Test Drive is a new series that we’re starting at CrunchGear wherein we get a hands-on look at new or interesting modes of transportation. It’s not limited to just cars, either. We’ll take a look at just about anything from scooters to rockets and everything in between.
Last night in Manhattan at Terminal 5 we were privy to an intimate gathering to check out Chevy’s extended-range electric vehicle, the Volt. We’ve mentioned it here and there on the site, but this was the first opportunity for anyone on staff to get up close and personal. I came away impressed and I’m rarely wowed by anything domestic. It certainly helps that the Volt will be in the upcoming Transformers movie, too.
The Volt represents a shift in the automobile industry, but we won’t know for sure what sort of impact it will have because the Volt won’t hit full production until 2010. I won’t even begin to try and breakdown all the different facets of the Volt as if I’m an automotive pundit, so I thought I’d share the presentation that was given to me by Bob Boniface, lead designer for Volt, and Frank Weber (he sounds like the Governator), Vehicle Line Executive.
You will need to have Quicktime installed to stream the video and you might have to turn up the volume on your speakers or throw some ‘phones on. It’s about 45 minutes, but they explain quite a bit about the Volt and some heated debates ensue a few minutes in.
Wow how much did GM pay for the product placement…
That is one weird looking power adapter in the photos. I think my kids could break that just by walking by it.
This car is doomed. How many people will pay $40,000 when the new Honda Insight will be $20,000.
The technology for electric cars already existed, which GM/Ford and others killed because of limited demand. Now, after years of R & D and millions of dollars they are trying again at an obscene price.
GM is rapidly running out of money and now begging for the government to save them. If they purchase Chrysler, they will inherit their three upcoming electric vehicles, at least one of which will be available in 2010.
That’s the way a lot of people feel, ej, myself included. I also don’t see that many city dwellers who don’t have a parking spot purchasing this vehicle. Where are we supposed to charge it at night?
It actually comes equipped with a 200-yard cable and a high-tech crank handle…
“Chevy Volt is designed to move more than 75 percent of America’s daily commuters without a single drop of gas.That means for someone who drives less than 40 miles a day, Chevy Volt will use zero gasoline and produce zero emissions”
It is a step in the right direction. The volt is a beautiful vehicle but, sadly, the technology is limited in the sense that it has a very short range: about 44 miles with a single charge that takes several hours.
Again, it is sad, because we have the technology today [with elements off the shelf] that would allow any car on the road today to be converted to all-electric at low cost, that would need to be plugged into the grid only once a week/2weeks.
Why is not happening? Because it would be a huge financial blow to the large automakers.
The Volt and Tesla are great vehicles but their usefuness is limited.
PS Naturally, the oil companies are adamantly opposed to any new technology that would affect their obscene profits.
My company approached the McCain campaign when he promised 300M for anyone coming up with new technologies that would use less [and clean] inexpensive energy. Never heard back from them with the exception of emails asking for campaign contributions…
We have to be careful with our language when we say “zero emissions.” Sure, no emissions from the car, but the electricity that goes into it surely had emissions.
There are certainly emissions from the gasoline engine!
Volt made it on Time Magazine Best Inventions of 2008 list (#7)
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854120,00.html
The chart with general house appliance electricity usage shows a refrigerator using 2,670kWh per year in a “typical household”. This is a complete joke. Modern refrigerators get more like 500kWh and even very old ones use less than 1800kWh. http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/refrigerators.html
Plus it doesn’t look like they even showed this car driving. I saw a PBS special where it couldn’t even make it up a low sloping hill.
These cars are NOT zero emissions. It’s just that they disperse the emissions to power plants generating the electricity they use.
Surely someone has performed a lifecycle analysis. Are more green house gases created from the exhaust of a gas powered engine or through the production of electricity at a power plant. I’m sure an electric car has the advantage, but i just hate it when people say these things are zero emissions.
Hey genius! You are forgetting ‘wind energy’ available in many areas around the US and expanding every day –BOzo!!
Sanjay,
It was a legit question answered intelligently by other posts. You’ll see i acknowledge the Volt likely has the advantage over gas-powered alternatives.
