LRGVProVolt: Only them will the Leaf be able to demonstrate a “Freedom Drive” as the Volt has. Still, even then, the Leaf will have to stop more often to recharge while the Volt travels +300 miles before refueling. The Volt will file up on gas and recharge its batteries at the same time, when traveling down I-5. As time shows us battery advancements, the time when they will equalize will come, but for now the Volt offers the best options for those owners who have to travel more than 100 miles, those who can’t afford an electric commuter vehicle and an ICE vehicle for longer trips, or those who see upgrading to a more powerful battery when available instead of buying a new BEV

Aren’t we actually buying the Volt to take advantage all of those trips at nearly 40 miles or less? If you want to go on long trips the eliminate-foreign-oil-dependence mode is a train or bus. The trips where all or at least huge chunks of them are all electric will make the Volt’s capabilities worth-wile. Reveling in a long freedom trip is not even germane to the reasons one would buy a Volt. Except for those who are looking for cutting edge technology for technologies sake alone, and don’t give a hoot about displacing the use of oil.

I don’t understand how driving up and down I-5 in CS mode is a virtue, goal, objective, preferred result, or aspiration for people who look forward to GM getting electric Volts on highways. It’s just a trade-off, until bio fuels, cheaper batteries, practical quick charging or pre-ground unicorn horns can extend the range with out gasoline. Seems like an alternative aspiration would be to try to avoid it.

So if you can take take Amtrak, you can drop the last 40 or 50 gallons of gas a year you would have needed in a Volt. And driving up and down I-5 on gasoline is so completely last century.

DonC:
Go read my comment #63 for the distinction between a “test drive” and a “test ride”.As a practical matter there is a huge difference. Test rides are easy to manage since you control everything and can avoid potential problems. Test drives not so much, which is why you don’t see Steve Jobs letting people in the audience test drive new products. But he’s more than happy to give all of us a test ride.  

I think your just quibbling over words to support your statements. The Nissan Leaf is no Volt; you can’t begin to put them on the same level. The Volt is so far advanced compared to the Nissan. For instance, the battery management in the Volt is far more sophisticated; it is not merely air cooled but air and water cooled. The Leaf is only battery powered and does not possess the sophisticated computer software of the Volt. There are other numerous factors where the Volt is different from the Leaf. All in all, you can’t compare the Volt and Nissan without noticing all the major differences that separate the two vehicles into different categories.

Nissan will allow test rides within city limits because that’s really where the Nissan Leaf will be used; no so much on the highway since it has limited AER and brings attention to the one big arguement againstr BEV’s – range. True in areas like the West Coast – Seattle down to San Diego – charging infrastructure will be installed along the highway. Only them will the Leaf be able to demonstrate a “Freedom Drive” as the Volt has. Still, even then, the Leaf will have to stop more often to recharge while the Volt travels +300 miles before refueling. The Volt will file up on gas and recharge its batteries at the same time, when traveling down I-5. As time shows us battery advancements, the time when they will equalize will come, but for now the Volt offers the best options for those owners who have to travel more than 100 miles, those who can’t afford an electric commuter vehicle and an ICE vehicle for longer trips, or those who see upgrading to a more powerful battery when available instead of buying a new BEV. It will be a while before the BEV market gains market share compared to EREV cars like the Volt. Don’t get me wrong on this issue; I do believe that many people will buy a Leaf (those individuals are among the drivers who only travel under 40 to 100 miles per day round trip). But once car owners realize the totality of capability and quality of craftsmanship of the Volt, it will sell like hotcakes compared to the Leaf. This will last for a few years before the battery improvements make BEVs competitive.

Happy trails to you ’til we meet again

There is a Nuclear Renaissance gathering strength here in the USA. Some 30 odd, new “perfected” nuclear power plants are getting ready to break ground in the USA starting in 2011. Everything that can be pre-planned and done without turning any Earth, is being done to shorten the construction time, and reduce the costs, unlike in the 1970s. As a consequence, these cookie cutter, “standard design” plants, already pre-approved, will start building, then. Some 42-54 months later, they will join the Grid, and begin generation of electricity,and little can stop them. even if desired.

All the legal tools and shenanigans, that we, and I include myself as a principled critic of immature nuclear plants of that era, used to stall and bankrupt Utilities trying to build the immature plants of the 1970s have been now ruled illegal. These “perfected” plants when started, will continue construction until finished. They will raise nuclear electric generation from around 19% to almost 40% of the US electric Grid, allowing the Utilities to finally scrap a lot of old, very dirty, “grandfathered”, Coal generation,without much emissions technology. Those old smokers were forced to continue to run, and pollute, when many 1970s era nuclear plants under construction, were scrapped.

Germany has reversed itself and is no longer closing down its nuclear plants and England is now planning to replace its old nuclear plants with new ones. They have discovered the ridiculous results of pseudo-Science by green know-nothings, doesn’t work. Windmills live an average of only 8 years, not 30; they produce less than 29% of rated nameplate generation and require lots of stabilizing conventional base load to prevent Grid oscillation and blackouts.

Even as “Oil Drummers” continue to bray about the decline of volumes of sweet, low viscosity, liquid petroleum for refineries built only to handle such input.

The fools don’t recognize that most refineries world-wide have been modified to handle high-viscosity, sour, crude. They prophesied that was an economic impossibility, but it has proved both possible, and largely completed. There is no longer any Refinery concern that served as the basis of the Peakist “Peak Oil” ideology; and sufficient petroleum exists for several hundred years of Civilization’s use. Even as demand for Petroleum of all types continues to decline for most of this century, and demand will almost disappear before the century is half over.

DonC: This seems not that likely IMHO. Yes nuclear plants are cheap to run, but they cost an arm and a leg to build.

It is not only highly likely it is a documented fact. Just look to the latest example. Yucca mountain. We have paid for the place twice. It is there, tunnels are in place and the DOE has finished yet another study saying it is safe all at the cost of billionis. How much fuel is there, zero. Now the Govt is trying to kill it for good with some type of legal maneuver that will make all past work useless and you would have to start from scratch to license Yucca. Now the Nuclear industry is paying to develop yet another storage solution. The plants are running and we all enjoy the electrons so the waste is there and not going away. This kind of triple (or more) payment for things due to legal wrangling is what drives up the cost. If it were just an engineering project, and not an endless court battle, the projects would cost far less money.

“No company will be happy just selling you a new battery, they’re gonna try to sell you a whole new car.”

I don’t see why using the Volt pack for its potential 100 mile range negates them selling you a whole car when the pack starts degrading in 5 years or so instead of 10.

They’ve always done that with ICE cars. I don’t remember a dealer ever suggesting I replace an ICE and keep my existing car, even though ICEs are cheap, and it’s relatively easy to do.