Comments on: Compact Power’s CEO Wants to Lease You Your Volt’s Batteries

By: Hoang

Hoang — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:52:15 +0000

For those of you who really believe that GM can make the Volt under 30K in 2010, here is your future’s configuration option of your Volt and this is my most optimistic view:

“Standand” Volt: $29,500, 18-25 miles/electric only *

Safety Pack: $3,000, sided and head airbags.

Convenience Pack: $2,950, AC, CD player, power window and steering wheel.

Power Pack: $6,500, increase electric range to 30-40 miles *

Limited Version: $18,000, has all options above plus GPS, bluethooth, chrome wheel, heated miror and seat…

—————————–

* Note: actual electric range may vary. It depends on your driving habit and how much weight of passenger/lugguage you carry in your car.

If what I envisioned is true, in 2010, I’d rather buy the Toyota Yaris at $12,000. At least the power steering is standard!

By: Matt986

Matt986 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:07:56 +0000

Dave,

I’d rather have one of these: http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/24/autos/porsche_hybrid/index.htm?cnn=yes

It would look great in the driveway next to my Boxster!

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:28:37 +0000

Anyone notice the press release from Toyota about their new Plug-in HEV?

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/toyota-announce.html#more

8 mile all electric range isn’t so hot, but it’s far closer to reality than the Volt.

Dave

By: AES

AES — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 03:11:40 +0000

Just some quick numbers to put things into perspective.

The individual battery cells that A123 makes hold about 7.59 Watt-hours, and they cost (for the general public) about $20 a pop. To make a 16kWh Volt battery pack using these cells would require about 2,108 cells – at a cost of over $42,000.

Now granted, A123 is going to be using larger format cells for their candidate Volt pack, but it’s the same fundamental technology. So the lease-or-not-to-lease question I think really comes down to how much lower OEM prices are going to be.

I don’t have exact specs on CPI’s cells, so I can’t make a direct comparison.

By: Matt986

Matt986 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:52:02 +0000

Kent, still, regardless of how many ‘free’ or ‘public’ charging stations there are, you can still only drive ~40 miles in the Volt before either 1. the generator kicks in, or 2. you stop and plug in for several hours to recharge.

Option #2 isn’t going to be perceived by many people to be ‘range extending’, especially if they have to leave the vehicle plugged in for several hours.

Keep in mind, something’s ‘range’ is how far it can go without having to be refueled. Plugging in and recharging equates to being refueled.

I do understand what you’re getting at – lots of places to plug in means you’ll be able to get more mileage out of electric only if you’re driving to/from places with plugins. I just don’t consider this ‘extending the range’ of the vehicle.

As far as these plugs being ‘guaranteed’ to appear, maybe someday, but ‘guaranteed’ isn’t something anyone can really say.

Who knows? Maybe someone figures out cold fusion 10 years from now, negating the need to plug anything in anymore!