Chevy Volt

Chevy Electric Car Forum Volt
1

My first post…

I do not claim that Chevy will actually build the Volt concept and put it into production, but they run a poll on their website and I’ve attached a screenshot here.

How could they (“the big three”) argue that there’s no market for these EVs? 450,000 consumers who want this car doesn’t sound like a small market to me…

I know that there are lots upfront costs that Chevy would need to re-coup, but by becoming a leader (which mass-production capabilities) of EV early on, they’ll position themselves as THE big EV car company for the future.

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gagners, welcome to the forum.

I read about this car today.

Just thought I would add a pic of the car. This is a good step in the right direction for a big car company. But I am tired of the always “its a concept car” and “it might go into production” , just make them so we all can buy one.

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[QUOTE=bigEd;78]gagners, welcome to the forum.

I read about this car today.

Just thought I would add a pic of the car. This is a good step in the right direction for a big car company. But I am tired of the always “its a concept car” and “it might go into production” , just make them so we all can buy one.[/QUOTE]

Word.

(I hate using “Word”, but it’s the only thing that seemed appropriate).

4

Dont expect them to give us what we want. These are the same people that crushed the best electric car of its time. This volt dont get me wrong I would buy one but I never expect it to hit marked its just a diversion from its negitive image from the movie “Who Killed The Electric Car” They never want to see a successful electric car. when they had one and people wanted more they took them all and crushed them. I do want to see a R1E go in to production though, but it needs better range.

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[QUOTE=joseph a clay sr;206]Dont expect them to give us what we want. These are the same people that crushed the best electric car of its time. This volt dont get me wrong I would buy one but I never expect it to hit marked its just a diversion from its negitive image from the movie “Who Killed The Electric Car” They never want to see a successful electric car. when they had one and people wanted more they took them all and crushed them. I do want to see a R1E go in to production though, but it needs better range.[/QUOTE]

i dont think they would have that big of a problem releasing something like this… it still uses gas, and i’m sure they will also have something else bad in it too just because they dont want it to be perfect… but we’ll see.

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A car sale doesn’t make money. Maintenance does. There isn’t near as much maintenance in a purely electric car. Since the Volt will have an IC engine it will need more maintenance. However, since Chevy would be making it you can count on things breaking that shouldn’t. The required maintenance from that could kill the car due to too many warranty issues.I hate to say it, but american car companies need to get their quality straight or they will become extinct (if they haven’t already killed themselves).

When / IF the Volt comes out I will have to wait a couple years after that to consider buying one just because of the reliability track record of the company.

Cheers

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I agree,

That survey was no longer up by the way. The website would not show on my browser.

The probability that the Volt will make it to market is very slim. I’m not going to get into why I think that…there are multiple reasons, but that is my educated guess.

Heck when it showed its ugly head for the first time as a prototype there was no anything under the hood. It was an empty shell that was pushed out onto the floor.

Also we are not talking about rocket science here. We landed on the moon almost 40 years ago and you are telling me we can not create an economical electric car with a somewhat sophistacted genset on it. Paaaalease!!!

If my freind and I can create one in our garage with random parts off of E-bay and at the same time using nothing more than a drill, a welder, and a wire stripper actually make it look somewhat presentable, than a company with billions of dollars and highly trained people by the thousands can create something presentable and do it economically.

On another note it is funny how you single out the car company as the main culpret behind the death of the electric car. Just last week I was in Ford purchasing a CPS for my 7.3L powerstorke that had dumped me and at the exact same time the WP went out (I give the water pump its dues…that was my fault for not installing a filter and keeping the SC levels up)…but I will continue on with the point.

In the small town of Fayetteville NC. I was standing at the Ford parts department counter getting my replacement parts and I over heard this conversation pretty much word for word.

Sales Clerk #1: “Geeze it sure has seemed like a really slow month” As he sits on his stool.

Sales Clerk #2: “Yeah it has but you know it actually wasn’t that bad. I just saw the numbers and we sold 465 thousand dollars last month”

Sales Clerk #1: “Geeze for as slow as its been I thought we would have done a lot worse than that”.

Customer #1…Myself as I lean over the counter with my Credit Card. “Well if Ford Engineers stopped designing pieces of ■■■■ and these cars were actually built in the United States instead of Mexico maybe people like me wouldn’t be standing in front of you right now contributing to that .5 million you brought in this month.”

I have never in my entire life seen both the look of surprise and absolute disgust. But I felt pretty good about it so I took my 20 dollar part then drove to Napa where I bought my WP for 1/3 the cost and it has a lifetime warrenty of which the ford part does not.

Well back to the drawing board I guess. Since someone has to do it while GM continues to hand push their concept car around the world with nothing more than a cardboard box under the hood.

