Comments on: Breaking: Production Chevy Volt to be Revealed in September!

By: DaveP

DaveP — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:55:10 +0000

#106 Dave G:
Yes, of course. I was thinking of antifreeze type liquid. I have no idea why I wrote water. Carelessness on my part, I was thinking more about the temperatures.

#135 Jackson:
I’m certainly not trying to pooh-pooh accelerated testing. I’m just trying to point out that the results of the accelerated tests can’t be directly converted into real-world numbers. There’s some missing “factor” that lets you interpolate between real world tests and accelerated tests. That missing information is the rate at which the extra “stress” causes the battery to degrade.

Since we have none of that information, the accelerated test data has little to no meaning (to us) outside of the “normal” ranges.

To exaggerate to make the point, it’s like saying it fails after 1 cycle at 150C. There is no way to interpolate that to what it does at 25C without a lot of additional information.
That information is missing, here.

By: jon shmidt

jon shmidt — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:01:00 +0000

i have pictures of the volt i think

By: Grizzly

Grizzly — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:04:22 +0000

jeff # 177

“Are the engines that different or are computers making the difference.”

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Jeff,

Any engine that can run both ethanol (E85) and gasoline is a compromise, usually in favor of gasoline. This is because if the engine were designed primarily for E85 it would have higher compression and more power, but would pre-detonate when using gasoline and the PCM or computer would have to retard the timing to the point where efficiency is lost.

I don’t think we’ve yet seen the best of flex fuel engines, and I believe that further development could yield much better mileage with E85 w/o compromising gasoline performance.

By: Cheese Ball Expert

Cheese Ball Expert — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:44:41 +0000

Electric car at $30K gets a passing grade, at $25K sells very well, below $25K will have waiting lists for 3 years. Will GM have to develop a long-term market strategy involving the costs and recycling of batteries to achieve these prices? Most likely, I would conjecture.

Does GM want to be the cornerstone for the next 100 years? Most likely, I would further conjecture.

Can they do it? We will have to see.

By: G Peacock

G Peacock — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:53:10 +0000

GM will forever hold the title of the first production plug-in hybrid. Let’s let Toyota be chasing GM to catch up.

By: jeff

jeff — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:35:31 +0000

Here is part of my point from previous post:

http://www.standardalcohol.com/

By: jeff

jeff — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:29:57 +0000

Grizzly #174
I’ve read on this board that tuning an engine to use ethanol makes it much more efficient. I think I need to look into the Flex-Fuel idea as GM means it to be. Are the engines that different or are computers making the difference. And as you say the compression of the engines to burn different fuels. Which type of engine has the most versatility. What kind of fuels are in are future. This board has opened my eyes to the possibilities. I’m no fan of hydrogen, so some type of alcohol seems right. Your harsh portrayal of Congress has merit. I’m afraid the USA still isn’t taking this energy situation seriously enough. I’m going to post another site on alternative fuel you might find interesting right after this post.
Much to think about. . .

By: NZDavid

NZDavid — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:00:57 +0000

I like the symbolical touch of the 100 year unveiling, after all, it was 1908 that Ford introduced the model T.

I expect the Volt power train will have the same effect on vehicles over the next 100 years.

Regards

By: Rashiid Amul

Rashiid Amul — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:46:38 +0000

Grizzly, #169.

My friend, my point was the people who hate GM will find fault with the Volt no matter what. Perfection is impossible, but the Volt has to come close because some of these people want GM to fail. My concern is if the Volt gets a bad reputation “out of the box”, then GM may be doomed.

I am not concerned about the software, that should be easily patchable.
My concern is in the mechanical part. That is a little more difficult to “cover up” or fix very quickly.

You and I are on the same page with this. I just don’t want the car to get slammed in the press for stupid stuff.

By: Grizzly

Grizzly — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:42:33 +0000

Jeff #171

“Is E-100 possible, lol, I’m not sure”

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Very good question. The answer is, not w/o some sort of top cylinder lubricant as an additive, and even higher compression. Both are most certainly possible, but I doubt anyone is interested at this point. It’s a shame, because these are exactly the lines along which we need to be thinking! The problem is that we have a congress of lobby-fed “do nothing” crooks.

Let’s face it 40 years is just too long to rid ourselves of oil for public transportation. Jeff has brought up a VERY good point about E100.
Let’s hope the Volt comes out sooner than later and that the world leader (GM) in alternative fuels will fuel further success in this area. After all, L.T. we’re looking at this fuel as a R.ange E.tender, not a primary source. The alternative would be to hope congress has the answer!

DO the right thing GM!