Peak Oil News and Message Boards

Outcast_Searcher wrote:

shortonsense wrote:The temperature and distance dependent mileage is tricky,an owner who wants it for efficiency even in the city needs to make sure their driving conditions can take advantage of the hybrid systems, otherwise a Corolla, Yaris, Civic might still be a better choice.

Thank you Short - that's a great point, which I hadn't fully considered. The vast majority of my trips ARE puddle-jumps of a mile or two, and a 35% degradation is really significant. Apparently I will need to do some research on that concept.

Now the only issue is safety -- a Yaris vs. an SUV hitting it in the side, for example (texting, cell phone usage, drunks, etc), gives me serious pause...

Yeah, its one of those little things the sales people don't mention much. Park your new Prius outside in 20F temps for the evening, fire it up the next morning and its 1-3 miles before it even THINKS about being efficient. If your commute is a decent 10 miles, not as big a deal, it warms up and does better. But puddle jumping...nope...and as badly as I want a Volt, I have to ask the same question. If the battery sucks at cold temps, can I really go 40 miles on a charge if its been sitting outside during the night, or does the battery temp knock 50% of that range out, particularly if you even THINK about running the heater.

And you are right, tin cans are great until you get nailed by a Suburban, this exact issue has led me to buying something bigger, with crappier fuel mileage, but enough mass to take a decent shot from that Suburban.

shortonsense wrote: as badly as I want a Volt, I have to ask the same question. If the battery sucks at cold temps, can I really go 40 miles on a charge if its been sitting outside during the night, or does the battery temp knock 50% of that range out, particularly if you even THINK about running the heater.

Trying to read about the Volt online in interesting. I suspect that we need to be realistic and assume the first wave will be the discovery phase to work out problems and find out how efficient they are real world, and how the batteries hold up. (And north of Florida, I suspect most folks WILL want heat now and then).

Then if things look good, the second version of Volts could be really nice, especially if they can get the prices down via higher production.

On various blogs/discussion sites I have found that folks get blatantly attacked if they ask a perfectly reasonable question which implies they're not sure the Volt will be PERFECT in all respects. Like that's politically incorrect or something.

I find that really puzzling AND stupid. For me, I wouldn't want to spend all that money UNTIL we get a real world look at quality and problems -- given GM's less than steller reputation for service and quality.

By 2013 or so when lots of carmakers should have EV's out, we should hopefully get a better feel for how this will work out.

If the Volt is plugged in the BMS will keep the pack at whatever temperature even if it's cold outside. If it's unplugged and cold outside then the Volt will run the engine for a few minutes to provide heat for the battery pack in order to improve range/performance and probably to provide some heat for the cabin.

CONSUMER REPORTS FINDS REALLY BAD KARMA AT FISKERS

Brand new $100,000 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid electric car with only 200 miles on the car suffers complete battery failure during Consumer Reports test drive.

New Fisker suffers total battery failure on Consumer Reports test drive----car had to be towed back to dealer

Consumer Reports also notes there have been numerous other failures and complaints documented by actual Fisker owners.


Consumer Reports flunks the Fisker Karma electric car-----it suffered complete battery failure after 200 miles of driving

My kid brother is on his second Chevrolet Volt. He loves the darn thing to pieces and actually drives more than before because it is cheaper to drive.

I never expected this, he was all about muscle cars with turbochargers and massive horespower, so it is quite a change.

Subjectivist wrote:My kid brother is on his second Chevrolet Volt. He loves the darn thing to pieces and actually drives more than before because it is cheaper to drive.

I never expected this, he was all about muscle cars with turbochargers and massive horespower, so it is quite a change.

I got into my first stop light race recently, EV vs EV. Got my butt whipped. Amazing that this has all happened just since peak oil happened and instead of causing everyone to stop driving, just incentivized major auto manufacturers to replace liquid fuels in mass produced and completely normal looking and driving cars. And now, there are so many around, we can bump into each other at red lights and drag race them.