Natural gas-powered vehicles are already on our roads: the conversion is fairly simple and inexpensive. It is a much better and inexpensive option than the Volt…
Actually, there has been plenty of analysis done on this. Even when using the dirtiest power plants for charging electric vehicles, it still result in significantly less emissions than a regular gas-fueled car. You have to understand that typical gas-powered engines are incredibly dirty…
Typical internal combution engine is only 20-30% efficent. Electric motors 70%+. And yes, electric generation is becomeing cleaner with solar and wind kicking in. In my area, Arizona there are significant amounts of electricity being generated with solar and nuclear.
From a couple reports/test studies that I’ve heard, vehicle emissions far outway energy production. that just makes electric cars an improvement, and yes, they shouldn’t blindly claim so many things zero emissions. Even cows contribute(govt survey). By the way, love the name(hysterical).
It’s also a non-point vs point source pollution issue, I think. As the national car fleet gets cycled towards EVs and away from gas-burning cars, the sources of emissions become fewer and easier to control. It’s easier to scrub emissions (or switch to renewables) on a few stationary smokestacks at a powerplant than millions of tailpipes on the road.
Here’s an analysis I did for the power company I have. Turns out it puts out about 65% of the C02 that gasoline does for the same energy. Note that this doesn’t include refinement and transportation.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p-H6bhxhDX3xKz_Q5HeTcAw
And the energy would be produced in one place, as opposed to within each car. This makes it a lot easier to be clean(er).
The thing that irks me is that the “big” automakers do not like pure electric vehicles because they have so few replaceable moving parts in them (no mufflers, no oil change, no carburetor, no catalytic converters, etc.) Those parts aren’t needed in electric cars, but the automakers would lose billions of dollars if they didn’t have to perform those regularly scheduled maintenances and replacements.
My guess is that the Chevy Volt has plenty of replaceable parts in it. There’s no way that Chevy would make a nearly maintenance-free car like pure electric vehicles provide. Other than Transmission, brake, and cooling system fluid changes, a pure electric car is nearly maintenance free.
This is old world thinking from decades ago. As you know, third parties verify how reliable a car is (consumer reports, JD power, GfK Automotive, etc).
There is every incentive to make new generation cars as maintenance free as possible because this reduces their warranty exposure (and increases their profit margins in the long run).
At worst this car is a step in the right direction. Sure, a lot of details need to be worked out before 75 percent of all American drivers have cars that are run by electricity, but it seems very likely that this type of technology will grow to be a force to be reckoned with in the automobile industry.
Nice, probably the best piece of coverage on Crunch Gear ever. This is a topic that will be important for everyone someday, and the car really is one of the most ubiquitous gadgets of all
The Volt is not the end all or be all of electric cars, just this centuries Model T. Like fifty lawyers at the bottom of the sea, it’s a good start.
I know there are alot of knuckle draggers out there who just don’t get it, but I suppose that’s why nature puts an expiration date on all living things.
That is quite a picture: “a knuckle dragger scratching his head after the Volt he is driving comes to a halt after 44.5 miles…”
heheheheh
It is a nice looking car but not a practical configuration. Sure there will be a lot of tree huggers that will want the care – just for what it is – but for most, it sits too low and is impractical to use.
GM should just die. They have been building out of date, poorly designed cars for decades.
This is absolutely fantastic. Finally a true American car that exceeds a Japanese car (in a good way) in every way…
http://www.livbit.com
I’m going to naysay that I bet:
1. Battery life doesn’t live up to expectations; not in distance traveled per charge nor in months of useful life, and,
2. Battery fires are a problem —> massive recalls.
How could this not be the case given what’s happened with laptop batteries which have had many more years of development behind them.
I’m going to naysay that I bet:
1. Battery life doesn’t live up to expectations; not in distance traveled per charge nor in months of useful life, and,
2. Battery fires are a problem —> massive recalls.
How could this not be the case given what’s happened with laptop batteries which have had many more years of development behind them.
