Chevy Volt Grabs 230 MPG Rating, With Catches

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master9716

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All you guys Are RETARTED bc you havent account for the fact
that the car has its own generator.Who drives more than 50 a day?
unless its a weekend or something
 

master9716

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[citation][nom]Daemas[/nom]it seems to me like people are trading gasoline money for electric bills.[/citation]
Ur dumb . The car generates its won electricity after its using fuel so it recharges itself also , People buy 40K+cars all the time so thats not a big deal for a lot of ppl. Its still super efficient
 

geoffs

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guys there are 2 huge question we should be asking here. For how many recharge cycles will the battery last until till? How much will the damn thing cost when the time comes to replace the battery?
If you bothered to read any of GM's press material or articles on other sites, you would have seen the answer.

The battery pack is designed to last for 10 yrs or 150,000 miles. That works out to about 3500 "full" charge cycles, although each "full charge" is actually only about 50% of the battery capacity, so it's more like 1500-2000 cycles. That's stretching the limits of current battery technology.
 
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Hybrid cars do not give good "constant speed" fuel consumption figures because they are losing the regenerative affect of the stop-start city driving they are intended for. The Toyota Prius is a good example. They return very good city fuel consumption figures because that it what they are designed for. On the highway, they are on a par with a similar engined gasoline vehicle.

I would imagine the Chevy Volt to be set up in a similar manner. And how many people commute more than 40 miles anyway? There will be some. But there are diesel cars that will use less fuel than a Prius or Volt over the same distance, without the compromises and decent driving dynamics as well.
 

chuckdalton

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If all the car in the world become electric, will we have enough electricity to run them all? We need to find more ways to make electricity
 

jaybus

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While I disagree with the measurements, it is clear that one has to drive at least 300 miles before it uses somewhere near the same amount of fuel as a Prius. Few people drive 300 miles daily, so it is safe to say that it will use far less fuel than a Prius. It certainly would for me. Yes, it uses electricity, but electricity is far less expensive than gasoline. My problem with the Volt is mostly that it is, as yet, an unproven design.
 
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One electric car company in the US that seems to have potential in my book, quality and price wise and they already make cars, trucks, vans and scooters is Zap (Zero Air Pollution) http://www.zapworld.com/ I am firmly against the continued support of foreign knockoffs.
 

eyemaster

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[citation][nom]coverfire[/nom]well considering I can go to work and home on a single charge and then be recharged by the next day I would save roughly 200.00 a month in gas.[/citation]

and pay rougly 300$ more a month in electric bill.
 

cablechewer

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Some countries are using Liters/100km. That tells you exactly how much fuel you need to drive a specific distance. Drive 20,000km/year? Take 20,000/100*rating*price/liter.

I am sure the same thing would work for imperial measure. If GM had to rate the volt for 100 miles of city driving you would get a more honest number.
 

cablechewer

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Of course what I said still doesn't give us an apples to apples way of comparing the energy efficiency and operating cost of a pure electric to any vehicle with an ICE. We still need a totally different rating scheme for that.
 

Regulas

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Good for Government Motors GM but I still will never buy one of their Socialist cars again that goes for Chrysler and Ford too. The UAW and Obummer can both kiss my arse.
 

geoffs

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but I still will never buy one of their Socialist cars again that goes for Chrysler and Ford too.
For the record, Ford has so far declined any government bailout money. How do you lump them in with GM and Chrysler come up with them being Socialist?
 

chuenl

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The right way to measure MPG should be done like this:

1. Fill up your tank with gas
2. Charge your car with full power of electricity
3. Drive your car until your tank is empty
4. Do the MPG calculation like this:
Total miles / (gallons of gas for full tank + gallons of gas to produce your electricity)

That should be the way to do this. I am sure it will be less than 45 miles per gallon, so it fails the environment test!
 

geoffs

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[citation][nom]coverfire[/nom]well considering I can go to work and home on a single charge and then be recharged by the next day I would save roughly 200.00 a month in gas.[/citation]If you are spending $200/mo in gas, you won't save $200/mo with an all electric vehicle. Electricity to charge the Volt is about 1/2 the price per mile as when it's running the gas engine to charge the battery and/or power the motor.