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apparently the car went into testing (preproduction testing) already which is VERY good signs seeing as they still have 3 years since they are planning on releasing it in 2010 :smiley:

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On GM-Volt.com today they had an announcement that A123 will have the first prototype battery pack ready in 8-10 weeks. One of the GM Execs has said the only thing that will stop the Volt program is if the price of oil drops to $10/barrel.

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[QUOTE=Jack the R;772]On GM-Volt.com today they had an announcement that A123 will have the first prototype battery pack ready in 8-10 weeks. One of the GM Execs has said the only thing that will stop the Volt program is if the price of oil drops to $10/barrel.[/QUOTE]

psh yea if that does happen… it will drop for a month then as soon as they cancel the production of the car, THEN the price will hike back up…

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I love your logic, it’s amazingly realistic.

I remember going to “Le Salon de L’Auto De Québec” last year and being at the GM Pavilion where a hydrogen prototype was on hand. While I was waiting for the representative to finish with a group of people, this was what went on:

It’ll feed the starving people of Africa… Cure aids… God will hate you if you don’t buy one… World Peace can only be achieved with GM Hydrogen cars… the technology’s not ready but it’s coming along.

And then he mentioned the Chevy Volt… Note that the Hydrogen prototype had two security guards in front of it as well as a huge crowd of people surrounding as well as admiring it and moved the two people he was speaking with to a banner with a minuscule 4 by 2 inch picture of the Chevy Volt explaining that it only (he said ONLY) went 60km per charge and then continued to make it (and possibly all electric cars) look inferior to the Hydrogen car. No mention of the EV-1 or Wrightspeed X-1, the 2nd fastest accelerating production car on the planet after the Bugatti Veyron. Then it was my turn… oh I enjoyed myself…

Q. How well do they perform in the kind of winters we get here in Québec?
A. Not enough research has been done on this topic.

Survey says!: Badly.

Statement (that I can’t remember how I put into a question): I heard that with the process of electrolysis and transport of hydrogen, the fuel provides less energy than was taken to produce it to a ratio of about 3:1.

A. GM is doing research on how to reduce this ratio.

Q. Does GM have any plans to make a fully electric vehicle?
A. No, but with further development in electric vehicle technology it could be a possibility in the future.

I asked a few other questions but I don’t remember them well enough to type them up. In the end this just turned into a friendly EV conversation.

Finally, at this same “Salon de L’Auto”, the new Honda CRV was placed on an elevated turntable in front of a huge wall filled with information on the company, as well as on the CRV… while the Hybrids were tucked quietly behind it with little to no information about them, unlike Honda’s sport utility vehicle.

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David Pogue’s interview in the [I]New York Times[/I] today with GM’s Bob Lutz seems remarkably honest and straightforward.

Lutz sounds great in this interview. I want to believe him. But then this is the week that Lucy snatches away the football just before Charlie Brown kicks it. (Sigh.)

http://tinyurl.com/38se54

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if they can keep up with an KEEP the electric car design and utilize what they invent and produce, they can EASILY be #1 car company again IF ONLY they take it with open arms.

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But I, like the rest of you, will believe it when I see it.

I wholeheartedly agree that if a bunch of amatures can build a perfecty functional and good-looking EV in the garage, a multi-million dollar R & D team should be able to do it faster, cheaper and better for the masses - but they haven’t.

So something funny is indeed going on. The sad part is that the current big players in the energy (oil) industry, e.g. car companies and oil/energy companies, will in all likely hood continue to rake in the dough once oil and gas is priced beyond the reach of the average person. They’ll simply go ahead and building the alternative technologies that will help replace an oil economy in part by using those high mileage car and hi-tech battery patents that they’ve been buying up along the way.

Sucks for us, cool for them. So let’s keep building, buying and trading EVs!

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Lutz: Chevy Volt Production to Begin November 2010

The first battery pack has been delivered to GM and is reported to meet 100% of the design specifications. Some Volt parts are currently being road tested, and the first mules will appear in Spring 2008.

DeLorean_4 - They gave you a straight answer on cold weather fuel cell performance, “research not done yet.” Toyota recently road tested their fuel cell in Alaska and had no problems with it.

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If, say, I wanted to purchase a Volt and remove the generator and gas tank, would there be any legal repercussions? Like voiding warranties 'n such?

Devin Serpa

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[QUOTE=SerpaDesigns;1674]If, say, I wanted to purchase a Volt and remove the generator and gas tank, would there be any legal repercussions? Like voiding warranties 'n such?

Devin Serpa[/QUOTE]

more than likely your warenty will be voided…

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Well then I guess I will wait for the fully electric Honda I’ve heard about.

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Mind telling us what you are talking about? Is it about EVs? If not, why post it here?

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It’s closer to being a reality today, and with new leadership at GM (Government Motors) hopefully we will see a better setup later.