As the above comment, natural gas powered vehicles are a much, much better alternative: there is an enormous reserve of this fuel in the US and many types of vehicles could be adapted to use it: family cars, trucks, buses, etc. Many of them are actually in use right now…
So, what is the problem?
Yeap, you guessed it: Washington gridlock enforced by powerful interests that keep throwing money to our slimy ‘elected officials’ –Of course, these powerful interests are the oil companies and the major car manufacturers.
Is this going to change? Not anytime soon. Now that the prices of oil and gasoline are coming down, everything is going to be business as usual in Washington: offshore drilling? Forget about it… for another 25 years or longer.
As the above comment, natural gas powered vehicles are a much, much better alternative: there is an enormous reserve of this fuel in the US and many types of vehicles could be adapted to use it: family cars, trucks, buses, etc. Many of them are actually in use right now…
So, what is the problem?
Yeap, you guessed it: Washington gridlock enforced by powerful interests that keep throwing money to our slimy ‘elected officials’ –Of course, these powerful interests are the oil companies and the major car manufacturers.
Is this going to change? Not anytime soon. Now that the prices of oil and gasoline are coming down, everything is going to be business as usual in Washington: offshore drilling? Forget about it… for another 25 years or longer.
The Volt and Tesla cars plus large SUVs could easily be produced or, better, adapted right away…
We are screwed.
One of the issues with such a car is the infrastructure needed to charge it in order to make people comfortable, as they do with gas stations today. Their success is dependent on other companies like betterPlace and similar.
my comments at http://www.commentino.com/orim
This is fantastic. First domestic I’ve seen that I’d be willing to buy (besides a Corvette) in years. Also I think this type of preview event – where they get the opportunity to explain their choices – gives the end product more character and shows us why the product is what it is. Bravo to them for inviting you guys and allowing you to post the video.
http://www.dailydoseofpras.com
My gosh, you sound like the people that thought automobiles would never replace horse and buggies.
I hate know it all nay-sayer types that try to dominate product demonstrations….
If you are so much smarter than the designers at GM, go work for them and help them out – that is if you can get an engineering degree first…a
Radical products are difficult to launch in a hurry.
The 4th and 5th generations of this vehicle could be dominate and the prices will come down as the quantities of scale emerge.
Krgrds.
There is some new information on this car in the latest issue of Automobile Magazine. In order to keep the useful life of the batteries at a maximum, the batteries have been designed in a flat configuration that keeps them at a much more even temperature than typical cylindrical batteries commonly in use. In addition, a special cooling/heating system is in place to keep the batteries withing their ideal thermal range. If I read the article correctly, GM will be providing a 10 year warranty on the batteries, since they have no way of knowing exactly how succesful all these thing will be until they have 10 years of on-the-road testing under their belt.
One other piece of information is that the vehicle will charge in only 3 hours if you have a 240 volt socket in your garage (many folks do, me included). In addition, most of these vehicles will be charging overnight, which is off-peak. That is a good thing.
I know I drive less than 40 miles in a typical day. This car excites me.
There is some new information on this car in the latest issue of Automobile Magazine. In order to keep the useful life of the batteries at a maximum, the batteries have been designed in a flat configuration that keeps them at a much more even temperature than typical cylindrical batteries commonly in use. In addition, a special cooling/heating system is in place to keep the batteries withing their ideal thermal range. If I read the article correctly, GM will be providing a 10 year warranty on the batteries, since they have no way of knowing exactly how succesful all these thing will be until they have 10 years of on-the-road testing under their belt.
One other piece of information is that the vehicle will charge in only 3 hours if you have a 240 volt socket in your garage (many folks do, me included). In addition, most of these vehicles will be charging overnight, which is off-peak. That is a good thing.
I know I drive less than 40 miles in a typical day. This car excites me.
the car is nice !!
A good baby step for the US automakers. You’d be suprised how many folks can get by with a 40-50 mile range, that would keep me going for a few days. I probably can’t justify the price, but as with most things, production ramp ups, technology shifts, etc… will bring cars like this more in line economically and practically with the majority of folks. Look at the corvette, very few people buy them, or can afford them, but they pioneer alot of car tech that trickle into the saturns and chevy’s alot of us drive today. No reason to think that this will be significantly different.
