Gen 1 GM Volt Plug-In Hybrid (2011-2015)

[Rusty]

2012Volt Ranked #1 in Upscale Midsize Cars
Best Upscale Midsize Cars Rankings | U.S. News Best Cars (Overall score 8.9)

[snip]

The 2012 Nissan Leaf ranks 4 out of 10 Upscale Small Cars. (Overall score 8.3)

I'm not sure I can fathom the USNews' methods of classification.

The Volt is a compact car, and the Leaf is a midsize car. At least according to the EPA, and I'm inclined to agree with them on that one. Likewise giving it a best-of-class rating in Performance (9.0, equal to the BMW 3-Series performance rating) with its 149 horses compared to the 240-300 horses in the beemer...

Any ranking's a good ranking, and obviously I think the Volt's a great car. I'm just not so sure about USNews. Then again, they didn't ask me :- )

 

[TomT]

Agreed, though I, of course, always go to USN for all of my trusted automotive news... :lol:

I'm not sure I can fathom the USNews' methods of classification.

 

[DrInnovation]

Agreed, though I, of course, always go to USN for all of my trusted automotive news... :lol:

snip.

Well there are, of course, a lot of other sources for automative awards on the Volt (though most are backward facing have not yet done 2012). Here are some of the Volt award:

Vehicle awards

• 2011 North American Car of the Year at the 2011 North American International Auto Show.
• Motor Trend 2011 Car of the Year
• Automobile Magazine 2011 Automobile of the Year
• MotorWeek 2011 Driver’s Choice Best of the Year
• Car and Driver 10 Best for 2011
• 2011 Edison Award
• Highest-rated compact for 2011 J.D. Powers and Associates APEAL Study
• 2012 Car of the Year in Denmark
• Consumer Reports rates Volt #1 in Owner Satisfaction
• Named “2011 Collectible Car of the Future” by Friends of the National Automotive History Collection (NAHC)[/li]

Environmental awards

• 2009 Environmental Grand Prize awarded at the 2009 Festival International Automobile
• 2011 World Green Car announced at the 2011 New York Auto Show
• 2011 Green Car of the Year awarded by Green Car Journal
• Top Gear awards Ampera as Green Car of 2011
• MotorWeek 2011 Best Eco-Friendly
• Chicago Auto Show Best Green Vehicle[/li]

Technology awards

• Ward’s AutoWorld 10 Best Engines for 2011
• SAE 2011 Best Engineered Vehicle
• Top Michigan Innovation in 2011
• Edmunds 2011 Green Car Breakthrough Award
• Poplistar Mechanics Top 10 Vehicles Award for Technology
• Poplistar Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award for OnStar MyLink for Volt[/li]

Mobile Application awards

• Poplistar Science Best of What’s New 2010
• Consumer Electronics Show’s “Top Products” Award for OnStar MyLink for Volt Mobile Application[/li]

Safety acknowledgements

• Top Safety Pick by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Five-star overall vehicle score
• Euro NCAP Five stars (out of five) in all categories[/li]

 

[DrInnovation]

2012Volt Ranked #1 in Upscale Midsize Cars
Best Upscale Midsize Cars Rankings | U.S. News Best Cars (Overall score 8.9)

[snip]

The 2012 Nissan Leaf ranks 4 out of 10 Upscale Small Cars. (Overall score 8.3)

I'm not sure I can fathom the USNews' methods of classification.

The Volt is a compact car, and the Leaf is a midsize car. At least according to the EPA, and I'm inclined to agree with them on that one. Likewise giving it a best-of-class rating in Performance (9.0, equal to the BMW 3-Series performance rating) with its 149 horses compared to the 240-300 horses in the beemer...

Any ranking's a good ranking, and obviously I think the Volt's a great car. I'm just not so sure about USNews. Then again, they didn't ask me :- )

I agree the size thing is a bit weird, but they did the same in 2011. Both cars are close to the boundary. Maybe they pushed the Volt up to compete with the "big boys" but kept the Leaf back to keep it from being beaten up in the midsize category where the competition is stiffer. Or it could be that their reviewers decide what category, ignoring the actual measurements.

I will note the Volt's 149 horses are available at the line. the BMW takes a while to get them really going :lol: Top end the BMW takes the cake, but for day to day driving sport mode in the Volt seems equal or better.

 

[TomT]

I wasn't referring to their award per se, but rather to their odd reclassification of vehicles size... I tend to ignore pretty much all vehicle awards from magazines as marketing hyperbole...

Agreed, though I, of course, always go to USN for all of my trusted automotive news... :lol:

Well there are, of course, a lot of other sources for automative awards on the Volt (though most are backward facing have not yet done 2012). Here are some of the Volt award:

 

[SanDust]

I wasn't referring to their award per se, but rather to their odd reclassification of vehicles size

Very odd. Maybe they use the size of the wheels.

