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The Chevrolet Volt

Do you believe the Chevy Volt is an important development in the auto industry?

  • Total voters
    22
Turns out that GM are lying scumbags who cheerfully promoted the Volt as a series hybrid while actually building yet another parallel hybrid. For the laymen, the volt is just an overpriced Prius with a larger battery. No technological progress was made, this is just more of the same. Seeing as how GM is owned by the public at the moment, I feel it is well within my rights to demand that heads roll for this blatant deception. I think some bastards need to learn that selling yourself to the government means you don't to get **** the people who own you.
 
rathi said:
Turns out that GM are lying scumbags who cheerfully promoted the Volt as a series hybrid while actually building yet another parallel hybrid. For the laymen, the volt is just an overpriced Prius with a larger battery. No technological progress was made, this is just more of the same. Seeing as how GM is owned by the public at the moment, I feel it is well within my rights to demand that heads roll for this blatant deception. I think some bastards need to learn that selling yourself to the government means you don't to get **** the people who own you.
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GM is owned by Obama and the unions. Name another Hybrid that charges itself?
 
ptif219 said:
GM is owned by Obama and the unions. Name another Hybrid that charges itself?
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The Volt likely started in 2006. Well before the bailouts. Furthermore, you are correct in that the Volt doesn't actually use its gasoline engine for movement, but instead to generate electricity. In a sense, this is superior as the electricity generated from gasoline is more efficent then using gasoline as a direct fuel. The next step is to simply take out the gasoline engine entirely and let powerplants hand it even more efficently.
 
obvious Child said:
The Volt likely started in 2006. Well before the bailouts. Furthermore, you are correct in that the Volt doesn't actually use its gasoline engine for movement, but instead to generate electricity. In a sense, this is superior as the electricity generated from gasoline is more efficent then using gasoline as a direct fuel. The next step is to simply take out the gasoline engine entirely and let powerplants hand it even more efficently.
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Totally electric still pollutes since power comes from power plants that use coal. It is all smoking mirrors to make people believe there is a problem that is gllom and doom. Cars will have little effect on GW
 
Totally electric still pollutes since power comes from power plants that use coal. It is all smoking mirrors to make people believe there is a problem that is gllom and doom. Cars will have little effect on GW
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Oil supplies are the more pressing issue than global warming. We already have to suck off Saudi Arabia to get our fix, and it is only going to get worse when China and India start buying more and more oil for domestic use. That doesn't even get into the fact that oil is going to become more and more expensive when the easy-to-drill wells run dry. Electricity can be generated without pollution and it is relatively easy to make a slow gradual transition away from coal.
 
rathi said:
Turns out that GM are lying scumbags who cheerfully promoted the Volt as a series hybrid while actually building yet another parallel hybrid. For the laymen, the volt is just an overpriced Prius with a larger battery. No technological progress was made, this is just more of the same. Seeing as how GM is owned by the public at the moment, I feel it is well within my rights to demand that heads roll for this blatant deception. I think some bastards need to learn that selling yourself to the government means you don't to get **** the people who own you.
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Sorry to disagree, but you're simply incorrect here. If you look back in this thread, you'll see where I pointed out that the Volt is different than the Prius in an important aspect. The engine of the Volt does not 'drive' the car, it simply maintains a battery charge at a certain level. The Prius gas engine 'does' drive the car. It's an important istinction between an electric vehicle and a hybrid.
 
rathi said:
Oil supplies are the more pressing issue than global warming. We already have to suck off Saudi Arabia to get our fix, and it is only going to get worse when China and India start buying more and more oil for domestic use. That doesn't even get into the fact that oil is going to become more and more expensive when the easy-to-drill wells run dry. Electricity can be generated without pollution and it is relatively easy to make a slow gradual transition away from coal.
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Then why is that not happening?
 
