Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumGM Reveals Dismal Volt Sales in January
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/27547/?p1=blogs[font size=4]Is this a bad sign for electric vehicles?[/font]
Kevin Bullis 02/02/2012
[font size=3]Electric vehicle enthusiasts (and critics) are keeping a close eye on sales of GMs Volt this year to get a sense of whether electric vehicles will really finally catch on. GM has said that it hopes to sell 30,000 Volts in 2012, which would mean selling, on average 2,500 a month. Its far short of that pace for January having sold just 603.
The January figure markedly down from December, when GM delivered 1,520. But sales were actually up substantially from the same time last year, when GM sold 321 of the carshowever, at that time, the Volt was only available in a few states.
GM didnt meet its goal of selling 10,000 Volts during 2011, for a number of reasons. In fact, its still short of 10,000, with total deliveries of 8,600 vehicles since sales began at the end of 2010.
There are a number of factors that could explain the slow January sales. Customers hoping to get the Federal tax credit for the car for the 2011 tax year may have rushed to buy in December. Also, at the beginning of January, GM announced a retrofit that will make the car safer. The cars on the lots in January (about 4,400 were there at the beginning of the month) were not retrofitted yet, and the parts needed to do the retrofits weren't widely available. So anyone buying a car in January would have to take it back in a month or two to have the changes made. GM also announced in January that cars built later this year would have low enough emissions to qualify for driving in Californias HOV lanes, an attractive perk.
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Kokonoe
(2,485 posts)A republican dream come true.
think
(11,641 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)Indeed, hate-wing radio will be broadcasting this as another 'government motors' failure.
think
(11,641 posts)compare Volt's numbers next to Nissan's Leaf it's easy to see that both companies are doing fairly similar numbers.
Volt has gotten a lot of bad press it didn't deserve like you say so that figured in I don't see Volt as doing that bad except for the damage from the ring wing hit squad.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)Jan 30, 2012 1:45 PM
[font size=3]As more electric and plug-in hybrid cars charge to market, most (87 percent) consumers have a concern, with range limitations being chief among them. There are also significant safety concerns, many of which may have been fanned by the widely covered Chevrolet Volt fires experienced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) after conducting crash tests. The investigation may have been closed, but the public remains apprehensive.
In conducting our recent 2012 Car Brand Perception Survey, we added a couple questions to take Americas pulse on electric vehicle safety, and the results suggest consumers are misinformed and are likely overestimating the risks.
Despite the concerns raised, 43 percent of respondents feel electric and plug-in hybrids are as safe as gasoline-fueled cars, and one-fifth (20 percent) deemed them safer. Twenty-eight percent said the electrified cars are less safe, and nine percent responded they dont know (a fair answer). Young consumers, those aged 18-44 years, were more likely than others to view the alternative powertrains as safer (23 vs. 17 percent).
The top concern expressed during the telephone interviews was for limited range (77 percent)an understandable anxiety. Range can vary depending on many factors, including weather. We have found that although theoretically the Nissan Leaf has plenty of range to address the typical daily needs for most American drivers, having to run the heat and defrost can take its toll. Of course, an extended-range EV like the Chevrolet Volt or plug-in hybrids like the Toyota Prius do not have such limitations. For these cars, when the electric power is consumed, there remains a gasoline engine to provide range on par with any other traditional car.
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think
(11,641 posts)I never heard any of this about the fires before. I was under the assumption the fires had happened to cars people owned:
NHTSA launches safety investigation following Chevrolet Volt battery fires
Nov 28, 2011 3:00 PM
...The fire resulted after NHTSA evaluated the Volt in a side-impact pole test in July that damaged the battery pack, as well as the batterys coolant lines. Then the car was rotated 360 degrees to simulate a rollover in a real-world crash. Three weeks later, the fire erupted when the car was parked next to other vehicles at the crash-test facility.
While the agency states that it is unaware of any crashes of Volts on public roads that have resulted in fires, NHTSA did conduct three followup crash tests two weeks ago, trying to duplicate the fire. In the third test, the Volt also caught fire. Last week, the Volt involved in the second followup test also caught fire. NHTSA is conducting its own investigation into the causes of these fires....
