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Got a Chevy VOLT Today

jonny5 said:
Some order more stuff from amazon, or drive farther to work, or tow boats, smoke or live in cities with more disease. SHould they pay more taxes? Thats too complicated, so we should all just pay the same to use the public roads (or make them all toll roads). Except that govt likes EVs so you get a break on the price of yours, plus your manufacturer got bailed out, and the govt (ie. me)funds the development of your car. Put EVs on the same footing with other cars and I wouldnt have a problem.
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I was neither here-nor-there with the US Auto Industry and GM bailout. I know one thing - the foreign car manufacturers would have loved it, if he hadn't intervened. Bush had this country so screwed up, with 2 wars, a banking/housing crisis, Corporate CEOs running amok, a bankrupt auto industry, etc., etc. Obama cleaned up a huge mess, and the auto industry bailout was part of it. Do you deny that the Electric car can help alleviate the ozone and particulate pollution problems in many of the cities of the US?

Key Findings | American Lung Association

The State of the Air 2018 report shows that many cities across the nation experienced more days when ground-level ozone, also known as "smog," reached unhealthy levels, including most of the cities with the worst ozone problems.
 
jonny5 said:
Some order more stuff from amazon, or drive farther to work, or tow boats, smoke or live in cities with more disease. SHould they pay more taxes? Thats too complicated, so we should all just pay the same to use the public roads (or make them all toll roads). Except that govt likes EVs so you get a break on the price of yours, plus your manufacturer got bailed out, and the govt (ie. me)funds the development of your car. Put EVs on the same footing with other cars and I wouldnt have a problem.
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The government IS indirectly funding the development of the car with the tax breaks.

And this is a good thing for us all. The environmental cost of gas powered vehicles is being paid by them already, in a variety of different ways.

Those costs include emissions, which lead to respiratory problems, which lead to increased health care costs, some of which is borne by the government.

Those costs also include CO2 emissions, and moving to electric cars and renewable energy, we can decrease CO2 emissions in the long run. And that environmental cost is potentially huge, with eventual massive costs to you to deal with sea level rise, droughts, floods, managing potential political upheaval around the world, etc.

Right now, you are shafting future generations by punting the environmental cost of your vehicle to them. Don’t whine about having to pay those costs now- you’ve been getting off scot-free for decades.
 
Media_Truth said:
I don't know if the Leaf has a regenerator paddle
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Something similar. We have a driving mode we can move into that essentially sets the car into that mode, where any time you're not actively giving it gas it's using regenerative breaking. Actually kind of handy for the slow down and go traffic of Northern Virginia, as I kind of have one pedal driving often. There's also two modes, economic and normal, that sounds like what you are talking about with "gears" (beautiful thing with electrics, or at least the leaf, there's no "gears" in the traditional sense. Such fun smooth acceleration). Economic mode essentially limits how much power will be used to go towards accelerating. I usually use that mode unless I know I need a quick burst of speed, then I put it into the normal and let it zip forward.
 
Zyphlin said:
Something similar. We have a driving mode we can move into that essentially sets the car into that mode, where any time you're not actively giving it gas it's using regenerative breaking. Actually kind of handy for the slow down and go traffic of Northern Virginia, as I kind of have one pedal driving often. There's also two modes, economic and normal, that sounds like what you are talking about with "gears" (beautiful thing with electrics, or at least the leaf, there's no "gears" in the traditional sense. Such fun smooth acceleration). Economic mode essentially limits how much power will be used to go towards accelerating. I usually use that mode unless I know I need a quick burst of speed, then I put it into the normal and let it zip forward.
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Sounds like you're loving your Leaf!!! I know the feeling. I usually hate driving, thinking of it as a necessary evil to get from A to B. But I'm actually enjoying it!
 
Media_Truth said:
First, I have Netmetering. Perhaps you could look this up and learn something. Second - you're wrong. Study electricity throughputs, and you may learn something. BTW - I have a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering. Third, I'm not trying to "power the world" - just my car and my home.
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Your set up still looks dinky.

