Chevy Volt and other electric cars

[Duke41]

I was shocked to see that the price tag on the Volt or Dolt as I am now calling it is $41,000 for a car the size of a riding lawnmower and just as powerful. I cannot believer that Chevy found 7,300 suckers to buy this car. So now a poll.

[tysdad115]

How about a "None of the above" choice ? You couldn't give me one of those things.

[fishbones]

I thought I read yesterday that they were stopping production. I guess people don't want a crappy, expensive car.

[PRBuzz]

I'll stick with the Prius hybrid, my 2004 now has 100k miles and still gets 45mpg. Much more reasonably priced.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Raider Ronnie]

Buy a hybrid Ford Fusion.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[The Dad Fisherman]

Right now I get 3 trips to work on a tank of gas in my truck....I'd take one if they'd give it to me just to commute.

[Raven]

I'd pay 25k but it has to have a higher range than 40 miles
on one battery charge and
to get many people interested in making the switch...

yeah laying everyone off for five weeks to halt production
is such a CRAPPY idea for trying to get this country back on track

[Piscator]

Originally Posted by PRBuzz

I'll stick with the Prius hybrid, my 2004 now has 100k miles and still gets 45mpg. Much more reasonably priced.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Plus the quality of a Toyota.................

[FishermanTim]

Sounds like the electric car idea is just a gimmick, a ploy to insult the intelligence of the car driving world.

Let's see, how many of us drive LESS THAN 40 miles to work each day? Exactly what would you do if the car ran out of power before you get to your destination? Where do you "fill up"?
Does the cost of these "electric Edsels" include battery replacements?
If not, how many thousands (per battery) will it cost to replace, and how long are they supposed to last?

See, there are just way too many questions that fuel doubt and suspicion around these "cars".

They CAN make efficient electric cars, but since that would take money away from the oil companies, they just won't produce any.

What they look like they are doing is pushing this great big "green" movement and making everyone (well, almost everyone) want an electric car, even though they have NO track record of success to play off of. Then when these "erector-set" toy cars start failing they will roll out a new line of gas vehicles (maybe hybrid but definitely gas) and VIOLA!, we're back at the gas pump s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g our wallets dry!

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by PRBuzz

I'll stick with the Prius hybrid, my 2004 now has 100k miles and still gets 45mpg. Much more reasonably priced.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

My neighbor just got rid of his 2 year old Prius.
He's on the road all week for his job and gets a new car/truck every 2 years.
Told me about a month ago he drove to Detroit from Wrentham on 7 gallons of gas. Since his job pays expense for use of vehicle he turned that into a $ making scheme
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Sounds like the electric car idea is just a gimmick, a ploy to insult the intelligence of the car driving world.

Let's see, how many of us drive LESS THAN 40 miles to work each day? Exactly what would you do if the car ran out of power before you get to your destination?

In the case of the volt, the gas engine kicks in....

[PRBuzz]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Where do you "fill up"?
Does the cost of these "electric Edsels" include battery replacements?
If not, how many thousands (per battery) will it cost to replace, and how long are they supposed to last?

Charging stations are spreading:

Electric vehicle owners to power up in Boston's South End - Mass High Tech Business News

I saw lots of plug in stations on the Duke campus in NC.

For the Prius, I initially heard back in YR2004 batteries were $8K but recent pricing is about $1.5K. Originally warranted for 8 Yrs or 100K miles. I have not heard anything about C Volt batteries.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

My neighbor just got rid of his 2 year old Prius.
He's on the road all week for his job and gets a new car/truck every 2 years.
Told me about a month ago he drove to Detroit from Wrentham on 7 gallons of gas. Since his job pays expense for use of vehicle he turned that into a $ making scheme
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

The mileage reimbursement doesn't take fuel economy into consideration. If I were a salesman or serviceman that had to use my own vehicle, I'd definitely go the hybrid route. A typical reimbursement is around 50 cents/mile of reimbursement for business driving. Even if you only did 150 miles per week for work, that's almost the monthly car payment and if you do that mileage in a Prius, it's only like $12 in fuel.