Full article:
http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/11/nhtsa-launches-safety-investigation-following-chevrolet-volt-battery-fires.html
Historic NY
(37,453 posts)OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)[font size=4]November 29, 2011, 9:38 AM EST[/font]
[font size=3]Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. is developing ways to discharge the battery in Chevrolet Volts after accidents to prevent fires like the one that followed a government crash- test of the plug-in hybrid car in May.
GM is working on safety practices with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and will make them public when completed, Rob Peterson, a GM spokesman, said yesterday. The Detroit-based automaker has taken longer to develop a plan than Nissan Motor Co. did for its Leaf electric car. Both the Volt and Leaf went on sale in December 2010.
I cant conceive that they didnt have a standard operating procedure in place for handling a wrecked vehicle before the car went on sale, said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington. NHTSA and GM should have established protocols in place before it went on sale.
The procedures are intended to keep rescue workers, dealers and auto-salvagers safe and head off potential fires that may jeopardize the safety reputation of the Volt, which is the focus of GMs marketing.
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doc03
(35,367 posts)KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)$40k+ for a car that resembles a chevrolet Cruze?!?
The concept looked so much better:
Paying BMW 3 series prices for a chevy. They should have made it, at least, a Buick, or more properly a Caddy. And then they had the nerve to jack up prices even more after the initial rollout.
It should have been subsidized (like Toyota did with the Prius early on) down into the mid 20K range (with tax benefit). Then it would have been competitive with standard hybrids, and I'll bet they would have sold a lot of them. Right now it is more like 35K after tax break.
That concept car, though, looks like it would only fit 5 foot drivers!
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)From our February, 2009 issue
[font size=3]Chevy first showed its Volt Concept at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. Then, at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show, it showed a diesel variant in a different body called the Opel Flextreme. Now, GM is showing its progress on original Volt's body with a teaser shot of the revised front end.
The image shows a nose that is much less blunt than the original, with rounded corners. These changes weren't made for purely aesthetic reasons though; GM has been developing the Volt's shape with the help of wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics work. The changes have been made to reduce aerodynamic forces on the vehicle, thereby improving the vehicle's range.
According to Frank Weber, global chief engineer for the Volt's E-Flex propulsion system, good aerodynamics are the most important aspect of a hybrid electric vehicle's design. The car's weight has much less of an impact on total energy use, since any extra battery mass translates to more kinetic energy that can be recovered with the regenerative braking system. How's that for counter-intuitive?
After the original concept was shown, GM endeavored to improve the aerodynamics of the Volt's body. A one-third-scale model was made of the show car to provide a baseline, and the team went from there to improve the shape. Using GM's wind tunnel, the largest automotive wind tunnel in existence, the team has been able to reduce the Volt's aerodynamic drag by thirty percent.
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badtoworse
(5,957 posts)How could a person who can only afford one car live with a vehicle that goes about 100 miles on a charge? There are few charging stations around the country and assuming you can find one, the recharge time is lengthy. According to the LA Times, there are only about 5,100 stations in the entire country with about 25% of them in California. I live in northern NJ and have yet to see a single one.
IMO, the only practical use for an EV is short trips to the mall, around town or maybe to a park and ride (aka a bust stop or a train station). How many people can afford to spend $40k plus for a second car?
I'll consider one when I can drive 300 - 400 miles on a charge anywhere in the northeast, not have top worry about finding a charging station and when I do need a charge, it doesn't take more than 15 or 20 minutes. I don't believe current technology is close to achieving that level of performance. Until it is, I believe the market for ECV's will be limited to relatively rich people (their other car is a 7 Series beamer or something in that class)
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)The Volt has a range extender (a gasoline engine attached to a generator) which allows you to drive longer distances.
http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car/
"I was actually in control of how much gas I consumed, and it was a powerful feeling," Say's Joe Nocera an automotive journalist, after driving Volt. If you want to drive using only electricity, you can. If you want to drive using electricity and gas, you can do that too. Volt is first for two very good reasons.[/font][/font]
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)how much driving can you actually do on the battery? I understand the equipment you need to charge at home is an additional cost.
What is the performance like on the gas engine?