Volt sales figures are out

[bazookaman]

They only sold like 47 Bugatti Veyron Super Sports.

[NewtonMP2100]

....so you want VOLT.......de.....MORE [Voldemort]......sales....???

[OWC Jamie]

Rick-o wrote:
Hey! Saw my first Volt today while out and about. The dealership in the next county had one out front. It had a HUGE "VOLT" decal on the sides. If I ever bought one, I think I would skip the decal. (td)

Huge blue letters on the door of a white car ?
That's what's out front of the little GM/Chevy dealership here.

[Rick-o]

billb wrote:
[quote=Rick-o]
Hey! Saw my first Volt today while out and about. The dealership in the next county had one out front. It had a HUGE "VOLT" decal on the sides. If I ever bought one, I think I would skip the decal. (td)

Huge blue letters on the door of a white car ?
That's what's out front of the little GM/Chevy dealership here.
No, this one was burgundy with white decals.

If they ever make a Volt pick up truck, I'm there. (well, at least when the prices drop enough for me to afford one) ::o

[Mac1337]

DinerDave wrote:
Volt is great for tech advancment. Future models will certainly learn for real life use and consumer wants.
I'm not an auto-tech, but I am an auto enthusiast. What I don't understand is why the gas engine in the Volt can't be set up for regenerate the battery. Seems like when you are say at 25% power, the gas would fire up, and in addition to propelling you, why can't it charge the battery?

That's called a Prius.

[davester]

DinerDave wrote:
Volt is great for tech advancment. Future models will certainly learn for real life use and consumer wants.
I'm not an auto-tech, but I am an auto enthusiast. What I don't understand is why the gas engine in the Volt can't be set up for regenerate the battery. Seems like when you are say at 25% power, the gas would fire up, and in addition to propelling you, why can't it charge the battery?

That doesn't make technological sense. Charging a battery with an automotive gas engine and using the electric power to turn a motor is an absurdly inefficient propulsion method. Each energy transformation (i.e. the jumps from internal combustion to electric generation to chemical energy (charged battery) to electric power) results in a lot of lost energy. The reason electrics make sense is that they can make use of efficiently generated power (i.e. any type of power station) that was generated in a vastly more efficient way than individual automotive gasoline engines, which are woefully inefficient. If you need the engine for power it is much more efficient to use the power directly to turn the wheels rather than charge the battery first.

[Bill in NC]

Great for tech enthusiasts, not so much for the rest of us.

However, I agree with a econ pundit who feels that they have bought their last gasoline-only vehicle.

When they buy a replacement in 7-8 years they expect it will be electric.

Doubling the battery-only range of the models on the market now is likely in that time period and will greatly broaden the appeal.

[sekker]

davester, the enter railroad and conventional submarine fleets are diesel electrics.

You can run the gas/diesel engines at max efficiency 100% of the time.

[mattkime]

sekker wrote:
davester, the enter railroad and conventional submarine fleets are diesel electrics.

You can run the gas/diesel engines at max efficiency 100% of the time.

I was thinking of that too, but i assumed that they didn't scale downward.

[davester]

sekker wrote:
davester, the enter railroad and conventional submarine fleets are diesel electrics.

You can run the gas/diesel engines at max efficiency 100% of the time.

Those are actually quite different applications. Diesel electric submarines charge their batteries with the diesel not for efficiency, but because they have no other choice since they can't run the diesel below periscope depth. Diesel electric trains generate electricity for direct use in powering the motors. They don't charge batteries (which results in substantial losses) except for peripheral use and they use electric motors because the sufficiently lightweight gearbox needed to distribute the power needed to move such a large vehicle hasn't been invented yet.