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

[cdub]

Some much much MUCH better numbers for the oft maligned car:

The 127 mpg figure was achieved over a variety of Los Angeles city streets, canyon roads and highways.

The M/T editors took the car on another trip and really tried to push it hard. They ran the Volt up to its 101 mph top speed, had the A/C cranked and traveled across some hilly terrain. The result? The Chevy returned nearly 75 mpg. MT feels the takeaway from its time with the Volt is that the car is incredibly efficient and the fact that the gasoline engine occasionally pitches in doesn't make it any less remarkable of a vehicle.

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/10/1...end-got-driving-the-volt-in-the-rea/#comments

 

[cdub]

Oy vey - in the linked Motor Trend article in the AutoBlog piece there's a lot of LEAF bashing. Why do Volt people seem to always been bashing the LEAF. The LEAF is NOT your competitor! Big gas guzzlers are.. Morans!

Here's the big takeaway, the big payoff: We couldn't have done what we did in a Nissan Leaf. Not only is 120 miles past the Leaf's best-case scenario range, but in such heat and driven so aggressively, the Nissan's range would have shrunk considerably. With the Volt, the engine simply flicks on when you need more electricity. When the engine runs out of gas, you add more. As Kim Reynolds hyperbolically pointed out after he took the Volt over the Grapevine, "It would have taken weeks to make that drive in the Leaf." Wry Reynolds also suggested that with a little bit of hacking, you could use Volts to go and recharge dead Leafs.

Read more: http://blogs.motortrend.com/6719595/green/127-mpg-this-volt-story-must-be-told/index.html#ixzz12MrFeji9

 

[lne937s]

Oy vey - in the linked Motor Trend article in the AutoBlog piece there's a lot of LEAF bashing. Why do Volt people seem to always been bashing the LEAF. The LEAF is NOT your competitor! Big gas guzzlers are.. Morans!

Here's the big takeaway, the big payoff: We couldn't have done what we did in a Nissan Leaf. Not only is 120 miles past the Leaf's best-case scenario range, but in such heat and driven so aggressively, the Nissan's range would have shrunk considerably. With the Volt, the engine simply flicks on when you need more electricity. When the engine runs out of gas, you add more. As Kim Reynolds hyperbolically pointed out after he took the Volt over the Grapevine, "It would have taken weeks to make that drive in the Leaf." Wry Reynolds also suggested that with a little bit of hacking, you could use Volts to go and recharge dead Leafs.

Read more: http://blogs.motortrend.com/6719595/green/127-mpg-this-volt-story-must-be-told/index.html#ixzz12MrFeji9

The Volt does not exist to sell cars. It is a money-losing car sold in small numbers. Its purpose is as a PR/marketing tool to show GM's environmental responsibility and technological capability... which is used to gain political support, quiet critics and help GM sell more gas guzzlers. They aren't doing this to make money on the Volt, and they are not doing this to make the world a better place.

Any car that demonstrates a greater leap forward or a bigger environmental improvement than the Volt is a threat to its halo vehicle purpose. The LEAF makes the Volt look less advanced in comparison, and makes GM look like less of a "technological leader". If people do not have a better image of GM and Chevrolet because of the Volt, then the car has failed in its purpose. As such, GM and Volt supporters bash other advanced vehicles.

 

[evnow]

Some much much MUCH better numbers for the oft maligned car:
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/10/1...end-got-driving-the-volt-in-the-rea/#comments

Here is my ABG comment ...

Pathetic. MT - big fail on basic math.

TruthAboutCars called out MT on this and MT grudgingly put out their trip stats. A lot of those miles are EV miles.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/10/motor-trend-reveals-the-secret-to-getting-127-mpg-in-chevy-volt/

"Motor Trend Reveals The “Secret” To Getting 127 MPG In A Chevy Volt"

 

[cdub]

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/10/12/5281724-after-800-miles-in-a-volt-its-just-ok

"It's OK."

That's how I replied to a text from my brother-in-law, also a car enthusiast, who knew I was driving a Chevy Volt from Seattle to San Francisco.

That's the problem with the Volt: It's just OK. And for me, just OK isn't enough for a car that costs over $40,000.
...
Speaking of the center stack, it's one of the worst features of the car. It's a mess of flush-mounted, touch-sensitive studs that are labeled with nothing more than white text on a glossy-body-colored surface.

Wow that review is harsh.

Again - my biggest complaint about the Volt is that it only seats 4. Really... 4? Again... make that minivan or SUV with Voltec and I'd buy it as a second car to my LEAF in a heartbeat.

But yeah - read that review. Mega harsh. And is it me or does the car look really really small in this picture:

 

[evnow]

Wow that review is harsh.

I think asking $41K (ok $34K) for that car is a streatch.

Again - my biggest complaint about the Volt is that it only seats 4. Really... 4? Again... make that minivan or SUV with Voltec and I'd buy it as a second car to my LEAF in a heartbeat.

I'll be looking for a plugin CUV in 3 years ...

