Your Tax Dollars at Work - The Chevy Volt is a Pig in a Poke

[mick e]

Everything they said about the technology for this car was basically a LIE.

http://jalopnik.com/5661051/how-gm-lied-...ectric-car

[Spock]

Not everybody believes that they lied.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/marty-bl...s-is-wrong

[davester]

Spock's link makes a lot more sense than the jalopnik article. The important point is whether or not the Volt will be a useful vehicle. It sure sounds like it is. I perfectly understand why they would want to have a mechanical connection between the engine and wheels. The conversion losses from running it as a generator alone must be huge, and that concept never made any sense to me. Now things are clearer.

[Acer]

Funny how the two tests cited in the OP did not bother to test it in the city, for which the design has been optimized.

"Car and Driver apparently didn't choose to use their wheel time for any city driving"

"Motor Trend, like the rest of the trade press other than Popular Mechanics, didn't appear to do any testing in city conditions"

[AllGold]

Actually, both links are wrong. It's just that thecarconnection link is only a little wrong while the jalopnik link is 100% B.S.

The part where the second link is off is the Volt has no mechanical connection between the engine and the drive train. The engine runs a generator which supplies electricity. But again, the engine is not connected in any way to the wheels or the drive train. All locomotion is 100% electric.

[Mac1337]

Months ago when we were discussing the Volt I said it has the worst of both worlds as far as consumers are concerned. The driver now has to worry about gas as well as a facility a to plug it in. It is indeed nothing more than a hybrid as far as users are concerned. I recall Volt was initially advertised as an all-electric vehicle, hence the buzz. Bailing out of GM is ongoing.

[AllGold]

Actually, Dakota, anyone who wanted to be a complete dumbass and pay more than needed to operate it, could just keep filling up with gas and never plug it in.

Most people who are interested in the car will do the opposite. They will rarely put in gas because their normal driving falls within the electric range.

(For anyone who regularly makes trips longer than 100 miles, the Volt is not the car for them.)

[Mac1337]

At full charge it goes 40 miles, may be even less. Remember that 20 of it is just to get back home to have it charged! So your range is really 20 miles. Think about it. 20.

[RgrF]

So it sounds like a good choice as a second car, if you don't live in a rural area. At minimum it carries a bigger payload than a motorcycle.

[Doc]

Spock wrote:
Not everybody believes that they lied.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/marty-bl...s-is-wrong

That's a very funny article.

Here's the executive summary: "GM didn't lie... so long as you interpret everything they said to refer only to the first 40 miles or so of a trip and completely disregard the fuel efficiency claims."

Whether they lied about it or not, I'm disappointed in the final spec's.

Plus, it looks like a cheap piece of sh!t.