I used to sell Prius'. The battery life is exceptional. I don't think the dealership I worked at ever replaced one.
Opps.....
- Thread starter chefdennis
- Start date
gospelriders
Seasoned Expediter
oh and also cats and dogs living together result in lame cartoons like catdog.
Safety of the Volt isn't much of a concern. Volts are likely to have a safety record equal to most other cars. Spontaneous combustion in a crash can happen with any vehicle. Is the Volt subject to catch fire parked in your garage overnight simply as a risk of being electrically charged? Or by virtue of a defective battery?
Chevrolet promotes the Volt as an electric car. It's right there in their advertising. Volts do not have a gasoline engine which directly powers the drivetrain. The car has a gas generator which produces electricity to back up the battery. So, the Volt operates on electricity at all times even when assisted by gasoline.
Has the Volt been tested under extreme cold for extended periods of time? Real world testimonials from owners in northern climates would be helpful.
Chevrolet promotes the Volt as an electric car. It's right there in their advertising. Volts do not have a gasoline engine which directly powers the drivetrain. The car has a gas generator which produces electricity to back up the battery. So, the Volt operates on electricity at all times even when assisted by gasoline.
Has the Volt been tested under extreme cold for extended periods of time? Real world testimonials from owners in northern climates would be helpful.
UncleTed
Not a Member
I own a van. I own a car. I also own a toaster. Throughout my life I have owned many cars and a few toasters, none of which have ever spontaneously combusted. If there were to be some sort of recurring fire hazard or what not, it would likely be due to poor design, inferior wiring, etc., all of which could no doubt be remedied by the engineers going back to the drawing board and finding the problem, much like what the GM people are doing by shutting down production of the volt while problems are rectified. FYI this would be happening regardless of the political leanings of these fine engineers.
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No and no. They are calloused from, uhm, other things.do you get blisters on your fingers? or are they calloused from all those long informative responses
Ghostbusters reference. Who ya gonna call.oh and also cats and dogs living together result in lame cartoons like catdog.
chefdennis
Veteran Expediter
The concerns of batteries combusting and saftey issues with the Volt , I believe are way over blown..the issue of ot being a"electric" car verses a "hybrid" are also not a issue for those that have an interest, only to those that want t make it an issue and most of them aren't buyers for the car anyhow...
The battery life is well expected to last as long as the "normal" life cycle of most any car..7 yrs is the approx. I know several people who bought the Pris in the 1styr and drive them for the most part locally around town and most of that time is in the "charge" mode...they are all (3 of them) on the original battery....with no signs of themneeding replaced...
The issue with the Volt is politics...and i believe rightfully so...as admitted by the Fed Gov and GM, the market is not ready for this car or they wouldn't need to subsidize it with taxpayer dollars, GM rebates and Fed/State tax credits to the comsumer.....it was the darling of barry and the greenies after the gm takeover and he pushed it to the hilt so that he could say that his "green" crap is working....right....As John E. said, "Fuel prices keep climbing and in 30 days they will be flying off the lot. Fuel drops and SUV sales climb. Consumers have VERY short memories."
They will never sell in the numbers that barry and the greenies think or want..because for the most part the "people" don't want them.....Well GE will buy them and send them to Japan for their new "campus" and Fed Gov will buy them and that will inflate the sales #'s and barry will brag when that happens as usual, but also as usual, they will be bogus #'s....
The battery life is well expected to last as long as the "normal" life cycle of most any car..7 yrs is the approx. I know several people who bought the Pris in the 1styr and drive them for the most part locally around town and most of that time is in the "charge" mode...they are all (3 of them) on the original battery....with no signs of themneeding replaced...
The issue with the Volt is politics...and i believe rightfully so...as admitted by the Fed Gov and GM, the market is not ready for this car or they wouldn't need to subsidize it with taxpayer dollars, GM rebates and Fed/State tax credits to the comsumer.....it was the darling of barry and the greenies after the gm takeover and he pushed it to the hilt so that he could say that his "green" crap is working....right....As John E. said, "Fuel prices keep climbing and in 30 days they will be flying off the lot. Fuel drops and SUV sales climb. Consumers have VERY short memories."
They will never sell in the numbers that barry and the greenies think or want..because for the most part the "people" don't want them.....Well GE will buy them and send them to Japan for their new "campus" and Fed Gov will buy them and that will inflate the sales #'s and barry will brag when that happens as usual, but also as usual, they will be bogus #'s....
