Automotive News, Media & Press - Chevy Volt rated at 230mpg

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f70/breaking-chevrolet-volt-rated-230-mpg-82900/

I'm throwing the flag... :bs:

It says its EXPECTED to see 230mpg.

thats nutssssss

Stick that in your smug pipe and smoke it Prius! NOw if only the car wasn't $40K.

230mpg and yet ads say it has a 40 mile range....hmmmmmm

230mpg and yet ads say it has a 40 mile range....hmmmmmm

That's how long the car is powered solely by the batteries, Chief.

After that, the internal combustion engine kicks in.

That's how long the car is powered solely by the batteries, Chief.

After that, the internal combustion engine kicks in.

yup and most ppl coomute less than 40 miles per day so esentially you wouldnt charge it till the weekend when you wanted to go out for a cruise. its definitely a game changer. anyone got an idea on the MSRP yet?

I don't see how they claim that it will also get triple digits on highway driving though...:bs: They say it has a range of 300 miles on the engine but their fuel tank is bigger than 3 gallons I'm pretty sure!! :confused:
This is great news and hope to buy one but I think those numbers are completely misleading! The EPA's testing of this car is based on average commute for the typical person. Since when is fuel efficiency dependent on the average commute? They need to come up with a completely new way to measure hybrid and electric vehicles efficiency.

any idea on price? I was thinking of getting a fit or cobalt in a few months

too good to be true...

It gets such good gas mileage becuase the gas engine doesnt drive anything, it just powers a geberator. The car is always 100% electric. Imagine a Hydrogen powered car but instead of the hydrogen cell it has a small gas engine. Imagine haveing something like a Geo metro only idle whenever you drive it. And 40 miles before it even starts just lengthens it more. And i think the gas tank is only going to be 4.2 gallons. PLUS it will have a solar panel roof to charge the battery while its parked in 8 hours it will give you back your 40 mile range so throw all that in the mix and it makes sense.

230mpg and yet ads say it has a 40 mile range....hmmmmmmComes with a 40 mile extension cord.







Really!











Well, no. LOL

Battery powered vehicles are not the answer. Hydrogen-electric vehicles are the future of electric powered cars. Battery powered vehicles suck. Unfortuneately, Honda is the only car manufacturer to have released a FAMILY hydrogen-electric powered car & it's only available in the Nazi State of California. The car is called the Honda FCX Clarity. The car has it's own on board electric generator fed by a hydrogen fuel cell, no batteries. The hydrogen-electric generator feeds electricity to the electric motor. 270 miles on a tank of hydogen. There are hydrogen pumps @ the gas stations & you simply fill her up similar to filling up with gasoline.

Who knows if the Obama clan will allow this. No big Corporate battery contracts & Hydrogen is an abundent resource that will never run out. Although, I don't see why the oil companies wouldn't be interested in supplying the compressed Hydrogen @ their pumps. Currently, the hydrogen costs about the same as gas per gallon.

It's the lack of battery contracts & "clean burning coal plants" to power the batteries that may kill the concept in Washington. We all know that Washington & London, for that matter, have to operate within the guidelines set forth by the true World powers, large banks & corporations. So we will see how this ends up; battery contracts & power plants vs hydrogen-electric; hmmmmmm.

Thought I would share what someone on the other side of the forum was saying concerning this...

I like the idea, and wouldn't mind having a coupe like the cadillac converj concept rolling on the voltec drivetrain for a DD in the future, but there is some serious fuzzy math going on here to get to the 230 MPG figure. This is not to put down GM's technology, just to try and educate people on the meaning of the 230 MPG number. Let me explain, the EPA tests on a 11 mile urban cycle, under those tests the Volt has 40 miles of range from being purely electric, and the other 11 come from the operation of the supplemental FlexFuel generator. During the 11 miles of operation, the generator consumed .2217 gallons of fuel. If you add up the math of it all, you would need 4.51 recharges, and 1 gallon of fuel to get you the 230 MPG.
That's how I have seen it explained.