I'd love to take a deal like that.

[JohnnySaxatilis]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Sounds like the electric car idea is just a gimmick, a ploy to insult the intelligence of the car driving world.

Let's see, how many of us drive LESS THAN 40 miles to work each day? Exactly what would you do if the car ran out of power before you get to your destination? Where do you "fill up"?
Does the cost of these "electric Edsels" include battery replacements?
If not, how many thousands (per battery) will it cost to replace, and how long are they supposed to last?

See, there are just way too many questions that fuel doubt and suspicion around these "cars".

They CAN make efficient electric cars, but since that would take money away from the oil companies, they just won't produce any.

s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g our wallets dry!

Actually it would be relatively easy to make fill up electric stations becuase electricity already has a great distribution method in place. not really the problem.

The reason they dont is because of your last two lines there

[tysdad115]

Start putting these electric recharge stations everywhere and the junkies would be stripping the charging stations down and stealing/scrapping the components for their next fix.

[Scuttlebutt]

My company owns a 2012 Chevy Volt. We took delivery the first week in December. It was one of the first ones in New England. We use it as a company car. We've gone a liitle over 1500 miles and only used 20 gallons of gas. The real value in this vehicle is if you can use it mostly on electricity. So if your commute is 40 miles or less round trip (to work let's say) you won't use hardly any gas at all. The estimated cost of electricity to fully charge it is around $1.50 per charge...so that's about $35.00 per month in electricity vs let's say $150-200 in gas.

The fuel economy rating can be confusing to say the least. Here is a breakdown. It's actually around 60 MPG combined (gas and electricity)

1. 93 MPGe for all-electric range, combined city highway. This is expressed as miles per gallon equivalents showing how far the car can drive purely on the amount of electric energy that would be contained in a gallon of gas (33.7kwh)

2. Official full charge time is 4 hours at 240-v. 10 hours at 110v.

3. EV Range is 35 miles officially, GM still says 25 to 50, based on driving style, temperature, and terrain.

4. Extended range charge-sustaining combined city and highway fuel economy is 37 mpg. It is 35 mpg city and 40 mpg highway.

5. Total range is 379 miles, 344 of gas range plus 35 miles electric range.

6. 60 MPG is the official overall combined number (MPGe + MPG) of fuel economy behavior over lifetime of the vehicle. It would be 93 if driving purely electric and 37 if you only drove using gas.

I agree, the purchase price (Base $39,000 with a $7500 tax credit) and the electric range (38-40 Miles) needs to be better for it to be more attractive to the masses. Also, since everything in the car runs on electricity (even AC), you become very aware of your driving style (accelerating and braking) and turning things on...since it all effects your battery life. It does have regererative brakes but I don't thing that helps all that much. It's so quiet that it is has a "chirp" feature to warn pedestrians at intersections..haha. The battery (they say...) is warranteed up to 100k miles. Chevy would not even quote the replacement cost at this time. All in all it's a really a cool vehicle with tons of gizmos and gadgets...but it should be... it only cost us 2.4 billion in federal subsidies to fund the development but I'm not going there...haha.

If anyone wants more info give me a shout.

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

The mileage reimbursement doesn't take fuel economy into consideration. If I were a salesman or serviceman that had to use my own vehicle, I'd definitely go the hybrid route. A typical reimbursement is around 50 cents/mile of reimbursement for business driving. Even if you only did 150 miles per week for work, that's almost the monthly car payment and if you do that mileage in a Prius, it's only like $12 in fuel.

I'd love to take a deal like that.

My neighbor does about 4-6000 miles a month.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

My neighbor does about 4-6000 miles a month.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

That's madness. I couldn't do that much. However, all the more reason to have a hybrid. Hell, if his reimbursement is close to the average, he's making more on mileage than some people earn at their full time job. Not a bad deal at all for him. For that kind of mileage, I can't believe they don't just buy him a car.