Sorry to disagree, but you're simply incorrect here. If you look back in this thread, you'll see where I pointed out that the Volt is different than the Prius in an important aspect. The engine of the Volt does not 'drive' the car, it simply maintains a battery charge at a certain level. The Prius gas engine 'does' drive the car. It's an important istinction between an electric vehicle and a hybrid.
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GM claimed they were making a series hybrid, but it recently came out that they were lying. The gasoline engine is connected the wheels,the volt is another plug-in parallel hybrid. The news just broke the other day, so its understandable that you haven't heard yet.

Lies? Chevy Volt was always a hybrid - Hybrid Cars and Plug-in Vehicles - Hybridcarblog
 
Then why is that not happening?
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It is happening. Every single day, we find less and less easy to drill oil while China and India buy more and more for themselves. While we aren't close to crisis yet, but sooner or later we are going to reach that point. Supply can only decrease, demand can only increase, the price must move upwards.
 
rathi said:
It is happening. Every single day, we find less and less easy to drill oil while China and India buy more and more for themselves. While we aren't close to crisis yet, but sooner or later we are going to reach that point. Supply can only decrease, demand can only increase, the price must move upwards.
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Where is the energy without pollution?
 
ptif219 said:
Totally electric still pollutes since power comes from power plants that use coal.
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That depends where you are in the US. If you're in the Pacific Northwest, there's a good possibility your power is hydro.

Cars will have little effect on GW
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At the rate we replace them, yes little net effect. But millions of cars emitting gases does have an effect.
 
Where is the energy without pollution?
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The solar plant that is being built in the Mojave as we speak. Nuclear power plants also avoid emitting most kinds of pollution, although they do have other waste disposal issues.
 
rathi said:
The solar plant that is being built in the Mojave as we speak. Nuclear power plants also avoid emitting most kinds of pollution, although they do have other waste disposal issues.
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What nuclear is being built? Wind mills have been causing health problems. These sources can not supply this country with enough power.
 
What nuclear is being built? Wind mills have been causing health problems. These sources can not supply this country with enough power.
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Solar and nuclear power can be scaled up for as much electricity as desired. The primary limitation at the moment is that any powerplant is a serious capital investment that requires a long term view in order to be profitable.
 
rathi said:
GM claimed they were making a series hybrid, but it recently came out that they were lying. The gasoline engine is connected the wheels,the volt is another plug-in parallel hybrid. The news just broke the other day, so its understandable that you haven't heard yet.

Lies? Chevy Volt was always a hybrid - Hybrid Cars and Plug-in Vehicles - Hybridcarblog
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I've heard it, but you are mis-interpreting things, as is the 'blog' you used for a source here.

The engine does not 'drive' the wheels. It can 'assist' the electric motor, however.

A hybrid can run on either gas or electric to entirely 'drive' the car. The Volt requires the electric at all times.

According to CNET...
LINK
When the battery is depleted, the range extender engine kicks in to generate electricity for the motor, as GM noted in its press materials. But when the battery is depleted and the car is running at 70 mph or above, the planetary gearset transmits additional motive force directly from the engine to the wheels.
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The Volt's engine only 'assists' the actual drivetrain at 70MPH or above. That's a far cry from the implication on blogs like yours.

We received a call back from GM to one of our inquiries about the Chevy Volt powertrain. Chevy Volt Vehicle Line Director Tony Posawatz explains that the Volt's 111 kilowatt electric traction motor is always driving the wheels of the car when it is in motion. Through testing, GM found that this motor became inefficient when spinning at high rpms, with the car running at 70 mph and above. To reduce wasted energy, GM relied on two strategies.

When the battery has a usable charge, a second electric motor in the system delivers a boost to the planetary gearset, letting the traction motor, which still has the only mechanical connection to the wheels, reduce its speed by half.

Similarly, when the batteries are depleted, the gas engine can take the role of that second electric motor when the car is being driven at speeds of 70 mph. Although mostly working as an electricity generator, it can add its own boost to the planetary gearset under these conditions to let the main traction motor spin at reduced speed.

GM adapted the planetary gearset used in its two-mode hybrid vehicles to realize the goal of the Volt, which Posawatz describes as making "the Volt feel like an electric car all the time."
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I've heard it, but you are mis-interpreting things, as is the 'blog' you used for a source here.
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That was just the first link that came up on google. I can get better sources if you want, but the essential facts are not in dispute.