If you're currently driving a 16MPG SUV, then switching to a 40-50MPG car would cut your gas purchases to 1/3 of what you're currently spending. And you could save about that amount with a $20k-$25k Honda Civic hybrid or Toyota Prius. If you're currently spending $200/mo on gas for a 16MPG vehicle, you could cut that to $60-$80/mo.

If you typically drive less than 40mi/day, then the Volt might save you another 1/6 of what you're currently spending. If you're currently spending $200/mo for gas on a 16MPG vehicle, the Volt might reduce that to $35-$60/mo for gas and electricity.

If you're already getting 30+ MPG, the Volt won't save you that much, despite GM's completely bogus 230MPG estimate. If you're driving ~40mi/day, 6 days a week (25 days a month), that's 1000mi/mo and currently have a 33MPG vehicle, you're buying 30 gals/mo @ 2.75gal = $82.50/mo. With a Volt, you might reduce that to ~$30/mo for electricity (and maybe a little gas), with a net savings of ~$50/mo.

BTW, GM isn't 100% to blame for the bogus estimate, they used the EPA formula to make the estimate, but GM should NOT have given that estimate, it's deceptive.

Don't forget, with a $40k Volt financed for 60 mo. @ 0% interest and $0 down payment, you'll have a $670/mo car payment.
 

geoffs

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[citation][nom]chuenl[/nom]Total miles / (gallons of gas for full tank + gallons of gas to produce your electricity)That should be the way to do this. I am sure it will be less than 45 miles per gallon, so it fails the environment test![/citation]Since electric power plants don't usually run of gasoline (or oil), that's not useful or helpful.

The Volt is estimated to get 50MPG when it's using the gas engine to power the motor and charge the battery, and that's the only meaningful MPG statement you can make about this type of car. Since the cost/mi of electricity to charge the Volt is about half the cost/mi of gasoline, you COULD say it COSTS the about the same to operate as a 100MPG car (which is not the same as saying it gets 100MPG, it doesn't). Any other "MPG" comparison is completely made up and non-sensical.
 

rooket

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[citation][nom]geoffs[/nom]Incorrect. For the Volt, the current electric cost per mile is about 45% of the cost of gasoline per mile, so if you're using price of electricity vs price of gas on the volt, the Volt gets about 50MPG on gas and the same $2.70 would get you about 110 miles. 230MPG is based upon completely ignoring the cost of electricity and driving 80+% on of miles on battery only.[/citation]

Yeah that's what I thought. Hence why i don't think the volt is going to put a big dent into the current hybrid sales of Toyota. Plus it is a Chevy and they are I dunno kinda meh. It is funny how Chevrolet finally rebranded the Cavalier likely due to the fact that it is a steaming pile of crap. Why don't they just drop the crappy cars and build good ones. Sure people may need to spend more money but at least it wouldn't tarnish the brand. Also I've seen MSRP on those little Korean Aveo. Who is stupid enough to spend that kind of money on a turd? At least Ford has things set straight, got their American stuff in order and I guess they run their Korean line as Kia but I'm not sure. At least a Kia is better than an Aveo/Daewoo. Probably cheaper too.
 
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Lutz says the volt takes 25 KWH to make the car go 100 miles

I have a flexible electric plan that cost 15 cents per KWH in the day and 6 cents per KWH at night,

so assuming I charge it overnight,
6 cents X 25 KWH = $1.50 to charge the car to make it go 100 miles.

My current car needs 4 gallons of gas to go 100 miles
at $2.50 a gallon, it costs $10 to go the same distance.

So my gas car still costs over 6 times what it would to power the volt.

The bottom line is that the cost to power my car would be cut down from $225 to about $35. If I own the car for 8 years, that's about $18,000 in fuel savings, or half the price of the car.
 
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