This remark suggests that even among knowledgeable people, there is confusion about what the difference is and what the advantages are between a Prius/Insight hybrid (”parallel hybrid”) and a Volt (”series” or “extended range electric car”).

A Prius/Insight hybrid should more descriptively be called a “battery-assisted gasoline engine car”. Or “smooth-driving efficiency-improved car”. Its advantage is a nice smooth feel, especially at low speeds. Also efficiency increased to 40 to 50 mpg. Part of this is due to smaller size and lower aerodynamic “drag”. The rest of the efficiency gain is due to a somewhat larger battery enabling sophisticated electrical controls and software. The larger battery cuts in automatically to improve acceleration, permitting a smaller, more efficient engine to be used. It also enables regenerative braking and automatic engine turn-off in traffic, all improving efficiency. These are important achievements; and the relatively small battery adds little cost, permitting a lower selling price.

The Volt has all the above advantages. However, in addition, it has one additional huge advantage of its own. Because it has a relatively large battery, the 80% of drivers who drive less than 40 mile daily can operate it without using gasoline after it has been plugged in overnight. In contrast, a Prius/Insight hybrid (because of its tiny battery) can be operated without gasoline for only a mile; not worth mentioning. A hybrid’s one advantage over the Volt is a lower cost (due to the small battery) and therefore lower selling price.

For the owner, the Volt’s advantage is lower operating expense. For the 80% of drivers traveling less than 40 miles daily, there is no gasoline expenditure at all. For a driver traveling, say, 80 miles daily (assuming 40 mpg for the second 40 miles to make the arithmetic easy), the daily cost is only one gallon of gasoline. (The cost of plug-in electricity off the grid is usually so cheap it may be ignored.) Each driver must decide for himself whether the higher initial cost is sufficiently rapidly recovered from his gasoline savings. It depends on the higher car price, gasoline price at the time and number of miles he drives.

For the nation, there are several advantages of the extreme gasoline-saving of the Volt. There is freedom from dependence on unreliable, even hostile, oil-exporting foreign sources. Second, there is improvement of our unfavorable balance of trade; eliminating outflow of up to a trillion dollars yearly (depending on oil price, which long-term will surely go up) and which makes us poorer and oil-exporting nations richer. Third, there is lower pollution, even from coal-burning power plants, which, being fewer and larger, lend them selves to better regulation. Fourth, there is reduction of climate change for the same reason.

However, implicit in the whole program is the substitution of non-polluting renewable solar energy sources for fossil fuels. The Mohave desert is currently being developed based on huge contracts from California utility companies to build solar plants.

The final piece of the puzzle is improvement of the national transmission grid to bring power from the desert to the distant load centers. This can be treated as a public work, like the interstate highway system and is especially welcome at this time for economic stimulation.

I agree.

A modern transformerless charger can be over 90% efficient. The associated wire and plug will probably be heavier than the charger in the Volt. There is no reason that future long range electric cars need an on-board high power charger, that charger can be left at the fast charging station.

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#123 Bob G Says:
March 18th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

Your math doesn’t take into account losses in the charger and battery. To get 8KWh stored in the battery, you’ll need to pull more out of the wall. I think that will push the current up to more like 12.5 A.

The advantage of the A123 cells is that they simply do not heat up as much as regular cells, thus allowing insane recharge times and prolonging battery life if used in normal conditions. Their other advantage is their tolerance for overcharges, a big no-no with other lithium cells.

But I agree with you, its not practical or necessary to fast charge a Volt.

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#84
Dave G Says:
March 17th, 2009 at 3:07 pm

The Volt’s battery pack will charge much faster then 3 hours, probably as fast as 30-45 minutes without any increased wear on the battery

I worry about the VW reliability track record compared to Toyota.

I even like the looks of that Mercedes fish shaped concept car that came out a few years ago.

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0710-DaimlerChrysler.html

I actually don’t work for VW, sorry to disappoint. At the same time you didn’t really provide any insight on how, where, by who these millions of batteries are going to be recycled. You also failed to explain how you don’t see the manufacturing, shipping and installation of these batteries causing any harm on the environment. You should research into the actual environmental impact the production of the Toyota Prius causes, you would be surprised. This car is taking some of the toxins out of the air but has the potential of clogging our landfills full of dangerously poisonous batteries. So in reality we’re trading one environmental disaster for another. This tends to defeat the whole purpose of attempting to create a greener car. Lastly all these cars will need power to run, coal burns dirty and puts toxins in the air and nuclear power doesn’t cause damage to the air but you can only dump barrels of toxic waste into the earth for so long before something horrible happens.

I agree, the TDI diesel technology is a good solution for today but as of right now I don’t see an answer for the future, I just know the Volt isn’t it. Just because what come out of the Volt appears to be clean doesn’t mean that the power you use from your wall socket is, I hope you take this into consideration.

8000Wh / 6.5h = 1200 watts = 11 amps @ 110v
8000Wh / 3.2h = 2500 watts = 11 amps @ 220v

So either way, its 11 amps.”
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Your math doesn’t take into account losses in the charger and battery. To get 8KWh stored in the battery, you’ll need to pull more out of the wall. I think that will push the current up to more like 12.5 A.

After you consider the loose tolerances in commercial circuit breakers and the fact that there may be other small loads on the circuit, I doubt if you’d want to push a 15 amp residential circuit more than that (or you’ll have trouble with circuit the breaker tripping).

Hopefully, the charger will allow those of us with 20 amp service in our garage to recharge more quickly.

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Let me guess – You work for Volkswagen.

As has been discussed many times here, the batteries will be recycled. Even those that aren’t will only pollute once, not every time the car is driven. And when I drive my electric car, water flowing through a dam will propel me. Others will be propelled by sunlight, wind, or nuclear power. Even those getting electricity from plants burning fossil fuels will be cleaner and more efficient than an ICE car.

The TDI is a nice vision for today, but the Volt is a much cleaner and more efficient vision for the future.

The second reason they didn’t become popular is you could barely lug a passenger and two grocery bags around. Total fuel economy wasn’t any better on avg than the Golf IV TDI. Acceleration was mediocre, top speed low, and no real emissions controls. Going from memory but I don’t think they could pass current emissions regulations on ultra-low sulfur diesel.

If the car was $15k they would of sold a lot more. That’s why the City Golf here is doing so well. Initially they sold starting at about $16k. A “Canada-only” venture that was. Successful though.

Boggles the mind why VW doesn’t bring the smaller Polo TDI over here. Zippy power, 65-70mpg. Looks alright too.

Yes, the environmental foot print of a Prius compared to for instance a new TDI is pretty high. The energy it takes to produce the batteries, cables, drivetrain, plastics, etc. I read somewhere once it takes more energy to produce a Prius than an H2. Hard to believe. LOL

This is why Detroit is going out of business, they have absolutely no vision or clue.