Net metering sounds like a real good deal for you and a real crappy deal for the electrical utilities. Well really do pay rent for using their “storage technology”? I can’t think of any upside for the utility. And if you don’t use your “stored” power then what, the utility pays you for it? You get access to their power grid and customer base to sell your excess. What a sweet deal.

But I expect you don’t see it that way.
 
Steve Case said:
Your set up still looks dinky.

Net metering sounds like a real good deal for you and a real crappy deal for the electrical utilities. Well really do pay rent for using their “storage technology”? I can’t think of any upside for the utility. And if you don’t use your “stored” power then what, the utility pays you for it? You get access to their power grid and customer base to sell your excess. What a sweet deal.

But I expect you don’t see it that way.
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Media can correct me if I am wrong, but I think his picture lacks scale, and the solar panel system is a 12 large panel system.
That would make the wind turbine quite large as well.
 
Media_Truth said:
I was neither here-nor-there with the US Auto Industry and GM bailout. I know one thing - the foreign car manufacturers would have loved it, if he hadn't intervened. Bush had this country so screwed up, with 2 wars, a banking/housing crisis, Corporate CEOs running amok, a bankrupt auto industry, etc., etc. Obama cleaned up a huge mess, and the auto industry bailout was part of it. Do you deny that the Electric car can help alleviate the ozone and particulate pollution problems in many of the cities of the US?

Key Findings | American Lung Association

The State of the Air 2018 report shows that many cities across the nation experienced more days when ground-level ozone, also known as "smog," reached unhealthy levels, including most of the cities with the worst ozone problems.
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Except it was Bush who bailed out the auto industries. And the real fix is stop packing 10 million people into a small area. Stop over populating. Stop the cycle of govt dependence making people so poor they cant choose to live better.
 
Meh...I dont much care either way about your commitment to energy savings or the use of fossil fuels. If you like your car, good on ya for whatever reasons.

I hope this version of the VOLT is more successful than the rollout. I know 3 people that bought them...one that waited a long time for his to ship...and all of them got rid of them within the first month. But thats not uncommon with new vehicles. So seriously...nice car and may you have many enjoyable and successful years with it.

Once they make something powerful enough to pull my boat 450 miles, I may look into one myself!
 
VanceMack said:
Meh...I dont much care either way about your commitment to energy savings or the use of fossil fuels. If you like your car, good on ya for whatever reasons.

I hope this version of the VOLT is more successful than the rollout. I know 3 people that bought them...one that waited a long time for his to ship...and all of them got rid of them within the first month. But thats not uncommon with new vehicles. So seriously...nice car and may you have many enjoyable and successful years with it.

Once they make something powerful enough to pull my boat 450 miles, I may look into one myself!
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Actually, almost all Volt owners are extremely happy with their purchase. I looked extensively at personal reviews. Not sure about the early releases. Believe it or not, the Volt could pull you boat. You probably wouldn't get much mileage out of the electric charge though - maybe 20-30 miles. It's extremely powerful. They had to electronically cap the speed at 101 MPH, because they found that they were able to go up 155 MPH!

As far as the boat, once you used the electric charge, you could pull it the remainder of your 450 miles with gasoline, and a little bit of regenerated electric charge. No problemo!!!
 
Steve Case said:
Your set up still looks dinky.

Net metering sounds like a real good deal for you and a real crappy deal for the electrical utilities. Well really do pay rent for using their “storage technology”? I can’t think of any upside for the utility. And if you don’t use your “stored” power then what, the utility pays you for it? You get access to their power grid and customer base to sell your excess. What a sweet deal.

But I expect you don’t see it that way.
Click to expand...

I pay $34.99 per month to Mountain View Electric for access to their Utility grid. This is up from $9.99 per month in 2012. In addition, there was $250 one-time charge for a Netmetering accout. It's a Utility run by Conservatives, and they were mandated by the State to provide Netmetering, through legislation, which resulted from a citizen initiative. So they're using politics, and regressive monthly fixed fees, while artificially holding down usage rates to gig their Netmetering customers (and poorer customers). And all this, despite the fact that Netmetering customers are less than 1% of their customer base.

