2012 Volt vs. Camry Hybrid video

[stuart22]

Don't know if this has been posted before, but I stumbled across it yesterday and thought it was pretty good in several respects. One is that the Volt is compared to the similarly priced Camry Hybrid and not a cheaper Prius - GM take note if you haven't already done that; the sales target for the Volt should be cars around its own price range, of which there are many.

Doing this, a few things will happen. First, comparing a Volt with upscale brands and models is better for the long term image than comparing it to Cruzes and Priuses. Success at positioning the Volt in these upper reaches of the car market will make things a heck of lot easier for Voltec sales down the road as per unit costs and sales prices drop.

Second, the Volt simply is good enough to carve away and pull in buyers who otherwise would have been buying other brands of $35k-$45k cars. I think the Camry Hybrid is a great target - its mission of gas efficiency is a joke compared to the Volt. Nothing bad about chipping away at the ivory tower of greenness Toyota has been perched upon for the past number of years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydtVHR0RBUE

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Volt wins!

[Raymondjram]

The Volt will always win when compared to any other vehicle. The only similar technology are the Fisker vehicles, and those are much more expensive. By the time a foreign manufacturer has similar technology for a lesser cost, GM would have the next generation out. The old GM was playing catch up with the imports. The new GM is now the technology leader, and the Chevy Volt is the flagship.

[saghost]

The part that confuses me is their acceleration test. According to all the magazine tests, the Volt is a ~9 second car - the fastest I've seen was 8.5, the slowest 9.3, and unlike most others (including the Camry they matched it with,) it shouldn't be affected by altitude. But somehow they got 10.9 seconds??

[stresstool]

Just a couple guesses. What is the effect of carrying 400+ lbs of humans? What is the effect of the wet road? Inquiring minds want to know.

[saghost]

Just a couple guesses. What is the effect of carrying 400+ lbs of humans? What is the effect of the wet road? Inquiring minds want to know.

Well, the magazines presumably had at least one person on board...

I think it may be their testing methodology - the one review of the new Camry hybrid I came across said it did 0-60 in 7.2 seconds - so it is likely that even with the negative effects of high altitude the Camry would be faster.

(The new Camry's MG1 is almost as powerful as the Volt's MG B, and they do add some engine power directly to that. The Camry is also ~200 pounds lighter.)

[stuart22]

The part that confuses me is their acceleration test. According to all the magazine tests, the Volt is a ~9 second car - the fastest I've seen was 8.5, the slowest 9.3, and unlike most others (including the Camry they matched it with,) it shouldn't be affected by altitude. But somehow they got 10.9 seconds??

The testing procedure they used was pretty casual - a guy in the back seat with a timer counting down to 'GO!', and not the same guy operating the timer for each car's run.

[mocnarf]

The Volt verses the Leaf is also interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEeIK...endscreen&NR=1