Another thing to take into account, GM said that they estimate it would use 25 kWh of electricity over 100 miles of ELECTRIC mode driving. Well, that's fine and dandy but the $$ figures they threw out there don't make sense. Let's just assume some figures, I will use my typical driving habits (what I would drive this vehicle at least) as an example: I drive about 32 miles round trip to work 5 days a week + about 12 miles of weekend driving for errands. That equates to 172 miles per week, @ 52 weeks per year = 8,944 miles annually. So for the 8,994 miles driven, 2,248.5 kWh of electricity would be consumed charging the vehicle. At my baseline rate annual average of $.1157 that would equal an extra $260.15 to "fuel" the vehicle.

That is an AWESOME FUEL BILL, but wait, curb your enthusiasm, I live in the state of Kalifornia. Electric rates have been de-regulated, and with that, baseline consumption allocations have been reduced to the point where, if you run any sort of Cooling or Heating to cool below 85, and heat above 64, IN MY HOUSE, you will run right through the baseline allowance! So, now I have established that in order to recharge my vehicle I will be utilizing more than my baseline allowance each month, lets run the numbers on the tiers PG&E uses (Note, all rates have been averaged for a year). 101-130% of basline allowance gets you $.1388 per kWh, 131-200% of baseline allowance gets you $.2575, and 201-300% of baseline allowance gets you $.3755. Now, my total annual basline allowance is 5,009.2 kWh, I already use all of the baseline for my house, as well as the 101-130% catagory for the existing loads in my house, as well as have already tried reducing consumption to the best of my abilities.

With that in mind, were into the second tier over baseline (the 131-200%) would be 3,506.44 kWh, which when allocated annually would cover the 2,248.5 kWh to charge the volt. So, that 2,248.5 kWh @ .2575 will cost $579.98, really not bad for the near 9,000 miles traveled, but I live in a 1,200 square foot town house, and during a minimum of 4 months of the year I get into the 201-300% category just using my A/C unit, yes I have had it serviced. That means the actual electrical rate used to charge the volt will be even HIGHER than what I have shown here, that is, unless you do not use your A/C!

I forgot to mention, my total consumption is around 7,300 kWh per year, for Two people! The California Average per capita hovers around 7,500 kWh per D.O.E. research, other states in the nation see as high as 15,000 kWh per capita! So my specific power consumption density is about 48% of your average Califonian, and I am still bumping the 131-200% rate to charge the Volt on a Good weather month! Think about all the poor bastards whose households actually use 7,500 kWh per capita already, keeping in mind basline allowances adjust for square footage of residence as well as climate zone.

It's Nuts I tell you!

To add a comparison to this long ass post, I have a daily driver '94 Acura Integra that gets me an average 29.7 mpg, over the 8,994 miles I travel for work/errands annually @ $2.70 per gallon I net a $817.63 fuel bill. In fuel costs alone the Volt would save me $237.64 annually, from an increase in my electrical bill of $579.98. That's not even taking into acount the amount I would have to pay for the car payments, the increased registration costs, and increased insurance costs!

I'll keep my 1994 Integra, for now!

To add to the post above without quoting that long post lol....i read that these batteries are being tested to have a life of 10 years. battery replacements after that I read cost upwards of 8k. I'm with Spoolin. I'd rather get a cheap dd. Doesn't seem cost effective at the moment.

To add to the post above without quoting that long post lol....i read that these batteries are being tested to have a life of 10 years. battery replacements after that I read cost upwards of 8k. I'm with Spoolin. I'd rather get a cheap dd. Doesn't seem cost effective at the moment.


So after ten years in the average car you won't need:

new engine
new tranny
new axles
new radiator

??

All of that adds up to something.

Factor in the lower cost of operation and that fact that someone will probably come out with a cheaper aftermarket battery replacement and the picture isn't so dismal.

To add to the post above without quoting that long post lol....i read that these batteries are being tested to have a life of 10 years. battery replacements after that I read cost upwards of 8k. I'm with Spoolin. I'd rather get a cheap dd. Doesn't seem cost effective at the moment.

They were also saying the same thing about Prius' but nothing came out of those rumors either. At this point it's a risk we take with new technology. I remember reading stories of what would happen in an accident with electric vechicles, that the batteries would explode and cover everybody in batter acid and people would get bad acid burns. :nono:
I really like this car, but I'm not gonna be BS'ed into thinking it's some f'ing world saver that will solve global warming, feed the hungry and bring about world peace. It DOES NOT get 230 mpg. If you drive it from a stop with a full tank of gas and run it till your out of gas you get about 58mpg's or so. If your doing daily jaunts and just commuting than yeah, your gas mileage will go much much higher.