[spence]

[Mr. Sandman]

Actually, Where I live it makes a hell of a lot of sense!
Fuel is already 5 bucks+/gal and there is no place far to drive to!
(We put about 4K per vehicle per year for the entire family) I have 4 vehicles 3 on island and 1 off.

Several people I know own a "leaf" 100% electric and love them. For me they can't drive in the sand and can't pull a 10,000# boat and cant take a hockey team to a game so I have little use for it. But my wife may lease one to try it.

Don't underestimate electric motors, they have a hell of a lot of torque and can smoke any IC engine in acceleration. The issue is electric storage. Longer term that is the future. We just need more scientist and engineers to work thru it. Right now there is easy money in investment banking so way study anything hard that actually contributes anything to society. (yes I am bitter) But that is another debate...

You guys need to see beyond your next paycheck. When the first CD player came out it cost $21,000 in 1975, there were 8 CD's and no such thing as a recorder. I asked about one and they said it cost millions. Today, if you open a checking account they give you an ipod!

When the early computers were made they also sucked by today's standards and cost a ton. In 1981, I mortgaged my house to buy a state of the art computer for my business. (it had the power of a laptop today).I can't tell you how many articles I read that said color flat panels are a FAD!, way too expensive and poor quality. Just about everything has a ramp up.

This is just another step forward. They need to make them and the early adopters will help advance this technology. Eventually, all vehicles will be electric. If you want to be an "early adopter" then yeah, you will have to step up and pay more for one but eventually they will be pretty cheap.

Most people don't realize that unless you have solar panels on your roof charging your car, the methods used to charge those cars produce plenty of CO2. (coal burning power plants). But I like the idea of reducing dep of foreign sources of fuel.

Frankly I think a better short term approach for this country is to:
Move to Nat Gas....dev the infrastructure (ie create jobs NOW),and produce Nat gas for the US and STOP exporting it. US nat gas is $2, in Europe it is $16. WE should use the several 100's of years of known supply of Nat gas we have for vehicles WHILE simultaneously developing pure electric vehicles for the longer term (50-100 years out)

[Pete_G]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman

You guys need to see beyond your next paycheck. When the first CD player came out it cost $21,000 in 1975, there were 8 CD's and no such thing as a recorder. I asked about one and they said it cost millions. Today, if you open a checking account they give you an ipod!

When the early computers were made they also sucked by today's standards and cost a ton. In 1981, I mortgaged my house to buy a state of the art computer for my business. (it had the power of a laptop today).I can't tell you how many articles I read that said color flat panels are a FAD!, way too expensive and poor quality. Just about everything has a ramp up.

This is just another step forward. They need to make them and the early adopters will help advance this technology. Eventually, all vehicles will be electric. If you want to be an "early adopter" then yeah, you will have to step up and pay more for one but eventually they will be pretty cheap.

Agree completely.

Your average smartphone these days has specs that would have been tough to imagine a decade ago in a desktop.

The Volt is another step for electric/hybrid cars. Maybe a wobbly and expensive step, but a step none the less.

Hybrid and/or electric is still viewed as a compromise by many, and with good reason. If it's more expensive, slower, inconvenient, or just doesn't work that well, then it is what it is.

The Volt might not be the tipping point that makes most people do the most important thing - vote with their wallet - but I think it's getting close. The time will come when hybrids and eventually pure electrics are faster, stronger, more durable (electric motors are pretty hardy) and more fuel efficient. Look at the hybrid machines being played with in Le Mans and other racing series from Toyota, Audi, Porsche, Peugeot, and more. These machines aren't compromised by being hybrid, they're enhanced.

If I could get some of that action in a reasonably priced road car I'd willingly pay MORE for a hybrid.

The trickle down usually happens quick when it comes to technology. Sign me up when it happens.