Comments on: Honda Still Hasn’t Plugged in Yet

By: John

John — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:37:35 +0000

GM, Honda & Toyota all know that with plug-ins, the money now generated by replacement parts along with maintenance money will be virtually eliminated. Worse, the *%^! plug-ins will take forever to wear out. If they build the lost revenue into the cost of a plug-in, it is possible that they will be unable to sell at a price most customers would be willing to pay. None of the car manufacturers make much on their smallest models now. They all want to continue to sell behemoths as they bring in the largest profit margins, not because they are stupid. Finally, research indicates gas-hogs are actually LESS safe in accidents than the average car. Funny, the car manufacturers aren’t advertising this…

By: Jes

Jes — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:04:47 +0000

I am on the pre-order for this book.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Build-Your-Own-Electric-Vehicle/Seth-Leitman/e/9780071543736/?itm=2

I travel intercity to 5 appointments a day. Today is the very 1st time I went past 100 miles, but go over 40 every day. If Tesla or some company does not make an all-electric mid-sized car (as I’m over 6 ft & 250 lbs) that reaches 150 miles to the charge soon, I will be building my own near maintenance free all electric car. Leave the expense of oil canges, radiater flushes, exaust maintenance, fuel injection cleaning, transmision flushes, etc. out!!!!! I don’t want a more complicated system with more things that can go wrong. I’d much rather have an all electic at that can get more miles than a more complex flex fuel vehicle that only goes 40 & relies on an ICE afterwards to charge the battery.

By: koz

koz — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:32:43 +0000

Sorry, malfunctioning mouse posted my partially cooked thought.

The technology will advance rapidly in the first few generations of E-Flex. GM is on the steep part of the learning curve.

By: koz

koz — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:29:36 +0000

omegaman66
”
And if you look forward and it is a long range big win over time because as supercaps and batteries improve the all electric distance can be increased with no increase in cost. Or if hondas belief in fuel cells pans out then bam simply put one of those on the volt immediately. No real new engineering needed.
Basically right now we here need to realize that the volt is basically on par with the prius but has the added benefit of large batteries and the added cost to offset that benefit. But the benefit for future models will always be there whereas the added cost will slowly or quickly disepate.”

Thank you for bringing this up again. Although said before, it bears repeating every once in a while. THE WORST VALUE PROPOSITION E-FLEX VEHICLE WILL BE THE FIRST GENERATION VOLT.

By: doggydogworld

doggydogworld — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:01:30 +0000

#74 Omegaman said ”the beauty of the Volt drive train is that it is ultimitely CHEAPER!!!!!”

This is not correct. E-Flex is elegant and flexible (thus the name), but not cheap. Serial requires the highest investment in motor/generators and power electronics. Serial is simpler and gives designers more freedom in stuff like generator type and location.

Today’s systems (HSD, IMA, Two-mode, BAS, E-Flex) each have different strengths and weaknesses and are chosen to match the needs of specific applications. The most cost effective EREV system I’ve seen is the one I believe BYD chose. It’s tricky to get right, but it could match Volt’s performance with half the motor cost, 35% lower power electronics cost and slightly less expensive batteries. These are significant savings, though they come at the cost of design flexibility. BYD can’t put the ICE anywhere they please like GM can nor can they easily swap in a fuel cell or something.