Great video! Great car! All new gadgets cost a little more when introduced to the market (i.e. DVD players, now Blu-ray players), but as mentioned once it is established the price will come down and technology (battery life) will improve. I think it is great that people will have a chance to actually buy the car rather than lease it. I’m not sure why people say that this car only goes 40 miles. Sure it goes 40 miles on electric, but then it can keep on going because it has a small little engine that recharges the batteries so it can go just as far as any other hybrid car (or further depending on how you drive).
NEWS FLASH!
GM BREAKS THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS
For every auto manufacture there exists a direct correlation between engine size and vehicle weight. A hybrid can bend these rules slightly because the electric motor is more efficient to supply power at low speeds, stopping and starting without wasteful idling, regenerative breaking advantage etc. The standard Civic at 2633 lbs is powered by a 1.7 liter engine. The Civic hybrid at 2877 lbs is powered by a 1.3liter engine.
The Chevy volt is claimed by GM to be a fresh new technology to put GM ahead of all competitors. Unlike a hybrid which is driven directly by both a gas engine and an electric motor, the Volt is only directly powered by its electric motor.
The Volt is comparatively an extremely heavy all electric car of 3520 lbs with the addition of a 1.4 liter engine used only to charge the batteries. It makes sense that fully charged batteries alone would take the car 40 miles. What happens after 40 miles is magic…..
Indeed! No one else would think they can sufficiently propel a 3520 lb car with a 1.4 liter engine for as long as gasoline is supplied. By GM’s own standards the 1.4 liter engine would not provide adequate power for a vehicle of this weight-the GM Malibu at 3415 lbs uses a 2.4 liter engine at minimum.
However, through the miracle of energy conversion, circumventing all the laws of thermodynamics, the little 1.4 liter engine will charge the batteries endlessly and the batteries will power the electric motor and thus provide energy for mechanical power that was beyond the capacity of this same 1.4 liter engine prior to this magical conversion.
The new GM is amazing. Where can I buy some stock?
A mechanical engineer might conclude that the only time the Volt would be adequately powered on an extended trip is when it is driven downhill.
Many economists have already concluded that the extended trip for GM is all downhill.
GM BREAKS THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS!
For every auto manufacture there exists a direct correlation between engine size and vehicle weight. A hybrid can bend these rules slightly because the electric motor is more efficient to supply power at low speeds, stopping and starting without wasteful idling, regenerative breaking advantage etc. The standard Civic at 2633 lbs is powered by a 1.7 liter engine. The Civic hybrid at 2877 lbs is powered by a 1.3liter engine.
The Chevy volt is claimed by GM to be a fresh new technology to put GM ahead of all competitors. Unlike a hybrid which is driven directly by both a gas engine and an electric motor, the Volt is only directly powered by its electric motor.
The Volt is comparatively an extremely heavy all electric car of 3520 lbs with the addition of a 1.4 liter engine used only to charge the batteries. It makes sense that fully charged batteries alone would take the car 40 miles. What happens after 40 miles is magic…..
Indeed! No one else would think they can sufficiently propel a 3520 lb car with a 1.4 liter engine for as long as gasoline is supplied. By GM’s own standards the 1.4 liter engine would not provide adequate power for a vehicle of this weight-the GM Malibu at 3415 lbs uses a 2.4 liter engine at minimum.
However, through the miracle of energy conversion, circumventing all the laws of thermodynamics, the little 1.4 liter engine will charge the batteries endlessly and the batteries will power the electric motor and thus provide energy for mechanical power that was beyond the capacity of this same 1.4 liter engine prior to this magical conversion.
The new GM is amazing. Where can I buy some stock?
A mechanical engineer might conclude that the only time the Volt would be adequately powered on an extended trip is when it is driven downhill.
Many economists have already concluded that the extended trip for GM is all downhill.
Certainly a change from the foreign automakers.
Creates jobs in N-A.
Eventually (and hopefully) will lead towards power cells (hydrogen) for our kids (some day).
I’ll be placing in order :-)
thanks….
http://www.beymod.com.tr