Chevrolet Volt to get 230 MPG ?????

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oldRoger

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I am having a bad day today. First POTUS compares his insurance reform to the Post Office and thinks we will swoon, then this:
"General Motors Co., outlining a raft of new vehicles designed to reinvigorate its lineup, said its much-awaited Chevrolet Volt is expected to get 230 miles per gallon in city driving."

This is an electric car, it plugs in to the electric grid, it dosen't use any gasoline! It uses coal if near a coal fired power plant. Miles per gallon of what? Moonshine?
Obviously they take us all for blithering idiots.
 
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i read that the car will go 40 miles on the battery then a gasoline engine kicks in which allow it to go another 260 miles for a total of 300 miles

also heard it will sell for some where in the $40,000 price range
 
The first bit uses battery power. After about 40 miles a small gasoline engine powers up and runs the battery as you drive..

250 - 300 miles per gallon of gas... still pretty good.

It's a gas-electric hybrid, really.
 
My bicycle gets even better gas mileage, and my diesel can go 1000 miles and not even use a drop of gasoline.

If we are going to get away from gasoline, perhaps fuel mileage and efficiency needs to be expressed in miles per joule.
 
Is that mileage figure with the headlights, and/or A/C & defroster on?
Wait till the first time a ponytailed Birkenstock wearer craps out a battery AND the gas for the pony motor turning the alternator, then has to be towed? Hope their prepared to plug these things into a non-existant electric infrastructure? Due to the enviro-weenies not letting any coal or nuke plants get built for 30 years! Maybe all these little clown cars can follow the overhead power lines for the rapid transit buses?
PUDKNOCKERS!
 
I don't quite understand what happens at the 300 mile mark.
Does it have to be plugged in overnight for a full recharge or is that as far as it will go without adding more gas to the tank? If it will continue to run with the addition of more gasoline I don't think that 230 mpg number will stand up. If it requires a recharge then my golf cart gets an infinite number of miles per gallon.
 
The gas engine (I'm guessing?) will lay a surface charge across the top of the battery banks, allowing the drive motors to continue operating. Once those batteries are taken down that far however, it'll take 6 hours minimum (likely longer), to get their full potential back.
LOL-I guess "flex fuel" now will mean being able to use A.C and D.C.!
 
Won't be needing one of these until it can tow my 4 wheelers and gas hog Jeep to the trails.:D
 
Caution-Caution


Most of us would think that this rating means that you can put a gal. of gas in it and go 230 miles.
Hardly, the laws of physics have not changed.
Figures do not lie but liars figure. Remember this is a car made by Government Motors and rated by the Government.
The hybrid part of the car probably will rate like the Prius, about 40 MPG if you use AC less, how do we get 230 MPG? Well most days we plug it in and don't use any gas lets say we do 5 days on battery plug-in at max range that's 5X40 = 200 miles, then Friday Evening we drive 30 miles without the plug-in use a gal and.....Bingo!.......230 miles on a gal.
Ain't politics grand?
 
I understand we will be getting a few dozen in our utility fleet in the next few months. I'll report back once we get them in service and wring them out.
 
Can't wait to see one of these going down the highway with a 12KW Generac strapped to the roof running wide open.
 
P.T. Barnum must be consumed with envy; he was a con artist supreme in his day, but he never plucked the whole thing out of the air and ran with it.

GM couldn't even build a decent conventional car or pickup for decades. Now they're going to make a hyperspace leap ahead of everyone else?

Sure.
 
Maybe BHO hired Whizzo the magician from the Bozo show to wave his magic wand over a 1963 Nova and POOF a Volt appeared. Wait until you see what Whizzo can do with a duce and a quarter Buick !

Kirmdog
 
Darn thing costs $40,000 and looks like a pregnant roller skate, for that type of money, I can buy me a nice used truck and keep the difference which will more than make up the difference for the cost of the gas.
 
Mickey D said:
I understand we will be getting a few dozen in our utility fleet in the next few months. I'll report back once we get them in service and wring them out.
Click to expand...

Mike, maybe you'll get lucky and they'll send you to Detroit to learn how to service these things. ;)
 
You have to plug the vehicle in and recharge it.

I suppose you'll need your own windmill.