Some additional enlightenment on this engineering miracle from Govt. Motors (emphasis mine):
"The hybrid gas-electric vehicle gets 25 miles on a full, overnight charge and costs around $40,000. To date, GM has sold around 10,000 vehicles. To put it in perspective, the Chevy Corvette has a sticker price of $49,600...
The website ExtremeTech calculates that the car costs about 6.3 cents per mile when running on electricity at 13 cents per kilowatt hour. But that rate ignores depreciating the cost of a replacement battery ($8,000) over the life of the battery warranty.
When you add in the cost of the battery depreciation, you get a calculation of about 14.3 cents per mile for the Volt. As the tech site notes: “A compact car getting 35 mpg would cost 10 cents per mile using $3.50-a-gallon gasoline.” So in other words, the Volt, in addition to the high cost to purchase, costs 43% more to operate than a conventional car.
That’s why the Volt is the perfect car for the Occupy Wall Street crowd: It makes no economic sense no matter how convoluted its supporters make the economic argument or how much taxpayer support it’s given. The Volt relied heavily on $7,500 federal government subsidies- and even then couldn’t make a go of it."
http://finance.townhall.com/columni...t_car_for_the_one_percent_suspends_production
There you go - another example of government design, marketing and overall efficiency at its best.
"The hybrid gas-electric vehicle gets 25 miles on a full, overnight charge and costs around $40,000. To date, GM has sold around 10,000 vehicles. To put it in perspective, the Chevy Corvette has a sticker price of $49,600...
The website ExtremeTech calculates that the car costs about 6.3 cents per mile when running on electricity at 13 cents per kilowatt hour. But that rate ignores depreciating the cost of a replacement battery ($8,000) over the life of the battery warranty.
When you add in the cost of the battery depreciation, you get a calculation of about 14.3 cents per mile for the Volt. As the tech site notes: “A compact car getting 35 mpg would cost 10 cents per mile using $3.50-a-gallon gasoline.” So in other words, the Volt, in addition to the high cost to purchase, costs 43% more to operate than a conventional car.
That’s why the Volt is the perfect car for the Occupy Wall Street crowd: It makes no economic sense no matter how convoluted its supporters make the economic argument or how much taxpayer support it’s given. The Volt relied heavily on $7,500 federal government subsidies- and even then couldn’t make a go of it."
http://finance.townhall.com/columni...t_car_for_the_one_percent_suspends_production
There you go - another example of government design, marketing and overall efficiency at its best.
The lack of practicality of these 'electric' cars is just 'shocking'. Not all that many people get a 'charge' out of them.
They did not do all that well when they first came out, in 1897, and are not doing all that well today.
Given today's state of the art, diesel with good set of gears gets better mileage and range that any of the hybrids or electrics.
As to how good they are on the environment, the only real remaining problems from the oil days around Oil City, PA, is where battery acid was spilled or dumped. I am also under the impression that lithium mining is a very 'dirty' business. Don't know that for sure.
The government has NO business in private industry, energy production etc. They need to go away.
They did not do all that well when they first came out, in 1897, and are not doing all that well today.
Given today's state of the art, diesel with good set of gears gets better mileage and range that any of the hybrids or electrics.
As to how good they are on the environment, the only real remaining problems from the oil days around Oil City, PA, is where battery acid was spilled or dumped. I am also under the impression that lithium mining is a very 'dirty' business. Don't know that for sure.
The government has NO business in private industry, energy production etc. They need to go away.
gospelriders
Seasoned Expediter
gospelriders
Seasoned Expediter
now how did my first reply get mixed in that first quote?
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Now I got to ask this Joe, do you remember when they did come out because I can't seem to think that you would have a clue of their popularity unless either you had been there selling those nasty gasoline quadracycles that became popular or that you owned an electric car, like a Detroit Electric or a Baker - which both had better range than the Volt.
Good thing they didn't build more.
Now that you mention it, I remember seeing something about that too. The real figure is probably more.
Bartender54
Active Expediter
They (who ever that may be) claim it will take 187yrs to recupe your cost of buying a $48,000. after replacing the batt. every 2-3 years at the cost of $14,000 to $17,000, with (as mentioned above) desposal fees and related costs... They (again) claim there were only 6,000 of these things sold nation wide last year. There is supposed to be 4,000 left in inventory which the federal govt. is supposed to take. And that GM teamed with GE are supposed to take the car and go to China and China wants the technology....... Thats OK they can have it!
