GM's Chevrolet Volt to Get 230 MPG

reply to post by SLAYER69


WOW! I never heard that before! they have been planning the volt for some time now. I remember hearing abou tit at least 5 or 6 years ago...

I was under the immpression it was going to be fully electric. No hybrid at all...

ill have to give it another look over! Thanks for the info...

GM is selling cars people will buy. They aren't "milking" anyone. People will still buy a gas guzzling SUV. I currently and will have two car seats for awhile, you think I'm buying a Volt? Wrong. I would love the mileage but I want to haul the fam and the dog and some luggage and still have room to turn my head.

Now if they put the volt engine into an SUV, they will have me right where they want me. PS don't want a minivan.

reply to post by jjkenobi


As you can tell I'm not a big fan of SUVs
I like my mid sized BMW four doors and my huge FORD pickem up truck.

Chevrolet Volt gets 230 mpg in the city, and only in the city.

General Motors made some big headlines this morning with word that its Chevrolet Volt electric car will get 230 miles per gallon in the city. That’s an impressive feat to be sure. It will certainly leap frog any car on the market except for all-electric cars like the Nissan Leaf or the Tesla Roadster when the Volt goes on sale late next year. But the Volt has an advantage for some drivers because its gasoline engine keeps recharging the battery, so drivers can drive far longer than the Leaf’s 100 miles. In auto industry parlance, the Volt is an extended-range electric vehicle.

I am not as optimistic as the rest of you. Even if the Volt or a comparable model (because Toyota, Honda, Ford, Daimler etc will start using the same tech) got 230MPG under normal driving conditions and became popular, what's to stop the price of gas from shooting through the roof? If the majority of people go to the pump once a month instead of once a week I foresee the price of gas per gallon eventually becoming something like 7 to 10 dollars or higher. The oil industry isn't simply going to lay down and take a hit with regards to their gasoline profits.

I am not an energy expert, just wonder if this is possible, hope someone can explain the mechanism to me.

According to my understanding:

For old car, chemical energy (gas) to mechanical energy.
For Volt, chemical energy (gas) to electrical energy then to mechanical energy.

So there is one more step in this new car, but the efficiency increased more than 5 times. That also means the efficiency of traditional car is less than 20%. How is that possible?

[edit on 11-8-2009 by dreamspark]

Heres a interesting take on the subject.

Chevy Volt plays to the great unknown

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- General Motors took an audacious leap forward Tuesday in the already hyped marketing of its Chevy Volt, the electric car that by some accounts is destined to redefine the auto industry.

Oh how nice "Customers/Cars/Culture" What about the "Employees" You know the people that need jobs to pay for the damn things!


General Motors Addresses Consumers First

"When the 'new GM' launched a month ago, I said our priorities were customers, cars and culture," said Henderson. "We need to put customers first. And [Monday] we hosted customers first because we wanted to get their feedback right off the bat."

reply to post by MMP


Everybody will be building them soon enough. I dont think as the demand for gas falls that it's price will rise. I think the ooposite will happens as it looses it's influence.

reply to post by dreamspark


Hi dreamspark,

You're about right, 15-20%.
Many older auto gearboxes lost approx 30% of your power that the engine produces on top of this.

This link looks into this issue amongst some improvements possible.

"There is a device which is discovered 200 years back. Its electric motor. Its efficiency is more than 85%. The vehicles which is run by electric motor has 3 main parts.
1. Electric motor, 2. Battery and 3. controller."

jagadees.wordpress.com...

This is probably why they're trying electric instead.


We need anti gravity and some sort of 'zero point energy'
or similar as invented by tesla many many years ago....

reply to post by SLAYER69

For all of our sakes I hope you're correct. I suppose it's possible that gasoline will not raise in price much, but surely oil companies will raise of other products such as engine oil and lubricants. I recall reading that over 50% of the cost for 1 gallon of gasoline goes to oil companies (I can't recall the source). Oil companies make billions of dollars in profit and they aren't going to give that up without a fight.

[edit on 8/11/2009 by MMP]

reply to post by MMP


To tell you the truth I'm more worried about JOBS!
The Chinese, Germans and Japanese have them and we are loosing them by the droves.


GM's China Car Sales Rise 78%. GM to Cut US jobs by 13,500

OK so let me get this straight!

I'm reading how the present administration wants to help create jobs. We can't let GM fail. So they spend BILLIONS of OUR Tax Dollars on GM. Then they turn around and offer it to the highest bidder. Then Sales sky rocket in GM's Chinese sales. Then they shut down even more factories here in the states. All the while they say they need to expand and get Exports up.

Am I reading this right?

Tell me if I'm off base here, Because If I'm not it's yet another example of TPTB looking out for our best interests.


GM's China Car Sales Rise 78%

BEIJING -- General Motors Corp. said Monday its sales in China surged 77.7% in July from a year earlier to 144,593 vehicles, a record for the month in the company's second-largest market.

"This was GM China's best July ever, extending an uninterrupted series of single-month sales records that started in January 2009," GM said in a statement.

China, which overtook the U.S. in January as the world's largest auto market by sales volume, is playing a key role in GM's recovery after it emerged from bankruptcy protection last month.

The company's sales in China during the January-July period rose 42.8% from a year earlier to 959,035 units. GM didn't provide year-earlier figures. It sold 143,294 vehicles in China in June.

GM buyout offers falls short of goal, layoffs loom

DETROIT — About 6,000 General Motors Co. blue-collar workers have taken the latest round of early retirement and buyout offers, but it fell short of the company's goal, meaning more layoffs are likely.

GM has about 54,000 factory workers and wants to end the year with 40,500, a cut of about 13,500. Monday's report means that about 7,500 too few workers took the offers, setting the stage for more layoffs.

The automaker announced in June and July that it would close 15 U.S. factories employing about 22,000 workers by end of 2012.

reply to post by FredT


Autowrench:
As an automobile engineer, I agree that 230 mpg is unrealistic. The OP makes a good point though....yes, they have been sitting on this, and will continue to sit on stuff until all of the oil is gone, and there is no more, and no more money to be made from it. I cannot imagine to sticker price...I am a 60s child, and man, in my day you could but a full size, big block powered car that would peel the back tires off, and go 150 mph for $2000 or so.

What I want is free energy, and a flying car. We were promised this stuff way back when, and I know the technology exists. I am working right now on a HHO reactor, but there are still some missing things for that too, and I'll bet TPTB have that hidden away too. When will they give it all to us? When we take it, that's when.

reply to post by autowrench


Interesting take. So you dont believe this is possible?