You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I'm capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers. Hot Air Blog Archive Obama: I'll make energy prices "skyrocket"
 
I've got my eye on this retro model:

2405656484_3df39299a3.jpg
 
Sip;
Of course you will be buying one, that is to say paying for one, actually lots of them, the question is will the Gov. let you use one of the ones you have "Bought".
Like the Prius, it is expected that Gov. Motors will loose money on each Volt made. Obama expects to make it up on volume (old industry joke).

Barb;
Yes, you will need your own windmill w/solar cell back-up. There is a problem though; you are supposed to charge the thing at night, no sun and little wind at night. That is one of the technological breakthroughs we are awaiting.
Roger.
 
oldRoger said:
Barb;
Yes, you will need your own windmill w/solar cell back-up. There is a problem though; you are supposed to charge the thing at night, no sun and little wind at night. That is one of the technological breakthroughs we are awaiting.
Roger.
Click to expand...

Just plug in a giant sunlamp and fan, problem solved!!:rolleyes:;)

I'll resort to something with 4 legs before a Volt.
 
Yup,
All they need to perfect now, is the ability of the thing to haul a long enough extension cord coiled up on it's roof? That one's in beta testing currently.
 
The Volt really isn't that new of an idea either. GM spent millions of dollars and almost 10 years trying to copy the way a diesel/electric locomotive works. The funny part is that they aren't even using a diesel generator, which would be more efficient, in the car.
 
FirebirdV8 said:
The Volt really isn't that new of an idea either. GM spent millions of dollars and almost 10 years trying to copy the way a diesel/electric locomotive works. The funny part is that they aren't even using a diesel generator, which would be more efficient, in the car.
Click to expand...

That's kind of the point: they spent so much time and money on this car, which ran the price up so high, and many people don't expect them to sell. It's based on a technology that, though still viable, is becoming outdated by new advances. This is exactly why they went bankrupt.
 
Two interesting aspects of this isn't being discussed much here or by advocates from Government Motors.

The vehicle requires to be recharged from the grid for normal use and maximum economy. The electrical grid in many parts of the country is already stretched to it's limit and enviro-nazi's are not allowing new facilities to be built. What happens when millions of these vehicles are sold and plugged into the over taxed grids? Interesting in that markets where this vehicles will have the most appeal, like California, are the same States with the most overtaxed electrical grids and the most active and politically entrenched enviro-nazis.

Furthermore, what do States & the Fed do when millions of these vehicles are put on the road and gasoline sales taxes plummet?
 
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See posting #5 on the first page.
Your entirely correct. Part of the specialty of these loon's is their seeming inability to grasp physical realities. Therein, their magical thinking on the enviro-kiddie-cars being practical. One could also postulate that part of their reptilian fear of firearms has a great deal to do with their lack of understanding of how the physical world works as well. Bet you all know more than one, who thinks a gun can go off while just sitting on a table?
 
I have the SAE Technical Paper (2008-01-0458) which the Chevy site says describes the propulsion system. It an interesting paper but it really is mostly environmental moonshine and very little that tells exactly how works. For example; last night my wife heard some GM VP say it's a Diesel generator hybrid. Given the extra wt. and cost, that seems unlikely, the gas engine at a steady load and speed driving a generator is quite efficient. Granted the Diesel would be more efficient the disadvantages in the small sized engines have always kept engineers away.

Certainly the paper does not include any details about enlarging the power grid.

Regrettably the places where an electric commuter car might be useful just happen to be large congested cities where the power grid is the most overloaded.
I have always wondered how people parking on the street would plug in an electric car, fascinating!

Somehow this plan never seems to come together. Anyone who is interested in this fascinating subject can go here;
Early Electric

By the way the industry has been looking for a battery that would go more than 40 miles per charge since about 1910. The promise is always "next year".
 
sjmjax said:
Furthermore, what do States & the Fed do when millions of these vehicles are put on the road and gasoline sales taxes plummet?
Click to expand...

Within a generation there will be a combo transponder/gps tied into your car's computer that reports daily mileage driven. Your credit card will be automaticaly charged the road tax for the miles you drove. CC over the limit, your car won't start.

Several states are really pushing this now, and the technology and hardware already exists.
 
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