 

[DrInnovation]

December Volt sales were 1529, which is a 34.5% increase in deliveries from november 2011. That is 4 months of increasing sales despite some serious negative press/FUD.

That brings the US sales total to (7671) for the year.

Production was
MY12 Year to date 11,241 CY2011 14,510
OPEL AMPER MYTD 2,605

So they met their 2011 production goals (10K volts) and have ramped production capacity to 1500+ a month. Will still need more ramping for next year.


Have not seen Leaf sales for Dec but clearly over the whole year the outsold the Volt (Since Nov Leaf total was already 8700+), but will be interesting to see the direction as Leaf sales went down from Sept to Oct to Nov.

Edit: Sales of the 100-percent electric Nissan LEAF totaled 954 units in December (up from 674 in Nov) with deliveries totaling 9,674 since the vehicle US launch. Its good to see the Leaf sales turn around, even if not up to the Volt sales last month.

 

[linkim]

GM announces fix to Volt fire problems - http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120105/OEM11/120109944/1186" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"General Motors executives said today that they have come up with a
fix to a design flaw that led some
Chevrolet Volt battery packs to catch fire in days or weeks after government safety tests.
GM will reinforce the steel surrounding the Volt's battery pack to prevent it from being
punctured during a crash. It also will add a sensor to the battery pack to monitor coolant
leaks."

 

[scottf200]

GM announces fix to Volt fire problems - http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120105/OEM11/120109944/1186" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"General Motors executives said today that they have come up with a fix to a design flaw that led some Chevrolet Volt battery packs to catch fire in days or weeks after government safety tests.
GM will reinforce the steel surrounding the Volt's battery pack to prevent it from being punctured during a crash. It also will add a sensor to the battery pack to monitor coolant leaks."

See REAL details in this thread. They are adding extra reinforcement to what they already had (40 mph poles do damage and as well as artificial flips of the car and weekS later none-the-less):
GM Announces Enhancements to Chevrolet Volt
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7505" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[DrInnovation]

GM has announced (at least to dealers) that the CA low emissions package will not have an added cost.
Discussion at
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?11148-No-additional-cost-for-quot-Low-Emissions-Package-quot" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hopefully they will just roll the low emissions stuff into all cars (maybe as part of the line upgrade in June).

 

[Yanquetino]

For those interested, I have posted a blurb about our test drive last month while in California:

Test Driving the Chevy Volt

 

[DaveEV]

For those interested, I have posted a blurb about our test drive last month while in California

It's too bad about the "Obama Car" thing keeping your in-laws from buying it, especially considering that it's not even true (Volt was announced during the Bush administration.

The Volt is a great car for those wishing to minimize their oil consumption.

 

[GRA]

For those interested, I have posted a blurb about our test drive last month while in California

It's too bad about the "Obama Car" thing keeping your in-laws from buying it, especially considering that it's not even true (Volt was announced during the Bush administration.

The Volt is a great car for those wishing to minimize their oil consumption.

Indeed. The Volt concept car appeared at the Jan. 2007 North American Intl. Auto Show in Detroit. You might want to mention to your mother-in-law that the Volt's godfather at GM was Bob Lutz, a cigar-smoking, anthropogenic global-warming denying, ex-Marine* fighter pilot and performance car guy who was also responsible for the Dodge Viper, and that the Obama administration had nothing to do with the Volt's development. Assuming she's willing to read accounts that conflict with her opinions, she can read Lutz' book "Car Guys Versus Bean Counters" for some details.

Steven Rattner, the Obama admin guy who had to decide if GM and Chrysler should be bailed out, put into bankruptcy or just be allowed to fail, wrote that while the Volt seemed to be a good car it couldn't have any effect on GM's viability for years, if ever, and the car just wasn't a factor in his eventual decision deciding that bankruptcy was the way to go. See his book "Overhaul" for the details. Of course, if she gets all her news from Limbaugh, Hannity and the like, she probably isn't willing to entertain less insular views of reality.


*To prevent multiple replies, I know there's no such thing as an ex-Marine.

 

[AndyH]

GM is fighting it, better than I could. Here on the forum I was/am just defending the Volt against your baseless acquisition that "Looks like proof that the engineers didn't plan a 'really clean' car from the start ". I content they were planning for a "really clean" car, just that EPA/CARB is so behind them they don't even have good process to measure it properly.

Note the first subject of the VIN decoding lesson:

http://www.edmunds.com/how-to/how-to-quickly-decode-your-vin.html

GM originally intended to launch the Volt with a flex-fuel variant, but the emissions package was not ready for the first model year, according to the automaker. GM is planning to release the flex-fuel version of the Volt sometime in 2012. So the current model cannot run on E85. The E85 compatibility apparently was incorporated into the VIN data before GM decided that a flex-fuel version wouldn't be ready in time for 2011.