Their policies really hurt the poor, and reward the ultra-wealthy trophy home owner.
 
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longview said:
Media can correct me if I am wrong, but I think his picture lacks scale, and the solar panel system is a 12 large panel system.
That would make the wind turbine quite large as well.
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Yes. Solar panel rating is 2.8 kW. Wind turbine is 2.4 kW. In perspective, if both were operating at full capacity, it could power 52 - 100 Watt lightbulbs (the old incandescent variety).
 
Media_Truth said:
Yes. Solar panel rating is 2.8 kW. Wind turbine is 2.4 kW. In perspective, if both were operating at full capacity, it could power 52 - 100 Watt lightbulbs (the old incandescent variety).
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I bet you daytime usage is minimal.
 
longview said:
I bet you daytime usage is minimal.
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Yes, there were a few months where we didn't run a surplus. My wife raises and hatches chickens, and she had quite a few incubators going. She also uses heating pads, once they are born. But we're only talking $5-10 of electricity.
 
Media_Truth said:
I pay $34.99 per month to Mountain View Electric for access to their Utility grid. This is up from $9.99 per month in 2012. In addition, there was $250 one-time charge for a Netmetering accout. It's a Utility run by Conservatives, and they were mandated by the State to provide Netmetering, through legislation, which resulted from a citizen initiative. So they're using politics, and regressive monthly fixed fees, while artificially holding down usage rates to gig their Netmetering customers (and poorer customers). And all this, despite the fact that Netmetering customers are less than 1% of their customer base.

Their policies really hurt the poor, and reward the ultra-wealthy trophy home owner.
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Thanks for the reply. Mountain View according to internet charges $0.1601 per kWh. I pay $0.1244
The internet says of the lower 48 states Massachusetts is the highest at $0.2169 and Louisiana is the
lowest at $0.0953 per kWh. So Massachusetts is really hurting the poor. And Louisiana gives the poor
a break. Here's a map:

erbs-v2.png


Besides all that, I did some back of the envelope arithmetic and figure that several square meters of
solar panel is needed to run a car 10,000 miles per year at an average of 25 mph. and maybe 20%
efficiency for a solar panel.

Yeah OK, happy driving. I'd like a small electric car but I don't want to pay $33,000 for one.
 
Media_Truth said:
Actually, almost all Volt owners are extremely happy with their purchase. I looked extensively at personal reviews. Not sure about the early releases. Believe it or not, the Volt could pull you boat. You probably wouldn't get much mileage out of the electric charge though - maybe 20-30 miles. It's extremely powerful. They had to electronically cap the speed at 101 MPH, because they found that they were able to go up 155 MPH!

As far as the boat, once you used the electric charge, you could pull it the remainder of your 450 miles with gasoline, and a little bit of regenerated electric charge. No problemo!!!
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Well...no problemo other than the excessive wear and tear on a vehicle for exceeding pulling rates. And if Im only getting 20-30 miles on a charge, I'll stick my combustion engine.

No negatives here...happy days. I hope its everything you bought it for and more!
 
[FONT=&quot]Alarmism[/FONT]
[h=1]Sierra Club: Democrats are Losing Interest in Climate Change[/h][FONT=&quot]Guest essay by Eric Worrall The Sierra Club is fretting that the Democrats don’t really seem interested in solving the climate crisis. The Democratic Party Has a Climate Change Problem The Democratic Party appears to be moving backward on climate action BY NATASHA GEILING | AUG 22 2018 In late May—days after President Donald Trump…
[/FONT]
 
Media_Truth said:
It's a beauty!

View attachment 67238178

And before some of you start talking about coal-fired electricity, etc, I'll also say that I generate an electricity surplus 12 months a year, with solar PVs and a residential wind turbine.

View attachment 67238179

My intent is not to be smug in this post. I simply like to put my money where my mouth is, and be an example to others.
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We all buy things to make us happy. Seems like you have achieved your goal. Well done.
 
