So gas will instantly charge the battery so that car is powered by electric motor, right? Someone said that Volt is not running on ICE and ICE engine only regenerates the battery. I still don’t get it why it’s pure EV and not hybrid. Also, I don’t understand the appeal of using gasoline to get electric power. Just don’t understand of the appeal of switching to EV if you still have to use gasoline. This concept will be great for a truck driver that needs to do lots of long distance driving and can piss in a bucket.
Another question: is it cheaper to power up the battery with gasoline? Or is it cheaper to plug in?
Much cheaper to plug it in. There’s no comparison to the efficiency of a big generator vs small IC engine even after transmission loss. The problem with EV is that it’s hard to pack the energy in battery vs liquid fuel but that gap is narrowing, and of course, it takes a long time to refuel a battery vs a gas tank.
So EV plug in would be ideal for someone who drives less than 310 miles per day…which is probably 95% of drivers. Volt seem to be practical for few people who needs to drive more than 310 miles regularly. So for that reason, most drivers would save money plugging rather than use gasoline. Volt appeal just went out of the window. No need to market it better. It makes no $$$ sense to use gas to power up EV car.
Hybrid means that the ICE and electric motors are both responsible for forward motion. In a Volt & the BMW i3 the electric motor is the only form of forward motion (the gas motor is not connected to the wheels in any way).
As I posted ^, I know someone with a Volt, drives it daily back and forth to work, and they use it around town, and for shopping during the week, and they’ve yet to use a drop of gas.
If they occasionally want to go out of town, then the ICE will kick in to charge the batts when required.
This is an oversimplification that doesn’t factor in enough variables. There are literally millions of cheap used cars for sale right now that will get you anywhere you want in relative ease with zero learning curve. That simply cannot be said for EVs. New cars are financially out of reach for most people.
95% of drivers may not drive >300 miles per day, but how many drivers want to have a second car specifically for when they do want/need to drive >300 miles. The other option is renting a car for those trips which is even more of a time consuming hassle.
And what about the % of drivers that don’t have an easy way to charge their car every other night? You don’t need a garage with a plug right next to your car, but you do need some sort of outlet, so that’s a huge percentage right there for which owning an EV is not just impractical, but damn near impossible.
Well yes, but that’s not the point of Volt. It’s so you don’t have to worry about range anxiety. Right now there’s no pay back for any of the charging station owner in the area so there are very few installed since the great recession where there were some incentive given to charging station co. For EV to succeed, there has to be much more charging stations and I doubt that will happen if gas price stays sub $4 in most of country.
Umm…isn’t that why Tesla is building out their Supercharging stations? They already have more than 10,000 supercharging stations and continues to expand while other manufacturers have not even started on their Supercharging network.
Why would you have range anxiety on EV car that can do 310 miles on a single charge? I may do once or twice a year that requires more than 310 miles of driving in one day. But withTesla Superchargers, I can charge 250 mile range in about 45 minutes. Good enough to charge during my restroom and meal break.
You are correct if your live in a log cabin with no electricity. But most of us live a house with electrical outlets. If Tesla owner lives in a populated area, there is Tesla supercharger nearby. Also, Tesla provides adapters (at no additional cost) to charge any any charging stations and outlets.
With Model 3, I should be able to drive from NYC to DC and still have 40 miles left to drive. On my ICE car, I have to stop at one rest stop for a restroom break, relax, and eat something during the 5 hour trip. So I expect to take a similar pit stop with Model 3 and may even do little charging during the break. Plenty of superchargers near I-95 can accommodate my break.
Volt will be good if I can hold restroom break for than 5 hours and take no pit stop. But that’s not going to improve my driving experience. I don’t need to do a marathon driving.
Looks like 6.3 million people purchased new cars in 2017. Let’s estimate that there are about 200 million people in US who are old enough to buy a car ( probably less since most teenagers can’t afford to buy a car). So seems like 1 out 33 adults can afford to buy a new car. Now if you are in the group of 32, taking a lesson from a financial advisor wouldn’t hurt. Starting with cutting off smoking and Starbucks would help. many people simply don’t save money well.
Yah…I see that your world is always half empty instead of half full. You know damm well that $35K unit will become available about 6 months after 5k weekly production is met.
Anyone with a little bit of business sense can understand why they can’t produce it now. But seems like some people lacks understanding of why $35K version isn’t being produced now. Is it being “intentionally obtuse”, Kamal?
Forgetting that 65% of Americans are renters and a very large number of them don’t have a driveway or garage is what makes you sound obtuse.
Claiming that millions of Americans just need to see a financial advisor, stop smoking, and drinking Starbucks in order to afford a $35k new car is what makes you sound obnoxiously obtuse.