What’s ailing the Chevy Volt? (They asked so fire away!)

WASHINGTON POST ^ | 3/4/2012 | Brad Plumer

[tobyhill]

On Friday, GM announced it was halting production of the Chevrolet Volt until April, so as to maintain “proper inventory levels.” Sales of the electric vehicle have been disappointing, with the company missing its target of 10,000 Volts sold last year. Why hasn’t the car caught on?

GM executives have said the recent frenzy over a Volt battery fire in crash tests has hurt sales. On the merits, the fires weren’t a huge concern — the Volts only caught fire days or weeks after extreme lab testing, and according to a government investigation they’re no more likely to catch fire than gas-powered automobiles. Still, panicky headlines ensued. Conservatives started denouncing the company (Rush Limbaugh called GM “a corporation that’s trying to kill its customers”). And GM needed to retrofit new vehicles. Add that up, and GM sold only 603 Volts in January, down from 1,520 in December.

But the scare over batteries is only a partial explanation. After all, Volt sales rebounded in February to 1,023 vehicles sold, and it looks like the fire scare is slowly subsiding. But neither the pre-panic nor post-panic numbers were anywhere near the rate needed to meet GM’s goal of 45,000 Volt deliveries this year.

[jjotto]

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2011-chevrolet-volt-full-test-road-test

...In our experience, using only standard-household 120-volt power, it took about 13.4 kWh of electricity to replenish the Volt’s 9 kWh of usable energy...

...Assuming 35 miles of electric range for the Volt yields a cost per mile of just 4.6 cents. That’s almost 40 percent less than that of a Volkswagen Golf TDI diesel getting 40 mpg and 24 percent cheaper than a Prius getting 45 mpg...

[Inyo-Mono]

In California, though, it'll start selling, as it's yet another way to buy your way into the HOV lane.

Except in the remote, rural areas of northern and eastern of California where many have to drive over 40 miles up steep mountain roads in deep snow to reach work each day. Never going to fly here.

P.S. What is a HOV lane?

[FrankR]

Here is an advertisement from a 1902 Waverly electric car:



Even with 1902 battery technology the Waverly touted 60 miles on a charge.

Actual use tests show that the Volt only goes 25-miles on a charge.

The Waverly was eventually abandoned due to lack of sales because of its limited range.

Now, if 60-miles per charge was too little for a 1902 society, why the hell would GM think America would go gah-gah crazy over an over-priced, lead-sled, that only goes the equivilent of one gallon of gas would take it if it had an internal combustion engine?

Sure, it has that little lawn-mower engine [sic] to cripple it on over to the next (virtually non-existent) charging station, but even the little lawn-mower engine [sic] requires HI-TEST gasoline...and only has a limited range, and, it does not recharge the battery at all.

No one wants to hire an expensive electriction to come and install the charging apparatus in their home, and even if they did, chances are the battery is not going to die in their driveway, but on some road - say, about 25-miles from their home, and your brand new charging station. Can you say "Tow Truck"?

Now the price; $41,000? You've got to be kidding! Battery replacement, over $8,000 (not couting labor)? Would you going to ever put $8,000 into a three-year old car?

What, exactly, would be the trade-in value on, say, a three year old Volt with a dead battery? Never mind the wrecker bill to have it towed to the dealership.

The Volt is supposedly built on a Chevy Cruise frame/body...OK then, what is the trade-in value of a three-year-0ld Chevy Cruse? We're not talking BMW here, it's a Chevy Cruise compact. So trading in a Chevy volt with a dead battery would be worse than trading in the Cruise with no motor.

obama has taken our homes, our retirement, our jobs, our savings, and our energy...and now we are supposed to laughingly invest in obama's folly to support his union buddies, which will evenually cost us upwards of $45 grand.

We're supposed to visit grandma at Christmas (providing obama doesn't outlaw Christmas in his next term) over 100 miles away...which involves four, 8-hour battery charges, and that's ONE WAY? To go to Grandma's and back will take over 64 hours on the road, which will include food, motel bills, and whatever you'd pay to get it recharged, IF there happened to be four recharging stations along the route.

