Will the Chevrolet Volt be a failure or a success?

We went over this here and here.

Still think PiP's AER is going to be zero?

 

It appears from your knowledge of the testing procedure that the speed won't go over the threshold for the ICE. It is unclear to me whether it will come on for the purposes of acceleration.

If the ICE comes on at all during the first 0.5 miles the AER will be zero.

 

0.5 mile will be rounded to 1 mile. I know what you mean. 0.499 miles will be rounded to AER=0.

 

I'm pretty sure they still do this as do other automakers w/AT-PZEV hybrids.

Doh! I didn't have a chance to talk to any official Toyota reps about this either. I also didn't know you were at GDE as you weren't on the roll call list at http://priuschat.com/forums/local-c...expo-sf-bay-area-9-17-11-a-5.html#post1388925.

I would hope the behavior is like that of the PHV demo cars where it goes thru some sort of engine prep phase when the big battery runs down.

I'm guessing that your Volt might've been the one I saw parked on the way in... I don't know if there was more than one Volt in the parking area.

 

They did, and still do.

The point is that all buyers in CA get the improved warranty, whether they use services tied to PZEV cert or not. Same price for everybody. Since I am pretty sure that GM is going to have an 'HOV eligible' pricing strategy, they would like to sell both low warranty and high warranty cars in the same state. This is the situation I wonder will be possible.

 

I didn't think to check here first for an organized list of folks going to the expo. I wasn't sure I was going until I realized the new production Prius would be there.

I saw at least one other Volt also parked along the road leading to the expo area. Mine was red.

 

Some grist for the mill:

(cold weather anecdote)

This morning was the first morning I felt a need to run the heater in my Volt (temps dipped slightly into the 40's). Because I haven't been using the heater I didn't think to try to precondition cabin temperature while it was plugged in before I left. Also, I was driving my kids to school who have a lower cold tolerance than I do, and there are no heated seats in the back.

Set to Eco the heater was not warming the cabin very quickly and I was getting complaints from the kids so I turned it to comfort and raised the preset temp. Displayed climate output was at 86% power. For my own comfort I had the driver's heated set set to medium (because it felt nice).

After about 10 mins I switched back to Eco and turned off my seat heater and lowered the preset temp a few degrees. Displayed climate output was then around 60%.

My total commute in with dropping off the kids is 23 miles. I usually get to the office with 17-18 miles of EV range remaining per the display. Today when I pulled into my spot at work it displayed 3 miles EV remaining (total AER of 26 miles).

Now there are things I can try to minimize this, clean out the garage and keep the car warmer overnight, precondition the cabin temp before unplugging, etc... But for me as long as I can still complete the full commute on electric I'll be fine with it (I should be able to pick up another 32 miles during 8 hours of charging at work and ambient temps should be higher this afternoon, and I don't have the kids so can rely less on cabin temp and more on the cozy seat heater).

 

so anyone have a Volt in their neighborhood to test drive? on MNL forums, they are stating over 2,000 built in Sept but 700 sold AND very little time on the lot. speculation is that a lot of the cars were relegated to demo status

 

My local dealer got 2 in September, one is all covered in promotional decals (or wrap), and I presume the other one is for sale.

 

My dealer has one. They've sold 2 '12s already. About a dozen Volts in all.

After a slow start (I was their 2nd car and I think mine sat for 6 weeks) they seem to be pretty successful at moving them. I imagine it's a combination of the economics of the area and a particular young salesman who's really enthusiastic about the car and knows quite a bit about it.

 

Consumer Reports tags Chevy Volt as Recommended [w/video]

Well look at that! Consumer reports is coming on board, finally.

 

What do you think the gas-only mileage would be? That is a substantial reduction in range. I assume its gas motor cannot shed heat into the cabin like a regular ICE so its winter MPG could be well under 30...?

 

i just read an article on msn from a guy at the carlisle auto show in pa. he was getting 40 mpg all day long, gas only.

 

I would assume that they would use the coolant through a heat exchanger of some kind so that when the engine runs the coolant gets 200F-230F and then that can be used to heat the cabin through some vent wrapping or something.

So it is probably a negligible hit on fuel economy in gas mode.

 

I really have no idea if the ICE can heat the cabin more efficiently in gas mode or if its not designed to do that. I'll try to get some data as it gets colder for discussion sake.

 

There's a two position valve that closes off the cabin heater loop (360V electric element, electric pump, heater core) from the ICE/radiator when in CD mode. When the ICE is running, the valve switches and the loop expands to include the ICE/radiator, heating the cabin like any other car.

I turned my heat on this morning too, then drove home on the highway at 70+ mph. 35 mile AER (predicted) vs 45 typical.

 

This morning (about 5 degrees warmer), I preheated the car before unplugging it so the kids didn't complain so I was able to maintain with the heater set to Eco and displayed Climate output around 30%.

I completed my 23 mile commute with 14 miles displayed remaining, so 3-4 miles less than during the summer but no where near as bad as yesterday.

I did tend to pay more attention to keeping the floating efficiency ball in its happy place and spent more time in the right lane than usual.

 

That's not bad.

 

Wait until it snows. Did you measure how much more electricity the preconditioning consumes?

 

I don't have the technical know how or equipment to measure my electric consumption on the charger. Its a 240 v hardwired unit so a kill-a-watt won't do.

It preconditioned for 5 minutes before we went out. How much is possible with 240 v flowing through a 20 amp breaker?