And have you ever noticed that the one car that always seems to be the one to blow your doors off going down the interstate is a Prius...Just trying to maintain that 17mpg... ;0)
Oh and as a disclaimer... this ALL came from the news... Well except the good part about the Prius
And have you ever noticed that the one car that always seems to be the one to blow your doors off going down the interstate is a Prius...Just trying to maintain that 17mpg... ;0)
Oh and as a disclaimer... this ALL came from the news... Well except the good part about the Prius
chefdennis
Veteran Expediter
If anyone is replacing the battery in ANY (except the volt) Ele / Hybrid in 2-3 yrs, it is after they have had it 10 yrs 150,000 miles...because that is how long the companies had to warranty them here in the US to get the FED tax breaks...GM / Volt warranties their battery for 8yrs 100,000 miles and that is because the FED gave them the wavier (wonder why) and also one of the reasons they can not get the Calif rebate of $5000 that all the rest get...the battery warranty is not up to the industry standard. So any replacement at anything less, the cost of replacement and disposable is not on the consumer....
cableguymn
Seasoned Expediter
You can brick a tesla after the first charge. Just run it dead or let the parasitic draw do it for you.
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Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
You can brick a Ford if you run it very long without any oil in the crankcase. That's a pretty serious design flaw, if you ask me. <snort>
The Tesla owner's manual makes it very clear on proper maintenance procedures of the battery system. To claim or imply, as the now-famous Blogger has done, that the Tesla Roadster has a fundamental design flaw because of the nature of Cobalt Dioxide electrochemistry is like saying that Ford has a fundamental design flaw because its engines will be damaged if you drain all the oil out and then drive cross-country.
Fact is, the Tesla battery is actually more than 8000 individual cells, each one individually managed, and for the battery to be a brick, each and every one of those cells would have to fail. If you let the car sit unplugged for more than 2 months (11 weeks on a full charge), then the batteries will drain down to zero. The Blogger is question has a friend who this happened to, and he reported the incident on his Blog. He failed to report the long business history he and his friend had, though. The friend had his Tesla towed to the dealer, where the mechanic determined the battery pack needed to be replaced. This is, of course, golden, because as well all know, mechanics are always right, never make the wrong call, and would never, ever replace something that didn't need replacing.
To back up his claim to skeptics, the Blogger rather quickly came up with 4 additional examples of the Tesla being bricked, all of which are suspect, to say the least. My favorite is the guy who shipped his Tesla to Japan, and the thing got bricked because he couldn't charge it, because of the incompatible electrical system overseas. You'd think he at least would have checked that one out, though. Japan is one of the very, very few foreign countries that use the same exact electrical system as the US.
When you "brick" a Tesla, true enough you can't just plug it in and have it start working. But if you are stupid enough to run your Tesla down due to negligence, you plug it in to recharge it via slow trickle charging, in the same way that a dead iPod or laptop can be brought back to life if left to charge for a very long time after months of not being used, and then reset and reboot the battery management system. It'll take a week or so on the charger to revive it fully.
A better way to deal with it, though, is to just keep some oil in the crankcase, as it were, so to speak.
greg334
Veteran Expediter
They don't get the electric car credit in california because it is not an electric car and California recognized that fact. Until you drive one, you may not get this part, it runs like a car, an IC car that is. The Volt acts as a hybird, more like a Ford plugin hybrid which is one of the vehicles I looked at.
I still say if you want something that helps the environment, either get a near perfect environmentally friendly vehicle - a 1962 to 1969 Landrover Series II(a) or a diesel. But if you want to support Obama, get a GM product
Oh it is over $200k, the figure I found was $286.454 for each and every Volt that was made - including the prototypes. This figure won't go down when production ... never mind ...
I still say if you want something that helps the environment, either get a near perfect environmentally friendly vehicle - a 1962 to 1969 Landrover Series II(a) or a diesel. But if you want to support Obama, get a GM product
Oh it is over $200k, the figure I found was $286.454 for each and every Volt that was made - including the prototypes. This figure won't go down when production ... never mind ...
IF they were popular and could compete they would still be around. They are not. Gasoline/diesel engines still are. The electrics are trying to make a come back although the idea that they are cleaner is a liberal selling point. In other words, a joke. I would contend that they are WORSE for the environment.