The engine does not 'drive' the wheels. It can 'assist' the electric motor, however.
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The important fact is that the engine is mechanically connected the wheels, making it a parallel hybrid. A real series hybrid would have the engine only acting as a generator. Connecting tp the gear-set essentially negates most of the advantages of the series hybrid.
 
ptif219 said:
Where is the energy without pollution?
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Even if the electricity comes from fossil fuels, a power plant is far more efficient at generating power than a car's engine is at generating motive force. Even at an oil power plant, you get the equivalent of more than 100mpg with an electric car.

Still, we're better off using electric cars and nuclear/solar/wind power plants. A plug-in hybrid is a good intermediate step, as it combines the efficiency of electric drive with the the range-extension ability of the gas tank. For the daily commute, your power comes from the more-efficient power plant. The gas kicks in for the road trips, and when it does you get a fairly efficient setup. (although still only on-par with a Honda Civic)

Until we get a jump in battery technology that gets us either a rapid charge capability or a 300+ mile range, this type of setup will do.

If we can get them into a reasonable price range. :mad:
 
Deuce said:
Even if the electricity comes from fossil fuels, a power plant is far more efficient at generating power than a car's engine is at generating motive force. Even at an oil power plant, you get the equivalent of more than 100mpg with an electric car.

Still, we're better off using electric cars and nuclear/solar/wind power plants. A plug-in hybrid is a good intermediate step, as it combines the efficiency of electric drive with the the range-extension ability of the gas tank. For the daily commute, your power comes from the more-efficient power plant. The gas kicks in for the road trips, and when it does you get a fairly efficient setup. (although still only on-par with a Honda Civic)

Until we get a jump in battery technology that gets us either a rapid charge capability or a 300+ mile range, this type of setup will do.

If we can get them into a reasonable price range. :mad:
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You mean because of ethonal that is less efficient that the government makes us use.
 
ptif219 said:
You mean because of ethonal that is less efficient that the government makes us use.
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What the hell does this have to do with anything? Power plants are more efficient than engines, which is why you get such a high MPG-equivalent with electrically-driven vehicles. It doesn't really matter what the fuel is, it will be more efficient burned at a plant than in your car.
 
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This makes me want to puke in my rice. I don't care about energy efficiency when it comes to a car. I'm about high octane fuel and horsepower or you can forget it. This car is atrocious. Anyone who buys this probably wears birkenstock sandals with the knee-high wool socks and really high docker khaki shorts with their 100% natural fibers vests..yuck...I like my car just fine..they can let these electric cars sit and rot away.
 
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You mean because of ethonal that is less efficient that the government makes us use.
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Has nothing to do with ethanol usage. A car engine has run at different RPMs to drive your car, which cuts in into efficiency. In addition, the engine has to be lightweight and compact, which further limits options. A stationary generator runs at 1 speed only, and can use bulky and heavy technology like steam regeneration to get more power out of the same gallon of gas.
 
This makes me want to puke in my rice. I don't care about energy efficiency when it comes to a car. I'm about high octane fuel and horsepower or you can forget it. This car is atrocious. Anyone who buys this probably wears birkenstock sandals with the knee-high wool socks and really high docker khaki shorts with their 100% natural fibers vests..yuck...I like my car just fine..they can let these electric cars sit and rot away.
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The volt may be a ****ty implementation, but electric cars are far superior on performance to gasoline vehicles if you ignore range. Electrics motors have a far better power to weight ratio, and the torque curve is practically flat. The zero to 60 time is incredible even for a car with a small motor and an average top speed.
 
rathi said:
The volt may be a ****ty implementation, but electric cars are far superior on performance to gasoline vehicles if you ignore range. Electrics motors have a far better power to weight ratio, and the torque curve is practically flat. The zero to 60 time is incredible even for a car with a small motor and an average top speed.
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If you are going short distances. The charge time makes long trips much longer. For instance in a big truck i do at least 600 miles a day. Add weight like towing something and it is useless
 
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