I wasn’t calling you ignorant. I was just pointing out that the article talking about pure electric cars makes the jump to hybrids and that’s just not the case. Toyota will still be making hybrids. So will every other car co. that’s currently making hybrids.
As for the Volt. I sell them. My sister store does anyway. I’ve driven one and they drive pretty dang well. We had one in Demo service and it was driven many times 70 miles one way and back, 140 miles total without being recharged and it did just fine. Drove fine on just gas also.
The 41,000 price is another thing tho. I read somewhere that GM is losing somewhere north of 7,000 bucks for every one they sell.
Oh, I also work at a Toyota dealership. Have been for 20 years. So I have some experience with the Prius also.
I understand that some hybrids are plug ins and some are not?
“We had one in Demo service and it was driven many times 70 miles one way and back, 140 miles total without being recharged and it did just fine.”
This is simply not true.
“I was just pointing out that the article talking about pure electric cars makes the jump to hybrids and that’s just not the case”
I think this is a case of the headline not matching the actual quote in the article.
And, I think the Volt crowd has been very quick to confuse feeble minded media types, by claiming that the Prius is ‘copying’ them, by adding a plug in option.
You distinguish between pure electric and hybrids. I break it down further:
Pure electric
Electric with ICE backup
ICE with electric capture of waste energy.
And, there is a huge difference - and I hope I was able to explain it clearly. The Prius technology is actually very clever, and captures energy that would otherwise be wasted. The addition of the plug in allows the owner to buy his first few miles at $0.03 a mile vs $0.08 a mile....but without all the drawbacks of the vault. Again, pretty clever.
The Volt technology is not clever...and its capabilities are not fundamentally better than those of ‘curiosity’ electric cars built half a century ago.
I understand you have driven the Volt; and, I’m glad you liked it. But I hope I was able to illustrate the lack of power it would have in steep terrain. Assuming the 80 HP ICE transmits power to the electric motor with perfect efficiency, that’s 1 hp per 45 lb. In my youth I remember that the Ford Pinto could not make it up hills easily, with 3 people in the car (I see you are from Alabama - I grew up in the Birmingham area, at the tip of the Appalachain chain. These aren’t the Rocky mountains, but it is hilly). A wikipedia search of the Pinto shows varying engines, etc....but the absolute worst version I could find had 1 hp per 42 lb of car - still better than the Volt running on the engine (with a perfect eneergy conversion to the electric motor). So we are talking 1972 Pinto performance levels on the conventional engine - really not good at all.
The last time I went to Birmingham, I went to see Vulcan (kinda like people in NYC who never go to the Statue of Liberty...I’d never been). I remember the road up there is a very long sustained grade - very challenging. If you ever get to drive a Volt again, I would invite you to take a 35 mile joy-ride, and then go see Vulcan.
They have a nice museum there, and a new elevator up to the statue. We spent around 3 hours there....now if its summer, you won’t be able to stay as long in the Volt (due to battery cooling requirements to be under cover or plugged in). So, only buy the statue tour, and forget about the museum. Anyway, I would be very surprised if you were to report back that the Volt drove ‘fine’ on a day trip like that.
Now the Prius that you sell - although it has low HP, it weighs less, and has a power to weight ratio 29% better than the Volt in ICE mode. Another way of looking at it - if the Prius ever seems underpowered going up a highway ramp or steep hill, just imagine 29% less power. That would be what a Volt in ICE mode feels like.