No, GM does NOT want to ask me what is wrong with the VOLT...the VOLT is a JOKE, a canard, and another one of the three-card-monte president's insults to our intelligence, our freedom, and our integrity.

The Volt is too small to be useful (no back seat becase of the battery) and too large to be a paperweight, so I can readily see why sales suck.

General Motors, I knew ye when...Government Motors, I don't want to know at all.

[nascarnation]

Nat gas fueled IC engines will trump battery for vehicles, I believe.

The economics of nat gas vs gasoline/diesel are getting better nearly every day.

[MtnClimber]

I am not buying a goobermint motors car no matter the price. Screw the communists.

[nascarnation]

What is your source for 3 year battery life?

[getarope]

Chevrolet Volt: The EV-1 for this generation!

[okie01]

What’s ailing the Chevy Volt?

Easy.

It's a bad idea.

Do I get a prize?

[okie01]

What’s ailing the Chevy Volt?

Easy.

It's a bad idea.

Do I get a prize?

[Age of Reason]

One of the potentially greatest advantages of an electric car is it’s simplicity.

But I’m sure this Volt thing is an overly complex contraption because it can’t make up it’s mind whether to be a gas car or an electric car.

Reminds how early steamships kept being built with sailing rigs or how some were equipped with both paddle wheels and propellers.

If you can’t keep it simple, forget it.

[factoryrat]

Natural gas (CH4) is an ideal fuel for an IC engine, and for a fuel cell for that matter. I can easily agree with that.

[MarkL]

...We averaged 35 mpg for our gas-powered miles and saw 33–34 mpg at a steady, near-80-mph cruise—not exactly spectacular compared with today’s hybrids...

With 80mph cruise speed, I averaged about 35mpg in my 2000 Toyota Corolla. If I were to buy a new Corolla, it would be less than $20,000. It's not mathematically possible to make up the difference in cost through "savings," no matter how long I were to own a Volt, given my driving needs.

Mark

[Kickass Conservative]

My 2011 Mustang, Base V-6 with Automatic, gets around 24 MPG combined mileage, when I keep my foot off it. It has 305 HP and is almost as fast as my old 99 Mustang Cobra.

Unlike my Cobra and the Volt BTW, it burns Regular Gas. Around here, Premium Gas costs and additional .20 to .25 a Gallon. It adds up...

Driving back from Vegas last year I got 34.95 MPG doing about 75 - 80. Had I not hit some traffic, I would have broken 35 MPG.

I'd be happy if the Taxpayer just gave me half the $7,500 Tax Rebate the Volt Buyers got. /s

[tobyhill]

What happens to the batteries in a Texas Summer with 110 degrees or a Wisconsin Winter at -30 degrees?

[nascarnation]

Isn’t it classic?
The one thing the fedgov totally ignores (nat gas) becomes a huge private sector success story.

[Venturer]

Eggs actly.

Nobody has $40,000 dollars to dump into a POS.

[TigersEye]

That is really what it looks like. Grill is a hybrid Mack Truck/Cadillac. Corvette front fenders. Hood from Subaru wagon. Rear end from a Ford Pinto. Roof and glass a takeoff of a ZZ Top chopped Ford Coupe. Wheels made to look like warehouse fans.

[Kickass Conservative]

To paraphrase the Soup Nazi, No $7,500 Tax Credit for you!

[Gator113]

It’s made by Obama supporting union thugs, Muslim Obama wants to force me buy one, it’s based on lies and corrupt politicians, it won’t tow my 8,000# boat, it won’t tow my Airstream trailer, it’s production is financed by stolen money, the dems like it, there is no place to put hay in it, it makes anyone in it look stupid....... AND it’s not a Toyota Tundra.

[editor-surveyor]

A Volt is a great car for a Democrat.

Short trip radius, useless in an emergency like when Obama’s friends set off ‘suitcase’ nukes and you have to evacuate. Unable to tow anything. Just an all around piece of crap suitable for crap-heads.