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Chevy Volt production to ramp up.
- Thread starter BenBurch
- Start date
Mike!
Official Ponylandistanian National Treasure. Re
Saw my very first one on the road today. It was next to us in traffic. "Holy **** it's a freaking Volt"! My wife looked around, "A what?". "There," I pointed at it, "a Chevy Volt. The electric car they can't give away, even with a ten grand tax break." "It's ugly." was all she had to say. A herd of old ladies were in it. They seemed to be having a good time. Might have a killer sound system, who knows. While I didn't find it, 'ugly', it sure wasn't anything to write home about ether. Although, I guess it was enough to write about on an interwebs discussion board.
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Damien Evans
Up The Irons
That's not surprising, every american model of car is ugly.
Beerina
Sarcastic Conqueror of Notions
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Detroit's business model is to make huge profits on Sport Utility vehicles and luxury cars, while churning out tiny cars at a loss (e.g. Ford Escort) to make their sales "fleet average" more amenable to government.
In downturns they wait out the troubling times losing money rather than wasting money making new models of tiny cars nobody buys in good times. The most recent troubles came about because the Bad Times(tm) went on a little too long.
In downturns they wait out the troubling times losing money rather than wasting money making new models of tiny cars nobody buys in good times. The most recent troubles came about because the Bad Times(tm) went on a little too long.
Noztradamus
Illuminator
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If you are willing to halve your long-term battery life, you can do it in three.
TragicMonkey
Poisoned Waffles
I just can't put my faith and trust into technology proven to be unreliable. Electric cars are one thing, but to buy a Chevy? I don't think so.
Mike!
Official Ponylandistanian National Treasure. Re
Well, were it a reasonably priced electric car, I imagine sales wouldn't be lagging. When the base model is $40,000, those who can afford it, can also "afford" $4 a gallon and don't care. I remember going into an Austin Martin dealer in Dallas once and seeing a quarter million dollar Vanquish on the sales floor. It had an EPA mileage estimate on the sticker. I thought to myself, "If you can drop a quarter mill on a set of wheels, do you even care what the mileage is?"
WildCat
NWO Master Conspirator
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Why? Will the gas saved make up for the premium on purchase price?
Mark6
Philosopher
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I would not call it ugly. Actually, I think it looks rather ordinary. I am surprised you recognized it at a glance.
Mark6
Philosopher
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Funny thing, they may look like aerodynamic maggots, but actually are not. At typical car speed what slips best through the air is dolphin shape: big rounded fore and tapering aft. Most modern cars perform best aerodynamically when driven backward.
Mike!
Official Ponylandistanian National Treasure. Re
The wifes word for it, not mine. It was hard to miss the "VOLT" writen on the back deck.
WildCat
NWO Master Conspirator
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Well there is the problem in that people need to ride in cars, and putting the engine in the back would create weight distribution issues that can cause probems with handling.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
I could have sworn I learned somewhere that for a given shape, the aerodynamic effect is the same regardless of which edge is the leading edge and which edge is the trailing edge; i.e., a car's aerodynamic performance is the same driving forwards or backwards.
It makes sense to me intuitively. Take a cone, for example. The pointy end slips through the air quite nicely, but the flat end creates a lot of suction and drag trailing along behind. Turn it around, and now the flat end piles up a lot of air in front, but it all slides nicely off the pointy end behind. Front or back, the flat and pointy ends give the same overall effect.
Sadly, a few minutes of investigoogling have turned up no information one way or the other. You may be right.
When compared to gasoline cars the volts are not a great value, but the Volt is the only hybrid car that I would consider. They really seemed to have hit the best of both worlds imho, One can use it as an all electric on short runs (the ones that supposedly make up most of the trips that Americans make), but one still has a car that can go on long distance trips without having to worry about the logistics of recharges. I hope that the car is a success for GM.
The Tesla roadster I don’t understand, the Elise outperforms the Tesla on every feature except 0-60 and gas mileage, two stats that Elise drivers are not that concerned with. But the they do look cool.
The Tesla roadster I don’t understand, the Elise outperforms the Tesla on every feature except 0-60 and gas mileage, two stats that Elise drivers are not that concerned with. But the they do look cool.
Sabretooth
No Ordinary Rabbit
This is the thing that gets me. Is the high cost of a Volt (versus similar gas-cars) cost effective? If so, at what point?
I mean, you're paying more for the car. And, yes, you're using less fuel, but the cost of your electric bill goes up.
When are you going to break even?
A quick search online shows:
Chevy Volt: ~$38k (60mpg).
Ford Focus: ~$17k (40mpg).
A difference of $21k(!). You could buy 2 of the Focus for the price of 1 Volt. Where does that $21k difference show the Volt as the better purchase in today's economy?
I currently drive a 2002 Chevy Cavalier. It's a simple 4-banger and it's decent on gas (I'm getting between 26-28 mpg right now). I drive 74 miles a day to-from work. Depending on any additional trips, I spend between $60-80 a week on gas.
That's ($80 x 52-weeks) $4,160 in gas on the high end.
So it would take me ($21,000 / $4,160) 5+ years to break even on fuel cost in the Volt...that's if I go exclusively electric 100% of the time.
But that's not possible, as the Volt can only go a max of 35 miles on a charge. My commute would require some fuel usage. Plus, I haven't even figured in the increase of my electric bill. So we could be looking at another 6 months to a year to break even on the $21k increase in price.
Then, you throw in the Focus that gets better mileage than I currently get. My fuel costs would drop, which would extend the "break-even" point on the Volt ever further.
It will be quite some time before I ever look into buying an E-car. The cost difference is just not worth it.
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casebro
Penultimate Amazing
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Just look at a tear drop. Roundy fronty, pointy rear. Your cone analogy lacks one thing, a parabolic curve to the big end. That reduces frontal friction, and allows the air to flow smoothly around the widest part. A flat front pushs the air away perpendicular to it's plane, and since air has momentum, the air makes excess suction behind the wide part.