So after ten years in the average car you won't need:

new engine
new tranny
new axles
new radiator

??

All of that adds up to something.

Factor in the lower cost of operation and that fact that someone will probably come out with a cheaper aftermarket battery replacement and the picture isn't so dismal.

Doesn't the car have an engine that runs to power it after batteries run low?
It still has a transmission-- doesn't it?
It still has axles doesn't it?
Doesn't the onboard generator/engine require a radiator?

So after ten years in the average car you won't need:

new engine
new tranny
new axles
new radiator

??

All of that adds up to something.

Factor in the lower cost of operation and that fact that someone will probably come out with a cheaper aftermarket battery replacement and the picture isn't so dismal.


damn you must destroy vehicles. My 'newest' vehicle is 9 years old, while my oldest is over 20 years old. None of em need anything more than fluid changes, perhaps a seal or bushing replacement at most.

I like where chevy was trying to go with this volt. But cost wise this is complete crap.

So after ten years in the average car you won't need:

new engine
new tranny
new axles
new radiator

??

All of that adds up to something.

Factor in the lower cost of operation and that fact that someone will probably come out with a cheaper aftermarket battery replacement and the picture isn't so dismal.

I have yet to need to replace anything you just mentioned because it failed after 10 years nor do I know anyone that has. What do you do to you cars?

Blackend2k is right. All I'm saying is I am not a fan of the pissing contest electric cars that the car companies are getting into. It's a great idea but then again I don't think all of the alternative fuels are getting a fair shake. Every company is racing to get an electric car out. I just don't see the savings after everything is said and done.

GM had an electric car 10 years ago. A guy from GM drove one to my school to show it off. it was a 100 mile round trip to my school and back, and he did it just fine. What ever happened to this technology?

GM had an electric car 10 years ago. A guy from GM drove one to my school to show it off. it was a 100 mile round trip to my school and back, and he did it just fine. What ever happened to this technology?

Have you ever saw "Who killed the elctric car?" here it is in only TWO parts! Its actually really really sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3rw9MsHB8Y



GM and HONDA did something really fucked up, but Ford and GM's models can still be bought, check out craigslist and ebay

Wrong on honda is the only company to have hydrogen cars. GM had the first prototypes almost a decade ago. By the way GM is way ahead of honda in the hydrogen tech too. Motor Trend is not a good "source" of information. Pretty sure they are saying 40k for price. Sure it will be more though. The volt is not a hybrid. Hybrids are and always have been a waste of time and resources. Barely more efficient than a regular car of the same size and cost a whole lot more. The volt is an electric car. Drive by wire operation. Engine ensures enough battery charge for the car to drive. The volt in my view is a pre hydrogen car. They change the engine for a "stack" or hydrogen reactor in a few years when they have more access to hydrogen fueling stations in the future. Of course hydrogen is taken from water. That will be the next enviro crisis by the way. Wait and see. We will be using to much water next.

Wrong on honda is the only company to have hydrogen cars. GM had the first prototypes almost a decade ago. By the way GM is way ahead of honda in the hydrogen tech too. Motor Trend is not a good "source" of information. Pretty sure they are saying 40k for price. Sure it will be more though. The volt is not a hybrid. Hybrids are and always have been a waste of time and resources. Barely more efficient than a regular car of the same size and cost a whole lot more. The volt is an electric car. Drive by wire operation. Engine ensures enough battery charge for the car to drive. The volt in my view is a pre hydrogen car. They change the engine for a "stack" or hydrogen reactor in a few years when they have more access to hydrogen fueling stations in the future. Of course hydrogen is taken from water. That will be the next enviro crisis by the way. Wait and see. We will be using to much water next.



No one said Honda was the first to have a hydrogen powered car, they were the first to release one. Gm made them sure, but you couldnt buy them. Honda's Clarity will be available to the public. And besides that, didnt Ford have a Hybdrogen powered mustang days ahead of anythign GM did? And then of course there is the HICE (hydrogen internal combustion engine) vs Hydrogen fuel cell. I think Honda may have the first Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. And the Volt is a plug in hybrid, its not an electric car. To actually be considered an electric car you have to just charge and drive, the volt does in fact have a gasoline powered 4 cylinder as part of its drivetrain, its still a hybrid. Just the next generation if you will. Hydrogen is the answer i believe, but you still dont save money in fact today wouldnt hydrogen cost something like $18/gallon?