But yeah - read that review. Mega harsh. And is it me or does the car look really really small in this picture:

Volt is a compact car. Just like Prius - and Leaf. If you remove the back spoiler - the back will look like a Prius. They even have split rear view.

 

[evnow]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20101014/AUTO01/10140449/1361/SEC-vote-on-Rattner-corruption-probe-delayed/GM-exec-predicts-60-000-Volt-models-built-in-’12

EPA will set the EV range of Volt below 40. Thats not good at all for marketing ...

He said he expects the EPA will set a single figure as the expected electric range for the Volt "somewhere in the middle of this 25- to 50-" mile range that GM has announced.

He said it's possible the figure will be below the 40 mile range that GM had long advertised.

And the CS mpg will be "mid to high 30s".

Parks said on gasoline-only mode, the Volt is currently getting in the "mid to high 30s" on a combined city/highway driving.
But it's not clear yet what figures the EPA will assign on the vehicle's gasoline-only range.

 

[cdub]

Volt is a compact car. Just like Prius - and Leaf. If you remove the back spoiler - the back will look like a Prius. They even have split rear view.

Yes... but that photo it looks ultra tiny. The LEAF looks bigger than that. (and the LEAF is quite spacious inside for it's size thank god)

 

[TRONZ]

That photo has a bit of a "fish eye" effect going on. Makes it look shorter and taller than it is.

 

[evnow]

That photo has a bit of a "fish eye" effect going on. Makes it look shorter and taller than it is.

Possible.

 

[indyflick]

Here's a video of GM providing an overview of the Voltec drive with simulation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTxNnjsbocw[/youtube]

 

[curtegg]

Holy cow, 3 clutches. That car will be a maintenance nightmare.

 

[SanDust]

Holy cow, 3 clutches. That car will be a maintenance nightmare.

Not really. Unlike a traditional transmission, the halves are are coupled before torque is applied. Hence no slippage, no friction, and no resulting surfacing wear on the clutch discs.

 

[smkettner]

Holy cow, 3 clutches. That car will be a maintenance nightmare.

Not really. Unlike a traditional transmission, the halves are are coupled before torque is applied. Hence no slippage, no friction, and no resulting surfacing wear on the clutch discs.

That just means GM can make them thin and weak
I agree with more stuff is prone to eventually cost more to maintain
Time will tell, and it might actually work out well

 

[ColinSummers]

I test drove the Volt (again) down in Manhattan Beach today. I wanted a reminder of what they handling was like, since it is two weeks from my delivery date for one.

I am six foot tall, 180lbs. It feels roomy enough to me, similar to my Prius. The backseat has the same issues as the Prius (headroom, there's sort of a particular "slot" for my head to be in).

There is a visual trick being used in the design to make it seem like the windows are bigger than they are. (It's that black area above the chrome, but below the glass line, that's NOT window, that's more door.)

The cars were already 2,200 miles into the trip around the country. The one I drove had a lifetime mpg of 40.7 which seems pretty good for all of the pedal stomping they are getting (including from me). I was there more than an hour into test drives, to the car was running the ICE to provide power to the electric motor. Interestingly, it is shutoff at parking lot speeds as you launch, which I didn't think was true when I dove it in Detroit. Or the ICE is so quiet I couldn't hear it as people drove off.

It handled great. Very solid, sure-footed. There was a u-turn in the test drive and I took it through that as hard as I could without it actually being my car. The Chevy representative didn't complain and the car did not oversteer. It was pretty cool.

 

[evnow]

The cars were already 2,200 miles into the trip around the country. The one I drove had a lifetime mpg of 40.7 which seems pretty good for all of the pedal stomping they are getting (including from me).

GM could've done better job of managing the expectation here by talking about 35 mpg rather than letting people think it would be much better.

 

[evnow]

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/10/20/2011-chevrolet-volt-first-drive-review/#comments

Long review. Overall mixed. The interior has been panned.

The Volt won't impress with the quality of its interior materials either, which are merely adequate if you judge against other compacts, and downright cheap looking if you put them up against what you'll find in other $40,000 cars. The backseat gets the worst of it, as the center console running between the two rear buckets is an edifice of monotone hard plastic, as are the rear door panels.

 

[Boomer23]

Edmunds Inside Line full review of the Volt.

http://www.insideline.com/chevrolet/volt/2011/2011-chevrolet-volt-full-test-and-video.html

Also read jkavanaugh's comments in the response thread below the main report.

Besides a reported 31.1 mpg in CS mode they used 39.0 kWh per 100 miles in EV mode! Yikes!

They claim that the car was deliberately driven conservatively and that track testing was excluded from the calculations.

The quoted kWh utilization included charging losses. Editor jkavanaugh states that the 10-plus kWh battery took 13-plus kWh to charge. For the EV brain trust here, is that 30% charging loss to be expected or is there something wrong here?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

might be old news although date line is today, but a tour of the Volt factory

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/11/peek-inside-the-chevrolet-volt-factory/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

 

[garygid]

WOW, not one picture of automation, only manual assembly stepa are shown!

What a HUGE contrast to the video of the Nissan assembly plant, where (almost) only automation was shown.

Is this why GM cars cost more?