The volt is an all-electric car?

Dinki: The volt is an all-electric car?

methinks you added a - where one ought not be

cmunic8r99: Dinki: The volt is an all-electric car?

methinks you added a - where one ought not be

Are you rotsky?

cameroncrazy1984: Are you rotsky?

me?

nope. i'm just me.

cmunic8r99: cameroncrazy1984: Are you rotsky?

me?

nope. i'm just me.

Well then I don't get the joke, because "all-electric" is perfectly acceptable in this case.

Farking compound-word adjectives. How do they work?

Jay-Z gets his own lane?

Wow. the Volt is the biggest pile of fail ever to creak its way out of Detroit, it is almost a parody of everything that's wrong with American car makers:

Japan: here's a cool idea: let's build a mid-sized car that runs on a hybrid of gas and electric power and gets roughly 60 mPH

Detroit: meh it's a fad

Japan: wow we've sold a shiatton of these can't keep them in stores

Detroit: hey we'll pay you for that technology and cram it into all sorts of inappropriate cars like SUVs and heavy trucks that will barely benefit from it and then trumpet how "green" we are

Japan: How's that working out for you?

Detroit: Screw You! were sinking billions of dollars into a revolutionary ALL-electric plug in car that'll be tons better than yours and be 16 awesome and save our company and fix your asses

Japan: hey what do you think of this pure electric we have called the Leaf? seems your governments will subsidize then up to $12,000. neat huh?

Detroit: Shut up Shut up Shut UP! we'll have our car out any day now...

any day now...

Japan: yawn

Detroit: SO here it is: our REVOLUTIONARY Super Awesome Mobile

Japan:" What's it do

Detroit: Get this is plugs in, takes ONLY 10 hours to charge, and then can go 40 miles! 40! Woot! 11! suck it haters!

Japan: 40 Miles and then what?

Detroit: Well, then basically its a hybrid just like you guy's but way more complicated

Japan: but it's cheap right?

Detroit: uhhhha bout the same as a Merceedes

Japan: Bhudda! that tiny little subcompact is the price of TWO Priuses?! well at least you get all those rebates and special electric car bennies right?

Detroit: Well, no. Apparently Our engineers never bothered to look up those regulations to see how to make the car qualify and none of out lobbyists contacted anyone to get the car on the list soo......

But if you pick up a couple of your friends, you can drive your '74 Impala that gets 14 miles/gallon, and leaks oil like a PB well, in the HOV lanes all day.


/The low rider is a real goer!

Churchill2004: Are we clear now?

I was clear when I submitted it... :)

Magorn:
Detroit: Well, then basically its a hybrid just like you guy's but way more complicated


For fail on your part. As the basic engineering for the Volt drive train and power plant is much simpler then the Prius drive train and power plant.

way south: Magorn: Detroit: Well, no. Apparently Our engineers never bothered to look up those regulations to see how to make the car qualify and none of out lobbyists contacted anyone to get the car on the list soo......

You could also say the regulators failed to look at one of the most hyped fuel efficient vehicles of the last decade.
The volt is closer to being an all electric car than the Prius, and its a more realistic electric vehicle than the battery cars being sold today.
To own a short range vehicle means you either never drive more than ~50 miles round trip, or you have the where with all to own multiple vehicles. Paying $40k for one car with both options is not an unreasonable solution.

IF you are a major America Automaker with a Carthat has been in the planning stages as long as the Volt has been. Part of your JOB is to meet with regulators and legislaslators and rulemakers to make sure your car either meets all their requirements, or that they change the rules to confrom to your specs. That's why you have a lobbying arm and a legal division. By not doing that GM is effective giving away more than $2500 in free money in CA alone, why reducing a major selling point for thier cars. Big Mistake (I know the popularity of Hybrids in this area has everything to do with the "HOV only section of Rt 66 going into DC)

But beyond that this car is merely evolutionary when it needed to be revolutionary.

In my opinion if you are asking someone to plunk down the same chunk of change that the high-end luxury brands are asking for thier cars, you need to offer something turly spectacular. And I just don't think the Volt is it.


fer Insrance the electrics either needed to have better range (say 100 miles ) or a quicker charge time. The range number, I have no doubt was derived from some engieer going "let's see, the average person puts 15,000 miles on a car a year so if you divide that by 365...bang ! 41.09 miles a day" But humans don't actually drive like that and take longer and shorter trips depending ont he day and need. (an 40 miles at what speed exactly under what traffic conditions) But even that wouldn't be an issue if they had faster charging batteries so you could, say, drive it work, plug it in, and then drive it home, they might have something but instead their batteries take TEN hours to charge. Seriously how hard would it have been to speed that charge cycle up by two hours to match how people actually live? (8hr work days)

Secondly you have the size of the thing. Most people assume the Prius is a compact car. It is not, it's actually a mid-size with the same wheelbase as a Camry and slightly more interior room thanks to the "hump". As a 6'2 fat guy I can sit comfortably in its back seats. The Volt was desribed by one reviewer yesterday as "a compact that feels like a sub-compact". Not good. And there are other ergonomics to consider too: That "thermos bottle" that the Prius has that the Volt doesn't? Not only is it there to help the catalytic converter be more efficent, but it also can provide heat tot he cabin on a cold morning even when the prius is still in all-electric mode and they gas engine is kicking over.

What will the Volt do under the same circumstance? If it uses a supplemental electric heater it will kill the batteries and the car's range. If it kicks in the gas engine plant to warm the car it kills the gas savings of having the "all electric" concept. If it just lets the passengers freeze, it's going to be a wildly unpopular car.

Bottom line: is the Volt an interesting piece of tech? Yeah it is.
Is it the revolutionary vehicle that's going to inspire the "I must have one !" fervor of the Prius? Not a chance, and GM needed it to be.

dittybopper: badLogic: Magorn:
Detroit: Well, then basically its a hybrid just like you guy's but way more complicated


For fail on your part. As the basic engineering for the Volt drive train and power plant is much simpler then the Prius drive train and power plant.

That's quite true, but it doesn't change the fact that both the Volt and the Prius are hybrids.

Denying that is like saying a 2 stroke gasoline engine isn't an internal combustion engine because it's much simpler than a 4 stroke gasoline engine.

I Never said it was not a hybrid, what I was saying is that your statement was factually wrong, ie the Volt being more complicated then the Prius.