The Chevy Volt - Addressing Your Concerns

Is the Volt going to come out as a production vehicle?

PS
Make sure you're 100% about going med!!!!!!!!!!! It's tough! I don't have regrets, but there are days where I'm just dragging.

 

Seeing as you are knowledgeable about GM, perhaps you can answer this curious question I've had for a while.

You said "I must also note that GM meets or exceeds their MPG ratings in a vehicle-vehicle comparison in every segment."

A quick glance at fueleconomy.gov and going to any of the GM brands show that this is generally the case... however, fuel economy isn't the end all... what about emissions? Why has it taken GM so long to get on board with stricter standards such as ULEV II and SULEV II?

A look at fueleconomy.gov show that many of the cars that GM sells only come in LEV II and are gradually transitioning to ULEVs and SULEVs for the california and northeast states, while GM's competitors have been selling at least ULEVs across their entire product lines for years.

Why is GM still selling so many cars that only meet LEV II standards?

Among the of the other car manufacturers that have shipped hybrid cars and SUVs, Toyota, Honda and Ford : every single one of their hybrid vehicles selling today meet SULEV II standards. Each one has at least one vehicle that meets the more stringent AT-PZEV standards to top it off!

GM has two shipping hybrid vehicles, the Silverado and their newest entry out this year, the Saturn Vue Green Line. Both of them are only LEV II!

Among us observers who own hybrid cars by GM's competitors, this makes GM look like they are behind in hybrid technology, and their commitment to reducing emissions is questionable.

I know that GM has more stuff on the horizon... the Volt, clearly is a good thing, and will likely achieve ZEV or AT-PZEV status easily, but what about GM's other investment in the hybrid arena, the 2008 Tahoe two mode hybrid? Will that be able to meet SULEV II at the very least?

There's been a lot of attention given to reducing fuel consumption, especially with the price of gas being so erratic, but we must not forget that emissions isn't to be glossed over.

 

My wife and I attended the Washington Auto Show last month, and entering the upper level showroom, the very first car we saw - after making our way through the crowd - was the Chevy Volt. We were blown away with the design - it looks very, very sharp. And when we read the estimates for fuel consumption, well, all I can say is, bring it on!

I want to echo LaughingMan's concern about emissions. While I am very happy with the fuel economy of my Prius, I am at least as happy with the low emissions. I hope this is something that GM can address in a positive way, because the Volt could be a car I could get excited about.

 

So, is the Volt going to be real? Give us that GM inside news if you have it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(LaughingMan @ Feb 10 2007, 03:24 AM) [snapback]387974[/snapback]</div>

Vue-Hybrid is a GreenLine model, yet it isn't actually green. See... Vue-Hybrid detail ...which can be found at... http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/sbs.htm

That LEV emission rating (aka: Tier 2 Bin 5) is what has some of us very concerned about their environmental attitude. It isn't a step forward at all. In fact, it's worse than average for non-hybrid consumer vehicles.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(john1701a @ Feb 10 2007, 08:39 AM) [snapback]388009[/snapback]</div>

I just looked at the same link. The Vue appears to be no worse than the Highlander. (Actually it appears to be a bit better.)

Comparing the Vue to the Prius is a bit much. The Vue should be compared to the Highlander or the Escape as they are all SUV/CUV's.

What will be interesting is to compare the Aura to the Camry to the Accord to the Altima hybrids when all four are available simultaneously. (Hopefully Ford/Mazda will introduce a Fusion/Mazda6 hybrid as well.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Feb 10 2007, 07:26 PM) [snapback]388285[/snapback]</div>

You left out the difference in power and acceleration where the Highlander far outperforms the Vue.

 

Saturn Vue Hybrid / Highlander Hybrid.

4 cylinders / 6 cylinders

0-60 : 10.8 sec / 7.3 sec

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jonathan Rohr @ Feb 10 2007, 12:15 AM) [snapback]387738[/snapback]</div>

You do realize that GM has done 0% work on Volt right? It is just an shell. They did NOTHING so far.
Just last month they hired 2 battery related companies to make feasibility study on how would something like Volt work. You can read interview from those two companies which basically says something like " we are not sure about anything yet, we are just looking how would it work right now".

