Comments on: NEW FACT: Chevy Volt Generator Starts When Battery Power Hits 50%, Stops Again at 80%

By: Przemek Klosowski

Przemek Klosowski — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:20:22 +0000

To everyone concerned with mimimizing gas engine ‘turn-on’ time, it’s not such a bargain. Assuming the rough figure of 8kWhr recharge capacity, it’s about a dollar worth of electricity, so you aren’t saving that much–the gas engine would probably use 2-3 $ of gas to cover the same distance. Energy is fungible; you gotta pay one way or the other.

Sometimes I think that it would be a good idea to replace dollar with Joule as currency—it would make many things related to energy conservation more transparent. Right now, I have a great way of explaining this to my kids: one Watt of power costs one dollar per year. Joule currency would make it very easy to explain.

By: BOB

BOB — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:03:28 +0000

its woundeful=)

By: BOB

BOB — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:02:39 +0000

jahklsdjjjjsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssskjjjjjjjjjjjjsdhfkgjhakljdhfiunkjgjahnjhgnjajhcbn jhgsfkajnbkjacghksjghkdbjhc yaaa chevy rules

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:54:30 +0000

Nick D Says: @41

“People are concerned that if they hit the 50% threshold the engine will turn on and completely charge the battery using gasoline (in other posts the time to top off the battery was estimated to be less than 6 minutes.) Then coming home to your garage with less gas and a fully charged battery, when the most desirable option would be to have the gas engine charge the battery only partially allowing the user to charge up the battery using electricity, not gasoline, or in my case ethanol.”

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The option of reaching home with the battery discharged at it’s maximum,, I believe, will still be available as mention on a prior post. To do this, the driver will have to interact with the computer letting it know you plan to reach home with 80% of the battery discharged. Of course, this will require a GPS working with the car’s computer..

By: jimothy

jimothy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:49:24 +0000

I would never buy a chevy, ever. Except this. I buy a new car every 2 years, always german or japanese, but if Chevy can produce a vehicle like this I’ll buy it. This is the big chance for US automakers to catch up and start to turn profits again, by leaving behind outdated combustion technologies and jumping into new realms of innovation. Now if only they’d done this 10 years earlier we might have had a chance to save the planet. (yes I’m aware gm killed the electric car once before…)