Zyphlin said:
I like to put money in my pocket, and be comfortable and happy, which is why I have my Leaf....not because I think the car I drive needs to be based around my goddamn political views.

I considered a Volt, but couldn't find any in my price range with the features I wanted. While I wouldn't mind greater range on my Leaf, it generally handles 90% of my driving. The rest of the time I just swap with my wife and take our Escape or I grab my motorcycle.

Very much intrigued to get into a Model 3 once they're a bit more common and able to be test driven.
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We might replace our car next year but i am looking for something used to get the kids from school when i need to or drive just around town.
i think an electric car would be great for that. I don't need something for a long travel, but i want to get something nice.

I have been looking at used electric cars and the prices on them are still high and frankly outrageous.
the new kai niro EV looks nice. i need a sedan though.
 
ludin said:
I have been looking at used electric cars and the prices on them are still high and frankly outrageous.
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Guess it depends what you're looking for. When I was looking for a used car I wanted a certain MPG along with a variety of different features within the car, under a certain amount of wear and tear. When I put all those things together, in my area at least, the Leaf kept coming out on top. I was honestly surprised at first, and doubtful of it, ignoring it. But I kept striking out with other cars I was looking at and so finally gave it a shot for a test drive. Loved the way it felt, but still couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Slowly but surely, however, I started to kind of realize that it really was the best option for me for what I was looking for.

But that's going to differ depending on different peoples needs/wants and circumstances. Plus I imagine the farther we get from the purchase date the more some of the features I wanted become somewhat "standard".
 
Zyphlin said:
Guess it depends what you're looking for. When I was looking for a used car I wanted a certain MPG along with a variety of different features within the car, under a certain amount of wear and tear. When I put all those things together, in my area at least, the Leaf kept coming out on top. I was honestly surprised at first, and doubtful of it, ignoring it. But I kept striking out with other cars I was looking at and so finally gave it a shot for a test drive. Loved the way it felt, but still couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Slowly but surely, however, I started to kind of realize that it really was the best option for me for what I was looking for.

But that's going to differ depending on different peoples needs/wants and circumstances. Plus I imagine the farther we get from the purchase date the more some of the features I wanted become somewhat "standard".
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a leaf is too small for me. something the size of a malibu works but i hate GM.
 
I wish Detroit would build a serial hybrid pickup truck.
ALL wheel hub motor drive, it would be a torque monster on towing and hauling,
and get much better mileage, when not loaded.
 
longview said:
I wish Detroit would build a serial hybrid pickup truck.
ALL wheel hub motor drive, it would be a torque monster on towing and hauling,
and get much better mileage, when not loaded.
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It's coming just not necessarily HUB motors but something along those lines.
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
It's coming just not necessarily HUB motors but something along those lines.
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The parallel hybrids are an engineering dead end, they add complexity rather than removing it.
What we need is a simple diesel running a generator to a small battery bank.
the reason I think hub motors is that it simplifies suspension.
 
longview said:
The parallel hybrids are an engineering dead end, they add complexity rather than removing it.
What we need is a simple diesel running a generator to a small battery bank.
the reason I think hub motors is that it simplifies suspension.
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Disagree but I do like the idea of simply scaling down the already mature diesel-electric loco-tech for truck use.
It's a wonder it wasn't tackled a very long time ago.

The market appeal for good ole boys would be infectious.
Q: "What's more powerful than a diesel electric locomotive?"
A: "Nothing, which is why we built one for the road."

There's your Dodge Ram commercial :)
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
Disagree but I do like the idea of simply scaling down the already mature diesel-electric loco-tech for truck use.
It's a wonder it wasn't tackled a very long time ago.

The market appeal for good ole boys would be infectious.
Q: "What's more powerful than a diesel electric locomotive?"
A: "Nothing, which is why we built one for the road."

There's your Dodge Ram commercial :)
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I was thinking of pulling a heavy boat up a steep ramp, no issues with torque.
 
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