Thats right, Volt is just PR on paper, and what is worse, best GM can do is what GM can do the best - outsource R&D, making sure car will never appear.

So lets get the facts straights before we start posting some "real" crap about GM.
GM has been posting PR's for decades now on their Hybrids coming out in "next 2 years" and best they can do right now is 12v mild hybrid, which shouldnt be even called hybrid.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(spwolf @ Feb 10 2007, 11:29 PM) [snapback]388302[/snapback]</div>

Darn. I was hoping the OP was someone with some serious info, and not just someone trying to astroturf some GM propaganda about their JD Powers numbers being better this year.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beryl Octet @ Feb 11 2007, 05:34 AM) [snapback]388304[/snapback]</div>

It gets really worse, I noticed that he posted Chevy's JD Power numbers for 2005... Why 2005? Because in 2006, Chevy did worse than industry average, and their score went down by some 10% (Toyota improved slightly).

.

Gotta love the spinning.

GM has to stop talking the talk and start producing the hybrids before anyone starts trusting their PR's, again. Anyone remember the "two-mode" hybrids that "will blow Toyota out of the water" from 2-3 years ago? Same technology now in use in GS450h for an year .

But hey, you dont really need hybrids anymore, because on "this one time, I managed to get over 30 mpg in my V6!!!". People need to realize that Hybrid owners, "this one time" manage to get 70mpg .

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(spwolf @ Feb 10 2007, 11:29 PM) [snapback]388302[/snapback]</div>

Not true! The concept is drivable. Check out this demonstration video with sound to see how far the development is! Compare it to Prius' EV mode in terms of quietness and performance.


Dennis

 

Yeah. I must admit I'm reading all of the spin and wondering...where is the meat on the Volt? Isn't that the title of the post?

Who says GM is going to fix every problem with the Volt for the first 100,000 miles? And define problem. What do you wanna bet they they start to weasel out on that promise?

And as for that 1% to 1.2% comparison again...define "problem". There's minor problems and there's major problems. If you lump them all together and the 1% of Toyota's "problems" are mostly minor and the 1.2% of GMs involve more major then that's not a fair comparison. To me it reads like some spin from the marketing department.

I'll believe it when I see it. I owned and Saturn and was reasonably satisfied with it except for the engine clips that I had to keep replacing every few years. GM considered that "routine maintenance". I considered it a design flaw since it started under warranty and continued every few years since.

GM has a lot of issues to resolve. They aren't going to do it with spin or marketing. They'll have to do it with actual real life facts that people live with. Word of mouth gave GM the reputation it enjoys now. It will take years of word of mouth to fix it. That means they'll have to keep their quality high for years before the word of mouth catches up with the reality. They'll just have to live with it. The question is...can they keep it up?

GM needs to embrace long haul and give up on short term fix. They also need to fire a lot of their upper management.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(usbseawolf2000 @ Feb 10 2007, 11:55 PM) [snapback]388307[/snapback]</div>

Comparing a concept car to something you can buy today? Right-o. That'll have them flocking to Chevy dealers...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Feb 11 2007, 12:00 AM) [snapback]388308[/snapback]</div>

Well said. I was a loyal GM customer for many years, but we had a parting of the ways. If they get something innovative like a plug-in out there, I'll be back to take a look, but I'm just not sure I could bring myself to buy a first year model (been there, done that), so at least give the Volt or whatever two years of production.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(usbseawolf2000 @ Feb 11 2007, 12:12 AM) [snapback]388299[/snapback]</div>

LEV II / SULEV II

Highlander FTW!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(usbseawolf2000 @ Feb 10 2007, 08:55 PM) [snapback]388307[/snapback]</div>

Saw the video... the EV motor sounds like a driven ICE lawn mower.

Noticed they did not open the bonnet? It could still be vaporware. Many concepts have ICE engines even though they tell people about it being hybrid/EV/FuelCell, all to show the concept of the body styles.

Has anyone actually have prove seeing what is under the bonnet?