Comments on: NBC Reporter Test Drives Chevy Volt Prototype Mule

By: dumb Ohio person

dumb Ohio person — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:00:02 +0000

I bet if you need heat in any all electric car, your total range will drop alot. I hear no talk about heating the car. Heat takes alot of electicity. I guess I would just dress warm, buy me a motorcycle helmet, and stick my head out of the window.

By: sudhaman

sudhaman — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:07:30 +0000

volt is an excellent concept. GM lost market due to cheap imported cars from Japan and Germany and also because the credit markets are freezed .Not because they did not make good cars.Otherwise how they would have been market leader for 77 years

By: Mamiro Yoshizawa

Mamiro Yoshizawa — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:17:08 +0000

Dear Sir
I want to know how difficult will be to connect Volt as power supply to the grid? For instance during peak hour of utilities.
And how difficult will be to get hot water from the gas or alcohool engine? During the above assumption.
Mamiro Yoshizawa Electric power Engineer

By: endo-kuuken

endo-kuuken — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:18:51 +0000

I wonder if they plan to train all the mechanics to service this thing? there aren’t that many things on it, but like all things, murphy’s law strikes and then you can’t get the car serviced… it is one of my worries about getting a volt, I want peace of mind, some kind of long standing warranty, I went through a nightmare with a BMW I bought in 2002, since only the dealer could do work on it, I paid through the nose for a new ECU after the warranty had expired at 36k miles

have you all seen the fisker karma? it is growing on me

By: Brad

Brad — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:35:00 +0000

just buy a civic… they look the same and it’s almost 20k less. it’d take a lot of gas to make up that difference…

By: BillR

BillR — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:45:14 +0000

#182 Engineer Bruce

See this link and download the presentation.

http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2008/02/driving_the_vol.html

It should provide answers to all your questions.

By: Engineer Bruce

Engineer Bruce — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:00:37 +0000

#142 ECO – said: It would be great if people educated themselves on the difference between a Volt concept, the Prius, the Insight, the Tesla, the EV1, and all the reasons that the Volt is different, BEFORE they made posts that made no sense. I guess that’s too much to ask.

————————————————————————————–
Got any recommended links. ECO, Lyle? I have read all I can find, still can’t get an answer to how the Volt is different except for the software that depletes the battery before turning on the tag-along ICE. (please see my questions – as yet unanswered – on post 101)

By: moovonyungman

moovonyungman — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:52:47 +0000

Brilliant. This car already has sparked the EV revolution. If it were not for Tesla which preceded Volt and now Volt – the Japanese would not be building a 200,000 units/year LiIon battery factory for their EVs.

Nice work GM. And smart for Congress to invest in electrification of transportation. The billions saved in defending foreign oil producers and cost of purchasing ($700B annually) foreign oil will be a just reward for taxpayers.

Bye bye oil. Hello clean electric energy.

By: Chris K

Chris K — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:05:12 +0000

Price seems to be a sensitive but true fact of life. It comes down to will the people on the waitlist actually buy the vehicle. If so, then at least the sales are there. The governments should increase the rebates to 8 to 10K for the first couple of years and give the Volt a chance.

By: Steve W

Steve W — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:29:15 +0000

Hs says: “Sorry you don’t make sense. How can the dealer add markups if they don’t sell?”

My point was merely that if the Volt indeed does have an MSRP of $40,000 the dealers will sell/take orders at a price significantly above the MSRP. History shows this to be true. Your $40.000 Volt( or whatever the MSRP turns out to be) will ultimately cost more because of additional dealer markup. I wasn’t suggesting that GM wouldn’t sell the VOLT due to price. They will sell Volts whenever they are made available but the high price will negatively affect the ultimate volume.

By model year 2011, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc. will also be offering plug-ins, and if history does repeat itself, they will produce equal or better vehicles at a lower price point. It would be naive to assume that GM has a major jump on the plug-in vehicles we thirst for.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m cheering on GM and their efforts. I only question their ability to bring the Volt to market at a price that will be attractive and affordable to the average consumer. $40,000+ will make it a niche car for early adopters and well heeled eco-conscious folks. It will not, at that price point, be a major component in changing the way people get around.