Wrong on honda is the only company to have hydrogen cars. GM had the first prototypes almost a decade ago. By the way GM is way ahead of honda in the hydrogen tech too.

Hydrogen is the most abundant resource in the universe. The emissions from a hydrogen generator is WATER. You have assumed that water is the source of the hydrogen & it is not. Further, the post says the only hydrogen FAMILY car available today. If GM has one available for purchase, I'd be happy to learn more about it.

Have you ever saw "Who killed the elctric car?" here it is in only TWO parts! Its actually really really sad.



I loved that movie!!! Wish more people would see it! :nod:

No I am talking about water being the easiest and cheapest way to get hydrogen. I know it is the most abundant resource in the universe and it can be manufactured easily. I never said honda for that matter didn't have one. Honda's drive by wire is not up to par as it should be. GM hasn't released one, because there is no demand for one and even less ability to fuel one. Why produce a vehicle that you can't fuel here in the states. Yeah they have stations, but very few. And GM does have a fully functional fleet on the road it just isn't in "production" for the public. Cars and suv's both are ready to go.

I don't know how much hydrogen would cost per gallon now, but I agree for sure it is what is the answer. Answer to the alternative fuel for sure. Easy and abundant, but I just see it becoming the next oil. Someone somewhere and some time will decide we are using to much. Solve environmental problems? NO it won't.

Hydrogen is the most abundant resource in the universe. The emissions from a hydrogen generator is WATER. You have assumed that water is the source of the hydrogen & it is not. Further, the post says the only hydrogen FAMILY car available today. If GM has one available for purchase, I'd be happy to learn more about it.

While Hydrogen is the most abundant resource in the universe, it is attached to something. The problem is finding something that doesn't take more energy to harness the hydrogen than what you get. It's basically the arguement of a H2 vs a Prius, the Prius gets better mileage but for the battery that it runs on it causes as much damage or more to the environment.

To also get the energy from Hydrogen it takes more than it does Octane. Just think of it as comparing gas to Ethanol. A car running on E85 will get less mileage than that of a car on 100% octane. Trying to remember why, want to say something to do with the charge density but not 100% sure. Been out of chemistry for the past 3 months and haven't been going over my notes. I showed the Top Gear video to my teacher and he did say while it is a good idea practicality is kind of hard. The entire trunk is more than likely taken up with the gas tank, and probably consists of 30 gallons or more just to make the 300 mile average gas tank.

It is a start though. Running off of electricity strictly though (ie Tesla cars) is kind of a joke. As May put it on Top Gear, "its like taking a step back instead of a step forward."

Well, i dont know about other states but here in California there are already 22 stations and there is one within an hour drive in any direction, seems readily available to me. And there are a ton of manufacturers with PLANNED models in the next few years, BMW 7 series, RX8, Silverados, everything you could imagine. I think its on its way, and its coming faster than anything else. Why? Becuase Petroleum companies get to stay in the game with this, or at least Shell/Chevron. And i think its awesome. I want a car with batteries AND a Hydrogen cell, why not charge what you can and use the Hydrogen as a back up part of a hybvrid drivetrain? I think im going to start manufacturing cars when im done with school lOl

Well, i dont know about other states but here in California there are already 22 stations and there is one within an hour drive in any direction, seems readily available to me. And there are a ton of manufacturers with PLANNED models in the next few years, BMW 7 series, RX8, Silverados, everything you could imagine. I think its on its way, and its coming faster than anything else. Why? Becuase Petroleum companies get to stay in the game with this, or at least Shell/Chevron. And i think its awesome. I want a car with batteries AND a Hydrogen cell, why not charge what you can and use the Hydrogen as a back up part of a hybvrid drivetrain? I think im going to start manufacturing cars when im done with school lOl

So your saying you have to drive an hour to fill up. How much sense does that make.

This is silly. So what they are saying is that if it had a 18 gallon tank, I would have driven my car for 9 months straight and still had a gallon to spare? What a load of shit. I only drive 10 miles a day at most a week, so basically the gas would turn to slime before it ever gets used. Mmmmm new pushrods.

