinion, untill then i will soldier on at 12-17 mpg (because i drive like im crazy)

 

GM is still marketing Volt as an electric car. It is not, it is a hybrid. It is not a series hybrid as they mislead the public to believe. It is a combination of series and parallel. That is the issue.

If they started out by saying Volt is a plugin hybrid, we'll probably be praising.

 

They also claimed it would crush the competition... but the engine-efficiency, emission-rating (plus warranty), and price fell way short of that. So, praise is still a long way off.

It's too bad they focused so much on aspects of driving experience at the sacrifice of other goals. Balance isn't something that should be so easily dismissed.
.