Apparently the standards were known well enough by GM that they planned the 2011 Volt to have the improved emissions system and be flex-fuel capable - and provided VIN info to that effect to 'those that keep the databases'.

If GM had originally planned the 2011 to be shipped in one version, and originally planned the 2012 to be flex-fuel capable (and thus have the updated emissions system and likely also achieve a higher CARB status), they could have submitted that info to the VIN database. This even more strongly suggests that for whatever reason, GM made a late-term decision to meet a release schedule rather than met their original performance target...

 

[GRA]

From yesterday's WSJ:

General Motors Co. is revamping its Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric vehicle to meet California emissions requirements, aiming to juice sales after failing last year to qualify for state incentives that helped fuel the rise of Nissan Motor Co.'s rival Leaf.

Chevrolet engineers made modifications to the Volt's exhaust system and expect by March to begin selling models that meet California's stringent emissions standards, allowing California buyers to qualify for a $1,500 state rebate on top of a $7,500 federal tax break.

The new models, which the Detroit auto maker plans to begin building on Feb. 6, will reward Volt owners with something even more coveted in the traffic-clogged Golden State: unlimited access to car-pool lanes.
-----------------
Full article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203735304577168972685094672.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, March for the AT-PZEV cars. I was surprised that Plug In America says the Prius with stickers was selling for $4-5,000 more than the ones without; I remembered it as being more like $2-3000, but maybe that was closer to the sticker expiration date. Saw my second Volt on Wednesday.

 

[cwerdna]

Thanks to an EE Times email newsletter, I learned about a Volt teardown that's now complete.

See http://www.youtube.com/driveforinnovation?cid=NL_EELife" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. The folks at GM Volt have a thread on this and have pointed to http://www.driveforinnovation.com/going-literally-under-the-hood-with-the-volt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

 

[Yanquetino]

For those interested, I have posted a blurb about our test drive last month while in California

It's too bad about the "Obama Car" thing keeping your in-laws from buying it, especially considering that it's not even true (Volt was announced during the Bush administration.

The Volt is a great car for those wishing to minimize their oil consumption.

Indeed. The Volt concept car appeared at the Jan. 2007 North American Intl. Auto Show in Detroit. You might want to mention to your mother-in-law that the Volt's godfather at GM was Bob Lutz, a cigar-smoking, anthropogenic global-warming denying, ex-Marine* fighter pilot and performance car guy who was also responsible for the Dodge Viper, and that the Obama administration had nothing to do with the Volt's development. Assuming she's willing to read accounts that conflict with her opinions, she can read Lutz' book "Car Guys Versus Bean Counters" for some details.

Steven Rattner, the Obama admin guy who had to decide if GM and Chrysler should be bailed out, put into bankruptcy or just be allowed to fail, wrote that while the Volt seemed to be a good car it couldn't have any effect on GM's viability for years, if ever, and the car just wasn't a factor in his eventual decision deciding that bankruptcy was the way to go. See his book "Overhaul" for the details. Of course, if she gets all her news from Limbaugh, Hannity and the like, she probably isn't willing to entertain less insular views of reality.


*To prevent multiple replies, I know there's no such thing as an ex-Marine.

Do you think I haven't told her all this? :roll: Numerous times, folks. Tsk.

 

[GRA]

Do you think I haven't told her all this? :roll: Numerous times, folks. Tsk.

Just wanted to be sure you'd tried the most likely avenues Sounds hopeless, though.

 

[redLEAF]

Yet another twist on how both the Volt and LEAF get rolled out ... some dealer's are turning down their Volt allocations ...

http://www.autoweek.com/article/201...urn_down_more_Volts&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

Still have to wonder exactly what the Nissan LEAF dealer allocations are now but yet another log on the fire of possibly diminishing EV demand ?? Haven't followed it much but are Volt's now available nationally ?? I've seen more Volt's around Chicago then LEAF's but the numbers are still in single digits, and have yet to see a fellow LEAF while I'm out driving mine.

 

[GRA]

Yet another twist on how both the Volt and LEAF get rolled out ... some dealer's are turning down their Volt allocations ...

http://www.autoweek.com/article/201...urn_down_more_Volts&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

Still have to wonder exactly what the Nissan LEAF dealer allocations are now but yet another log on the fire of possibly diminishing EV demand ?? Haven't followed it much but are Volt's now available nationally ?? I've seen more Volt's around Chicago then LEAF's but the numbers are still in single digits, and have yet to see a fellow LEAF while I'm out driving mine.

Just the opposite ratio around here, and I'm not surprised that you've seen more Volts around Chicago given the difference in climate, although the Volt was probably available a lot sooner than the Leaf in that area which would skew the stats.

I've seen Leafs on 13 or 14 occasions (including a red one yesterday), and Volts twice. With one exception I've seen them all while walking locally, so the ratio might be different out on the freeways. I expect the ratio to change in California when the AT-PZEV cert. Volts become available from March on, so we'll have to see then.