Battery upgrade

[Desertstraw]

When better batteries become available, as they surely will, can they be used by the Volt to effectively turn it into an electric car? If so, it might be a good buy, otherwise my next car will be a pure electric made by somebody else.

[Texas]

1) The Volt is an electric car.

2) Even with better batteries you need the infrastructure to give the same convenience that gas stations provide.

3) You better take care of the car you have now. You are going to be driving it for a long time.

[prowler]

2) Even with better batteries you need the infrastructure to give the same convenience that gas stations provide.

You're overgeneralizing.

If one's EV range is sized to their requirements, plugging it in at home IS FAR MORE CONVENIENT than gas stations. In fact, I find that to be the Number 2 high following the driving experience.

For my requirements, driving a Tesla Roadster (8.5 months now) has required NO COMPROMISES versus the car that it replaced. Yes, I have a family car for unlimited range (SUV named SUNPOWR, but that's another story), but realize the prowler has never been more than 100 miles from home in the 9 years that it served as my primary personal car. If you need a 9-passenger SUV, don't expect the VOLT to serve your requirements.

My EV meets my requirements 100%, other's mileage may vary.

[Desertstraw]

With better batteries, can the Volt be turned into an electric car with a significant range, say the 250 miles claimed by BYD? I asked the same question about the Nissan Leaf being able to use better batteries and did not get a straight answer.

"If you built it, they will come". I think that when electric cars become available next year, the charging network will soon follow. This country is good at such things.

[omnimoeish]

Well said Prowler. I REALLY hate going to gas stations these days. I always go to Costco because they are much cheaper than all others, but they also have the longest lines. It's usually about a 45 minute ordeal once a week to get my tank filled up. I am so excited to have the convenience of rarely if ever doing that.

A BEV with an 80 mile range like the LEAF is great for commuting. Almost everyone driving a LEAF or Tesla S or whatever will have a second car for no other reason than they and their spouse work in two different places. Whoever has the longer commute between two spouses that isn't beyond the range of the BEV will get to drive it, and then it will be the main errand car on the weekends. Most people that commute 20-40 miles a day or whatever won't ever even get close to running dead and simply will never use the range extender, but for other people that are driving between cities 50-60 miles apart like I do once or twice a weak, or people that only want one car will definitely get a Volt.

Overall, I don't think the Volt will be that much more expensive than the LEAF (especially for all of the cool bells and whistles the Volt comes with like back up camera, Bose surround etc.) when all battery costs are included and may even be cheaper depending on how long you keep it, and whether the stated "$40,000" Volt price tag really was just GM's price posturing to get congress to approve a rather generous $7,500 tax incentive for it (as was surmised the other day on the home page).

Once the EREV power management system is designed, all of the future EREV iterations will be a few weeks worth of fine tuning and it really is just about as simple as putting in a $2,000 gas engine to replace about 10 kWh worth of very expensive yet rarely used battery that would've been needed in a pure BEV.

[prowler]

With better batteries, can the Volt be turned into an electric car with a significant range, say the 250 miles

Allow me to provide a somewhat tangential answer.

The first time that I showed my Tesla to a co-worker, he zeroed in on the 900-pound steel "coffin" of batteries. His view was, "Wow, since this is an electric car, that black box can be anything - batteries, fuel cell, diesel generator - can you imagine a small nuclear reactor?"

I'm not seeing this viewpoint on this Board - the Volt is an electric car. The Tesla is an electric car. The Fiskar is an electric car. The Honda whatever-fuelcell is an electric car. The platform, the motor, the drivetrain in general is ELECTRIC. The POWER can be stored in batteries, hydrogen, or a nuclear reactor.

Take a look at:
http://www.a123systems.com/a123/products
this is the A123 Hymotion add-on for a Prius.

You might want to write to them and ask the question if they're intending to offer a BATTERY range extender for the VOLT - this can either be an ADD-ON, or a REPLACEMENT for the ICE engine.

I couldn't find this, but a while ago I theorized in a post that quite a few companies (people?) will be buying VOLTS as the cheapest commercial platform to use as a base for their electric car customization by ripping out the ICE components - who needs sparkplugs, oil, exhaust system, belts, . . . . They can then choose to add batteries . . . . diesel or natural gas generator . . . . or a NUCLEAR REACTOR (exactly how big is a surplus reactor from a submarine?)

[George S. Bower]

Allow me to provide a somewhat tangential answer.

The first time that I showed my Tesla to a co-worker, he zeroed in on the 900-pound steel "coffin" of batteries. His view was, "Wow, since this is an electric car, that black box can be anything - batteries, fuel cell, diesel generator - can you imagine a small nuclear reactor?"

I'm not seeing this viewpoint on this Board - the Volt is an electric car. The Tesla is an electric car. The Fiskar is an electric car. The Honda whatever-fuelcell is an electric car. The platform, the motor, the drivetrain in general is ELECTRIC. The POWER can be stored in batteries, hydrogen, or a nuclear reactor.

Take a look at:
http://www.a123systems.com/a123/products
this is the A123 Hymotion add-on for a Prius.

You might want to write to them and ask the question if they're intending to offer a BATTERY range extender for the VOLT - this can either be an ADD-ON, or a REPLACEMENT for the ICE engine.

I couldn't find this, but a while ago I theorized in a post that quite a few companies (people?) will be buying VOLTS as the cheapest commercial platform to use as a base for their electric car customization by ripping out the ICE components - who needs sparkplugs, oil, exhaust system, belts, . . . . They can then choose to add batteries . . . . diesel or natural gas generator . . . . or a NUCLEAR REACTOR (exactly how big is a surplus reactor from a submarine?)

Now there is a novel thought. Buy a Volt, rip out the ICE and replace it w/ a battery pack!! Talk about thinking "out of the box"!!

Prowler: As a Tesla owner can you offer any thoughts on the Tesla S?? It's on my shopping list?

[prowler]

Now there is a novel thought. Buy a Volt, rip out the ICE and replace it w/ a battery pack!! Talk about thinking "out of the box"!!

Prowler: As a Tesla owner can you offer any thoughts on the Tesla S?? It's on my shopping list?

Sure. I just sent you a private Email, let's do this offline.

[hermperez]

Now there is a novel thought. Buy a Volt, rip out the ICE and replace it w/ a battery pack!! Talk about thinking "out of the box"!!

Not a lot of room left in the Volt, about the only places you could put extra batteries is where the ICE and the gas tank go.. the design has been optimized for the ICE and its subsystems. The Nissan Leaf with the under the floor design has more room for a larger pack.

Since you are getting rid of the generator and the ICE then the transaxle should be changed also, leaving more room for a larger secondary pack in the front.. perhaps the main T-pack could be stretched forward past the firewall and back taking up the space of the gas tank. Why do we need a firewall in an electric car anyways?

The Renault and Nissan designs look better the moment you start going this way.

[misslexi]

The difficult part with modifying the Volt or any other hybrid will probably not be gutting the ICE and replacing it with batteries, it will be changing the software that controls the synergy of these components.

It's the reason why you can't just put more batteries in a Prius unless you reprogram the computer, like Hymotion does.