Chevy Volt: A Moonbatmobile.
What a swell idea, brought to you by Government Motors.
It’s a four passenger car, which contains a battery that weighs 375 pounds, and in order to compensate for the heavy weight of the battery, the vehicle’s construction makes use of carbon fiber material. (Carbon? WTF?), which is probably about as crashworthy as, say, cardboard. This automotive gem carries a list price of $41,000, before you begin to add doodads. Not to worry, though, as I’m pretty sure the taxpayers will subsidize some of the cost.
You plug the car in at home (it takes ten hours to charge), and that will take you approximately 40 miles. After that, an internal combustion engine kicks in (premium fuel required) and that feeds electricity to the electric motor, which actually propels the car, extending the car’s range to approximately 300 miles. It is contemplated that you’ll bring your Volt home most of the time and plug it in overnight. If you were to drive farther than 300 miles and did not return home for a plug-in, you would have to fill up again with premium gasoline to run the gas engine to generate electricity for the electric motor until you ultimately returned home for a ten-hour plug-in.
The good news is that the Volt will create lots of “green jobs,†such as in the coal mining industry, in order to mine the coal that will be necessary to generate all the electricity that will be used by legions of Volt owners who require their daily ten-hour plug in. It will also produce lots of jobs in Korea where the cells for the battery packs will be manufactured by a Korean company, although I’m not sure how “green†the process is for manufacturing those mondo batteries.
I cannot help but wonder if these cars will be brisk sellers in anyplace other than Berkeley.
It ires me that this is looked on as “new” technology. Up till the development of a small, effecient nuclear reactor, all submarines were diesel/electric. Most locamotives still are. It’s not new technology, it’s just technology updated to fit into an automobile. Personally, I’d rather see them develop a nuclear reactor to fit in my car where I only have to refuel every ten years or so….
Comment by Tbird — September 3, 2010 @ 7:51 pm
There’s also Ann Arbor and Cambridge.
Comment by Cappy — September 4, 2010 @ 8:54 am
This is their idea of a solution? Great.
Comment by Jean — September 4, 2010 @ 9:49 am
The only plus I see is that you can “gas-up” on your company’s dime while at work. Bring a long extension cord and don’t get caught……
Comment by Trident — September 4, 2010 @ 12:20 pm
Considering it’s really a 20-22K car, that extra 20K ya have to spend for one will buy a lot of gas.
Comment by dick — September 4, 2010 @ 5:40 pm
I believe that they are actually making airplanes, including passenger and military from with carbon fiber to reduce weight.
Comment by Joseph — September 5, 2010 @ 8:08 am
I’m at a loss as to why folks aren’t concerned about what their home power bill will be. What they save in gas… dang, they’ll be spending at home because 10 hours a night 7 days a week can’t be cheap.
Comment by Bou — September 5, 2010 @ 10:27 pm
Companies can get a feel for sales based upon pre-orders. Not guaranteed, but sure beats NO ONE pre-ordering the Volt.
I even have friends pre-ordering them based upon the favorable lease rates, which are far below what a car payment would be if they bought.
My brother would save about $150 a month in fuel costs because of his long commute (even if he had to dip into using gas everyday). His old clunker is costing him an annualized average of $150 a month in repairs, too.. Not having airbags is also a problem of safety for my brother, and the Volt has a great airbag arrangement for safety.
Comment by mat — September 6, 2010 @ 6:07 am
Yes, but Mat, what is he going to be paying per month in his electric bill? His monthly electric bill is not going to stay the same. Ten hours a night charging cannot be cheap. Your bro could find that a Honda Civic would give him equitable savings to the Volt, something with tried and true reliability and still the safety aspects of a newer car. My folks just pulled 39 mpg on a 2 day trip from OH to FL.
Comment by Bou — September 6, 2010 @ 9:58 am
Bou……Trying to educate a Liberal with Facts? Won`t work ,as they know just spending more money is the solution. If they developed a car which ran on money stuffed in a slot on the side on the engine….they would pre-order them by the thousands.
Comment by dudley1 — September 6, 2010 @ 12:06 pm
Fact is…the Volt will fail. Mark my words. Development and production is plain and simple money down the drain. I wouldn’t drive it with your money. I would never buy or lease a 41K battery.
I’m downtown with Bou, but of course she’s a engineer and probably doesn’t know what she’s talking about…or understand math. Bwahahahah!!!
Anyone who pre-orders a Volt should be on the Gong show. What are people thinking?
Just me, but I think having a real car that’s paid for and runs on gas, and will last if you take of it, is smart. Electric cars are a joke, especially ones that cost 41K and take ten hours to charge for 300 miles of driving. That’s crazy. Who in their right mind would do that? I wouldn’t pay a quarter for that nightmare.
Back to Bou…I once had a top of the line bottom of the line Honda Civic. 2nd best car I’ve ever had. Damn thing would run underwater. Always started, got a millions miles to the gallon, was fun and safe to drive.
Damn thing was like driving a video machine.
Bottom line…the Volt is gonna be a disaster, and we’re going to end paying for the mistakes.
Comment by Yabu — September 7, 2010 @ 12:28 pm
What a worthless article. Clearly you understand nothing of the vehicle other than what you can regurgitate from some one else. The carbon fiber is no less safe than a Corvette or any other vehicle that uses them because they’re reinforced with steel railing. You also missed the whole point of the vehicle, its not to reduce “green house gasses” but to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. With the Volt you can have a vehicle that can take you any where any time while removing your need for gasoline almost entirely during your normal commute. That is massively significant, as a pure BEV doesn’t allow this.
It is also clear that you pray to the “free market” gods daily judging by your statement of government motors. I bet you have no problem purchasing a Toyota or Honda, both of which have received numerous bail outs from the Japanese government over the years who also PROTECT their manufacturing base with huge import tariffs and other trade restrictions. Bailing out GM was the right move too do but apparently saving one of the most important industries to America means nothing and you’ll happily go to Wal-Mart or Best Buy not caring that everything in them is made in China or Japan or South Korea ALL of whom protect their industries, restrict imports, provide huge amounts of “government funding” and would bail out their own in a heart beat. Doing the same for American companies isn’t “socialism” as I’m sure you believe, but actually smart economics.
The Volt is just the beginning for a whole new line of technology. It took almost a decade for the Prius to get where it is today and it will take half that amount for the Volt to really dominate the market.
Comment by Khadgars — September 10, 2010 @ 6:38 pm
This site is worthless, I post a huge response that was well thought out and he refuses to post it. This is nothing more than a right wing circle jerk, pathetic
Comment by Khadgars — September 13, 2010 @ 10:58 pm
The new 2010 Chevy Volt is going to make huge waves in the US. This vehicle will reduce or maybe even erase the need for local commuters to even visit the gas station. Combine the fact that it is a great looking car ( http://www.chevy-volt-2010.com for reference) and that is will be afforadable should make this vehicle an instant success.
Comment by 2010 Chevy Volt — September 14, 2010 @ 6:15 pm