Posted on 08/11/2009 5:35:29 AM PDT by navysealdad
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Chevrolet Volt, GM's electric car that's expected to go on sale in late 2010, is projected to get an estimated 230 miles per gallon, the automaker will announce Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
If I ever caught my neighbor doing that, I wouldn’t say anything but I would just rewire that outlet so that he would be getting 240 volts instead of the 120 he is expecting.
Zot!
No manual transmission —> wimpy vehicle.
What happens to the 40 mile range if you are so foolish as to want heat or a/c or lights?
I keep asking this question and no one ever answers, maybe you know. How much is charging your car battery going to add to your home electric bill?
Of course batteries are heavy, and dangerous. I'd be more worried about Sodium Sulphur batteries than Lithium Ion for fire.
But so is 20 gallons of gasoline.
I'm not sure about you number, even with back of napkin.
Internal combustion is maybe 20% efficient at a fixed RPM.
just look at the radiator! It's not there to conserve heat energy!
An internal combustion car is a heater that moves.
All I'm saying is that engines are compromised when they try to make them efficient over a wide RPM band and then put a multi-stage transmission in there to match it to road speed.
Running a gasoline generator at a single RPM into a battery and back to a constant-torque high-efficiency induction motor can get you a better efficiency/performance tradeoff for most types of driving....especially if you can use nuke or natural gas turbine power to recharge it!
At the customer depletion point the combustion engine fires up and operates at one of several optimized fixed RPMs. The engine turns the generator, producing electricity.
and the first 40 miles may be less then 40 miles, it include power from regenerative braking.
For the first 40 miles, the fully charged battery (80% state of charge) powers the electric motor. Regenerative braking can help recharge the battery to a certain extent.
The generator in the serial hybrid is more efficient because it only has to run at a single, tuned RPM for maximum efficiency and minimum emissions.
“And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be a just 62.5 mpg.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like something is off with their math here. They claim when the car is running on gas it uses 0.2 gallons to go 10 miles.
To go 300 miles, the first 40 are “free” on the battery charge, so that leaves 260 miles on gas requiring 5.2 gallons. 300 miles on 5.2 gallons is 57.6 mpg, not 62.5.
Close enough for government work, I guess.
Another thing, it does cost you money to charge your batteries, I wonder how much that is?.
And do not forget the downtime charging your batteries.
I read where they will sell you the car, but lease you the batteries?
I wonder what the total cost of ownership will be say for 5 years or 10 years?
I'm sure the dealer markup on this will enormous?
All in all, this should be an exciting car.
More info on what happens when the battery pack gets low.
http://gm-volt.com/2008/08/25/what-happens-in-the-chevy-volt-past-the-customer-depletion-point/
I was only able to squeeze 55mpg out of my ‘87 CRX-HF. My pocker rocker I used to call it.
Most auto engines are 30+% efficient. Some of the new engine technologies bump that up as well. Like direct fuel injection and turbos.
Improving power efficiency, that's why most manufacturers are going to 6 speed autos or even CVTs to match road speed to engine efficiency better.
A heater that moves, good analogy.
If there were better batteries, the cell phone manufacturers would be all over it.
Based on this article’s math, if a person drives only 30 miles per day, then this car will never run out of gas, and will get an infinite mpg.
Discrete points...not a continuous range.
An ICE car must produce smooth power from idle to redline.
These generators have intakes which are tuned to specific frequencies, and that of course, includes automatically any discrete harmonics.
If you tune something for 1000Hz, it will also resonate some at 2000Hz.
"This I know, This I know, Doc-tor Helmholtz told me so!"
=)
pocker rocker=pocket rocket
The engine is sized larger than normal driving power requirements to be able to restore the battery charge while the car is being driven.
And as you expected, the engine starts before the batteries are depleted.
So let’s say the car is driven 50 miles in a day. For the first 40 miles, no gas is used and during the last 10 miles, 0.2 gallons are used. That’s the equivalent of 250 miles per gallon. But, if the driver continues on to 80 miles, total fuel economy would drop to about 100 mpg. And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be a just 62.5 mpg.”
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Good synopsis.
One more point. That calculation presumes the car begins fully charged.
If you have to refill the gas during a trip longer than the stated range (two) things happen.
First off, you lose the initial “charged” range of the car - so if you went 250 miles before refilling the tank, after that first fillup you can only go 200 miles between fill-ups.
And your mileage for those additional miles will not calculate to be anything near 62.5.
Probably more like 25.
It’s a long overdue concept, but let’s be very clear about what it really can (and cannot) do.
Right now it’s wildly overpriced - The Japanese companies are already announcing competitors, Korean companies will certainly be right behind - and it wouldn’t surprize this poster if both Indian and Chinese companies come out with a $10K version which drives the Volt out of production before the Volt cost even (begins) to drop.
It’s WAY too expensive. And frankly nobody wants to buy anything from a government company. If Ford was doing this - it would be done right, and it would be hugely successful.
The Volt is going to be a monumental failure.
Its competitors however, will change the way we drive.
Sorry, won’t buy a GM vehicle.
Yeah baby! A serial hybrid cell phone! I'm all over that!
I'll be right back.....
And where does the electricity come from that charges those batteries?
Last time I checked, the electric grid is ALREADY pushed to the limits in most areas...
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