Volt Fraud At Government Motors

IBD Editorials ^ | October 19, 2010 | Investors Business Daily staff

[Kaslin]

Green Technology: Government Motors' all-electric car isn't all-electric and doesn't get near the touted hundreds of miles per gallon. Like "shovel-ready" jobs, maybe there's no such thing as "plug-ready" cars either.

The Chevy Volt, hailed by the Obama administration as the electric savior of the auto industry and the planet, makes its debut in showrooms next month, but it's already being rolled out for test drives by journalists. It appears we're all being taken for a ride.

When President Obama visited a GM plant in Hamtramck near Detroit a few months ago to drive a Chevy Volt 10 feet off an assembly line, we called the car an "electric Edsel." Now that it's about to hit the road, nothing revealed has changed our mind.

Advertised as an all-electric car that could drive 50 miles on its lithium battery, GM addressed concerns about where you plug the thing in en route to grandma's house by adding a small gasoline engine to help maintain the charge on the battery as it starts to run down. It was still an electric car, we were told, and not a hybrid on steroids.

That's not quite true. The gasoline engine has been found to be more than a range-extender for the battery. Volt engineers are now admitting that when the vehicle's lithium-ion battery pack runs down and at speeds near or above 70 mph, the Volt's gasoline engine will directly drive the front wheels along with the electric motors. That

[Morpheus2009]

About time one of two possible points get addressed: 1) There’s probably more efficient storage of electricity in capacitors or 2) Consumer demand is flexible. Some folks like myself use gas guzzlers, because so many thousands of dollars aren’t worth it for a car in which a primarily travel short commutes.

[jjotto]

Have any FReepers seen the surprisingly politically correct auto press mention this Volt scam?

[JayVee]

Politically correct but technologically ignorant.

[laxcoach]

Not to mention the fact that if you have a crum-cruncher or two or three, a prius is highly ineffective.... especially if you carpool. Oh, and how about those of use with toys, like boats.

230MPG. What a joke. It’s like they think we can wave a magic wand and make cars move.

[DAC21]

I’m Shocked!...cue Captain Renault

[beethovenfan]

Volts for dolts.

[givemELL]

How dependable and expandable is the supply of lithium? Bolivia accounts for about half of the world supply and sends it to ...China. WE are beginning a resource war inseparable from developing currency wars...and lithium is not even a rare earth element required for use in advanced electric motors and switching devices, etc. We may not get past the Chevy Volt.

Nothing but increasing trouble ahead, and the middle class is being squashed, offered crap products to buy which it will eventually be forced to buy instead of marshalling its great creative powers for the good of the country and the sustenance of the middle class by allowing it to create products of value. Govt. wants to own and control all US creation...not a sustainable idea.

[oust the louse]

nothing but the best with our money....way to spend it wisely Obama.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[barb-tex]

Don’t worry about power, even after 0 closes the coal powered Power Plants. Power is synthesized by magic in the Garage Wall, Else how can the Volt be emission free.

[Antonello]

We heard GM's then-CEO Fritz Henderson claim the Volt would get 230 miles per gallon in city conditions. Popular Mechanics found the Volt to get about 37.5 mpg in city driving, and Motor Trend reports: "Without any plugging in, (a weeklong trip to Grandma's house) should return fuel economy in the high 30s to low 40s."

I'll stick with my current (no pun intended) 50mpg commuter vehicle:

[truthguy]

I'm tired of all this Volt trashing even before the car is out. The early reviews from Car & Driver, Motor Trend, and Road & Track are excellent and the Volt is living up to what it was predicted to be. Investors' Business Daily is doing a hack job on the Volt but I'll bet the person(s) who wrote this article have never changed a set of spark plugs.

There is an issue of how the car performs in the change sustain mode under very specific conditions. When the car is in charge sustain mode AND at speed limits exceeding 70 miles per hour, the electric motors get a small mechanical boost from the ICE engine. This is complicated for everyone here except the Gear Heads. GM Engineers found out during testing that they could get a 15% efficiency boost in this configuration. It could have worked as all electric but it simply would not have given the same gas mileage. So what were they supposed to do? The bottom line is that the car is working great. The folks over at Investors' Business Daily simple want to see the Volt fail and its success will just kill them.

Some reminders for the folks here. The Volt was conceived of and started in 2006 BEFORE Obama was elected and long before the bailout. If GM had not taken the bailout, many would be singing the praises of this remarkable vehicle. Again, don't let your dislike of Obama and the bailout cloud your judgement of the Volt. EREV is the future of automotive technology.

Volt Range

Drive System Explained

Motor Trend Article on Volt

[Kaslin]

You can have it

[6SJ7]

So it's not an all-electric car, but rather a pricey $41,000 hybrid that requires a taxpayer-funded $7,500 subsidy to get car shoppers to look at it.

41K?!! There are a lot of fully loaded luxury cars available for that kind of money. How many people are going to shell out for this silly battery on wheels?

[Cobra64]

Don’t worry about power, even after 0 closes the coal powered Power Plants. Power is synthesized by magic in the Garage Wall.

There are even some FReepers who don't understand where the electricity will come from to power these electric toys; not to mention the delivery infrastrucure.

I'm looking foward to major brown-outs in Energy-Free California.

[nascarnation]

GM didn’t reveal all the details until the patents were submitted. The mechanical drive portion makes perfect sense.

[truthguy]

Not a scam JJOTTO. Just read what MOTOR TREND has to say about the Volt. Don't pay so much attention to publications like Investors Business Daily. They don't know anything about cars.

Try this:
Volt Review

[sionnsar]

I'm looking foward to major brown-outs in Energy-Free California.

You may be looking at more than that. In Smart Grid meetings I've been hearing that having too many PEV (3? 4? 5?) charging stations off a pole transformer active simultaneously is a problem and can blow the transformer if unregulated. Now I've heard some wrong numbers this week but one speaker said that just 2 would be a problem.

[Grizzled Bear]

Some folks like myself use gas guzzlers, because so many thousands of dollars aren’t worth it for a car in which a primarily travel short commutes.

I doubt a volt would pull my 5th Wheel trailer.