Comments on: Chevy Volt will Need Special Low Power Windshield Wipers and Audio System

By: Pithy Opiner

Pithy Opiner — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:13:34 +0000

If I buy one, will I make it home on a cold, wintery night as it is raining cats and dogs and I’m listening to the news on the radiio or jazz from a cd. Headlights are on, windsheilds are flapping back and forth as fast as they can…just get me home, please. I promise to plug you in as soon as we drive into the garage. I’m only 7 miles from home to the job and I park under the freeway so i don’t have access to somewhere to plug it in during the day. I’ve always figured I would be a great candidate for an all electric vehicle. But, I hope I don’t get cold feet when it comes time to buy one.

By: Kevin Howards

Kevin Howards — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:05:25 +0000

Can you provide more information on this please.

By: DaveP

DaveP — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:03:23 +0000

I just posted this in a future thread, but I thought I’d back post to this thread because it references this thread and I’m trying to suck the entire world into a time-space vortex caused by a circular temporal reference.

Also on the fueleconomy.gov website is a really nice summary of where the enrgy that you put into a car actually goes… Typically, only 12.6% of the energy you put into the car actually goes to pushing the wheels…
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml
I’m sure I will reference this in the future for something.

Also, there’s an article in EDN which I don’t know if anybody mentioned but it talks about the efforts to reduce power consumption in the car systems that don’t go directly to move the vehicle (such as reducing power used by headlights). It’s somewhat technical as it’s targeted to the engineers out there. It also references gm-volt.com a few months ago when we were discussing the issue of power consumption in the subsystems (apparently this author references gm-volt.com fairly frequently, too).
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6570998.html

Some points:
Tesla estimates cabin cooling in an EV would typically require 2kW. They estimate heating normally occurs with ICE waste heat equivalent to around 3kW. The Tesla fellow they were interviewing also pulled a back of the napkin estimate that an “extreme case” load for heating or cooling would consume 8% of the range… Headlights, 1.5% of the range.

By: Tapoja maksimoida ja selviytyä sähköauton ajokapasiteetin kanssa « Unelmien sähköauto

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:44:24 +0000

[...] oudolta kuin se vaikuttaakin, niin GM Volt -hybridiä kehittävä tiimi huomasi tuulilasinpyyhkimien nielaisevan paljon akkutehoja. Tiimin tarkoituksena onkin nyt ollut myös kehittää sellasia pyyhkimiä, jotka ovat [...]

By: Larry Parylla

Larry Parylla — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:34:23 +0000

Oh yes head phones are OK because there is no requirement to hear. If there was deaf people would not be able to drive

By: Larry Parylla

Larry Parylla — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:31:05 +0000

I got half way down and I haven’t heard anyone mention that wipers are not necessary. I have used a product called Rain-x for decades and almost never need wipers. My Lexus has side windows are treated at the factory with a product that does the same thing as Rain-x and after a year and a half they still work fine. They can treat the Volt windos with a product that does the same thing and the owner can refresh the treatment from time to time. Wipers will still be needed form time to time for snow but if wipers aren’t used that often why bother making more expensive wipers to save energy. As far as power windows I don’t open an close my windows that much I want power so I don’t have to reach over to lower the passenger window.

PS to the best of my knowledge planes do not have wipers

By: Nick D

Nick D — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:08:31 +0000

I understand that there will be a large AC draw to heat the car but can that not be channeled from the heat produced by the electric motor and heat produced by the battery pack, this would help cool both of them and heat the cabin – would not provide 100% but would certainly help. Also heating/cooling the car from the 110 while its plugged in would help signifigantly and i know that was being discussed.

And just for fun (18 seconds of drive time loss) x (60,000 Volts) = 300 hours of drive time loss — Maybe GM is thinking about the greater good in redesinging these low draw accessories…

By: mien green

mien green — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:32:33 +0000

If you read “The Little Car That Could”, you’d find the one of the big concerns of EV1 national production was its problematic distribution in the northern climes because of the limited heat pump solution to interior heating.

By: noel park

noel park — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:39:11 +0000

AkRich, #88:

Absolutely right. The cheapest way to go faster is to take weight out of the driver. It actually saves you money, as you don’t have to feed the !@##$% as much!

Take a look at the drivers in F1, any other top line open wheel racing series and, increasingly, NASCAR. They look more and more like jockeys. How about Robbie Gordon’s famous rant about Danica Patrick’s unfair advantage since she weighs about 106#.

I swear I read an article somewhere some months ago about a study on how much excess driver/passenger weight costs Americans in fuel. It’s probably in the billions over the course of a year.

By: drivin98

drivin98 — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:12:06 +0000

Anyone know if the power steering unit is electric? I imagine it is. The efficiency gains made in the design of all these components don’t just benefit the Volt but also the future electric vehicles GM makes. Hopefully, they won’t make the Volt buyers shoulder the whole burden.