This is silly. So what they are saying is that if it had a 18 gallon tank, I would have driven my car for 9 months straight and still had a gallon to spare? What a load of shit. I only drive 10 miles a day at most a week, so basically the gas would turn to slime before it ever gets used. Mmmmm new pushrods.


Well actually in your case, assuming you plug it in every night or whatever...yeah you would never have to fill it up. :)

So your saying you have to drive an hour to fill up. How much sense does that make.

Well, im saying it would be just as easy as anything else for the large amount of us that commute to the bigger cities anyway. And on top of that, an hour drive isnt bad once a week. I would do it, in fact thats what i have to do once i convert to E85 this year. Its worth it to me, but also, i plan on filling a 5 or 10 gallon tanik each time i go.

And then, this is just me persoanally, im not saying many people could do this, but my dad has peach orchards. We have gas pumps on trailers that just sit for 11 months out of the year that each hold 1,000 gallons. If i decide to in the future, i could just haul that down there and filli t up and bring it home so i wouldnt have to go anywhere for quite some time. But those trailers only cost about $1500 brand new and they have a pump and an agitator and everything. And of course the cities im talking about in the first place are like San Fransisco, Sacramento, San diego, etc etc so for millions of people, there are hydrogen pumps right down the street.



This is silly. So what they are saying is that if it had a 18 gallon tank, I would have driven my car for 9 months straight and still had a gallon to spare? What a load of shit. I only drive 10 miles a day at most a week, so basically the gas would turn to slime before it ever gets used. Mmmmm new pushrods.

No thats not what they're saying, if you drive under 40 miles a day you dont even use any gas. So for you, you could just do your daily commuting and never buy gas, but if you ever wanted to go on a road trip, its there for an extended range. And besides that, there are tons of different additives that cost between $2 and $5 that keep your gas from going bad if you KNOW its not going to be used for a while.

This is silly. So what they are saying is that if it had a 18 gallon tank, I would have driven my car for 9 months straight and still had a gallon to spare? What a load of shit. I only drive 10 miles a day at most a week, so basically the gas would turn to slime before it ever gets used. Mmmmm new pushrods.

You are dumb.

Well, im saying it would be just as easy as anything else for the large amount of us that commute to the bigger cities anyway. And on top of that, an hour drive isnt bad once a week. I would do it, in fact thats what i have to do once i convert to E85 this year. Its worth it to me, but also, i plan on filling a 5 or 10 gallon tanik each time i go.

And then, this is just me persoanally, im not saying many people could do this, but my dad has peach orchards. We have gas pumps on trailers that just sit for 11 months out of the year that each hold 1,000 gallons. If i decide to in the future, i could just haul that down there and filli t up and bring it home so i wouldnt have to go anywhere for quite some time. But those trailers only cost about $1500 brand new and they have a pump and an agitator and everything. And of course the cities im talking about in the first place are like San Fransisco, Sacramento, San diego, etc etc so for millions of people, there are hydrogen pumps right down the street.

Here in Eastern PA, there are NO Hydrogen stations. ZERO. I don't even think there are any in Philly. I'd like to see this take off as much as anybody, because it promises the same or even better capability as compared with gasoline. So we could go completely to H and enthusiasts would still have new cars to support their hobby.

I don't think there's hydrogen stations anywhere other than Commifornia.

I don't think there's hydrogen stations anywhere other than Commifornia.

I believe Washington has a few. I think that's where it started because they were trying to get politicians to drive the cars.

It's possible, but I don't think it will happen. It's still not a deal since the car costs $40k.

^^^^ There will no doubt be a $10K Obamanationalization incentive. :eyes:

^^^^ There will no doubt be a $10K Obamanationalization incentive. :eyes:

Better than a gov't thats butt buddies with the business and money fighting that direction.

GM is making a smart with the volt. Looks a lot sharper than its hybrid challengers, and visually more appealing. Its finally putting GM in a market that is growing more and more popular, and its coming out a step ahead. The best angle I can see from this, is not only a big new push for GM, but maybe enough funding recycled back to bring the z28 back. Now pray, spread word far and wide 'greatest car ever!':secret2: