Will the Chevrolet Volt be a failure or a success?

gwmort wins and gets post number 1000.

What is the record? Do warranty replacements represent good service - success, or bad design - fail. You decide who will get post 2000?

Good luck, I'm sure driving the cruze will make you like your volt even more.

 

I got my baby back from the dealer today. Everything went smooth with the service guys and the warranty coverage.

But oy did it feel wonderful to slide silently back out on the road. I honestly don't think I could ever own a "normal" ICE ever again. Go Plugs!

 

Did they explain to your satisfaction what happened to the charger and the thermostat, and was there any issue/concerns with the cooling of the battery?

 

Also, did you mean the actual charger in the car or the external EVSE? I think you meant the latter. A few people have had problems with it but I haven't heard of the actual charger being replaced.

A bad thermostat (presuming they mean the standard one regulating ICE temp) is a very unusual failure. I hope they actually corrected the problem.

 

Put $20 of gas in it on Friday because the low fuel warning was starting to come on and annoy me. 5.7 gallons. First gas since March 15 (~150 miles from home). I predict my next gas purchase for the car will be in December.

My "lifetime average" is now 250mpg. 14.5 gallons and about 1100 kWh to travel 3600 miles (fuel/miles according to the car - modify as you see fit). That includes one gallon wasted when I, um, left the car on overnight in a hotel parking lot.

 

Owning other vehicles and driving so few miles with the Volt isn't representative of what a joe-consumer will experience.

The real-world data that's really going to make an impression is from someone who relies exclusively on their plug-in and drives close to the standard 15,000 miles per year.
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The the DOT says the average was 10,380miles in 2009.

*shrug* Those are my results. I drive ~15k miles/year. 12k will be in the Volt. 3k will be in other cars, 2k (absolute worst case) of that within the Volt's range.

Adjust as you see fit.

 

If we assume your Volt's gas engine got 37 mpg, your electricity consumption is 36kWh/100 miles. EPA estimate is right on.

Volt displays the feel good 250 mpg because it is ignoring your primary source of energy (electricity).

My Prius gets 500 mpg (Ethanol) too if I ignore the gasoline because I fill up with E10 gasoline.

So much for the single car argument for the Volt.

 

Your math is off. My electric consumption is approximately 32.3kWh/100 during 3100 miles of EV operation. My fuel mileage is worse than EPA because I (mentioned above) left it on one night. Correct for that and it is exactly 37mpg for the 14% of total miles I spent under gasoline power.

No way! Really? Jeez, I wish someone had brought that up before! I included electricity usage in my post as I have in every single report in this thread. I look forward to the same level of detail in future PHV Prius reports.

I own a bunch of cars therefore a Volt can't be an only car? Surely you can find a way to denigrate the car that actually makes sense.

 

"I own a bunch of cars therefore a Volt can't be an only car? "

The car is a ~ $45k 4-seater. Was there ever any doubt it is a toy for the moderately well-heeled ?

 

I wasn't criticizing you. It was directed toward the Volt.

I don't know about the production version of the Prius PHV but the prototype showed the EV to HV ratio.

AFAIK, Volt doesn't show the ratio but instead just one big MPG. If you knew the percentage, the big MPG number may be meaningless.

 

In the cleanmpg review, they have a photo of the energy info display. It lists miles electric, gas and total along with the data in a piechart.

 

I rely on my Volt exclusively for my transportation.

I get more the typical 66-70% EV usage out of the car. To date I have bought 40.6 gallons of gas for a total cost of $165.36. I've traveled a total of 5042 miles and 3477 of those have been in "EV" (~69%). My displayed lifetime economy is 116 mpg, although looking at miles traveled and gallons consumed gives me 124 mpg at the pump.

I don't track electric consumption like mfennel does, but I have not noticed any appreciable increase in my electric bill.

**for comparison if I owned a 50 mpg prius I would have consumed 100.8 gallons of gas over the same driving period, therefore presently I have saved about 60 gallons (~$240) in the first 3 months I have had the car, and that compared to the most fuel efficient alternative (savings more compared to traditional vehicles)

 

^^ Using EPA numbers, you are consuming about 415 kwh/month extra to run your car. That would cost me $50 a month extra, or double my current bill. So in my locale the Volt would save $30 a month in energy costs, and cost ~ $400 - $450 a month in lease payments.

This is of course describing a scenario favorable to the Volt. In reality my Prius averages about 55 mpg year round in 4 season weather, while the Volt has ~ 30% increased energy consumption in winter climates. A more realistic number calc suggests saving* ~ $19 a month in energy costs in return for paying the ~ 400 - 450 USD a month.

*
Prius: $224 for 3 months or $75 a month
Volt (8*360 + 4*500)12 = 400 wh/mile annual average = $56 dollars a month

 

A full one half of my charging is done at work, where I can charge for free. The remaining 200+/- kwh should cost me about $20 a month, but I'm just not seeing it, I think overall EV driving has made me more energy conscious and I am saving somewhere else.

My lease payment is $350 a month, this is lower than the purchase payment was on my original Gen 1 Prius.

I have a photovoltaic system going in this summer that should more than provide for my home and charging use, making the Volt incredibly green and energy independent.

I'm just sharing the numbers, make of them what you will, but this is a nice car that makes sense to me and I love it.:rockon:

*I should also add that it is the reduced oil consumption more than the cost savings that is important to me, if I wanted to just drive cheaper I'd have gotten an old civic and $20,000 worth of gas and saved money.

 

That brings up an interesting issue. Worth of a plug-in is related to distance driven. Unused EV is wasted capacity.

Success of any plug-in is going to depend on how well it matches consumer needs.

For someone like my mom, Volt's pack is excess... an unnecessary expense from being too big. Her commute is only 3 miles. The rest of her driving is a mix of short distances and long drives. That makes the PHV a really nice choice.
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I've already documented in this very thread that a Volt leases like a Prius III w/Nav or a Prius IV so it's hardly apples-to-apples to make comparison to your paid for car. Those give-a-way deals went away about the time gas hit $3/gallon again.

Regardless, I'm forever amused that Prius owners, who pay a premium for their cars (which is obscured by the inability to buy a non-HSD Prius - a stroke of genius by Toyota), will actually argue about the dollars-n-cents "worth" of the Volt. While we clearly have different motivations, I can't believe it's not anything but knock-me-over obvious that "saving money" was not a primary factor for either gwmort or I. I was commuting in a 15mpg Jaguar I paid $7500 for. Even a stripper Prius at $25k out the door, would take me 7 years to come back to even, even assuming 50mpg, which noone I know actually gets and ignoring opportunity cost of the $17,500 difference.

You know all this, of cours, and I'm sure it would take me 30 seconds to find a string of posts right here on this site acknowledging that there are many cheaper ways to go than a Prius but the Prius is somehow "better" anyway. And yet, here we are, parsing nickles.

 

IIRC you put down a heft down payment. Just for completeness sakes, you understand

 

It's $40k before the tax credit (which Prius owners previously enjoyed and PHV buyers will too) but we certainly have distinctly different world views if a $350 lease is for the "moderately well-heeled".

 

You give me no credit, sir. I ran the numbers with the exact same down payment, time span, and mileage.