PCA Forums

DETROIT — Early buyers of the Chevrolet Volt electric car could receive a free home-charging station through a U.S. Department of Energy program, General Motors said.
The Volt goes on sale late this year, and 4,400 customers will be eligible for a 240-volt charge station from ECOtality or Coulomb Technologies. In many cases, it will include the cost of home installation.

It's all being paid for through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Many owners will plug their Volt into a normal 120-volt electrical outlet, charge overnight and drive to work in the morning using only battery power," Tony DiSalle, product and marketing director for the Chevrolet Volt, said Thursday in a statement. "For Volt owners who want to install a faster 240-volt charge station, we expect the Department of Energy project to save $1,000 to $2,000."

The program will collect data from customers to learn about average charge times and time of use so that the Energy Department can better understand how electric vehicles are used.

GM has said the Volt will be able to go 40 miles on an electrical charge alone. After that, an onboard gasoline generator will provide power to recharge the batteries and keep the vehicle going.

Tony Posawatz, Volt vehicle line director, said a 240-volt charger will recharge the car in about four hours.

He said some of the program's engineers already have installed 240-volt outlets to charge test versions of the Volt at home.

"These guys would never use any gas on the weekends unless they would drive the Volt up north," he said. "We're learning through the whole process that the charging experience is important to us."

Meanwhile, electric and hybrid vehicles are expected to help increase the sale of global alternative-fuel vehicles by 28% this year compared with last, according to a new report by J.D. Power and Associates. That outpaces an expected 8% industrywide increase this year.

(this sounds like if you have pre order a Volt -you get a bonus .if you wait you get a car but no charger to keep it running after you get it home. but for a extra 2 grand we have a home charging system you can buy.
WTH is good is a eletric car if you can't charge it when you buy it new for $40,000 plus. but i guess if you can shell out 40 plus grand whats a extra 5% ?)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/201 ... htm?csp=15

All lies. The volt will never make it to market!! its what... 5 years late?

I am actually hoping for the volt, because in some ways, it'll be America's only real high demand vehicle (if they can keep the price down).

normalicy wrote:I am actually hoping for the volt, because in some ways, it'll be America's only real high demand vehicle (if they can keep the price down).

the talk around here -and from what i have read in news papers is they are going to ask around 40 grand . i have a Nephew who works at GM .he said he planning on getting one when its avail . he works in product development.

then keep this in mind
Car and Driver's Brock Yates—no fan of hybrids—wrote, "battery replacement will cost $5,300 for the Toyota and Lexus hybrids, and the Ford Escape replacements run a whopping $7,200."
http://www.hybridcars.com/economics/hidden-costs.html

I don't see the battery replacement as a problem. Prius batteries have an 8 year or 100,000 mile warranty and I believe you can buy an extension for 10 years /120K. Since the first Prius was released in 2001 they seem to be lasting it 7 - 8 years easily, which I think is quite remarkable. Anyone buying one up front knows that they have a battery replacement down the road some day.

Most people sell or trade in a car before it's 8 years old, and most non-electric cars need a transmission job after 8 years so the cost is somewhat comparable if it fails past warranty.

renovation wrote:DETROIT — Early buyers of the Chevrolet Volt electric car could receive a free home-charging station through a U.S. Department of Energy program, General Motors said.
The Volt goes on sale late this year, and 4,400 customers will be eligible for a 240-volt charge station from ECOtality or Coulomb Technologies. In many cases, it will include the cost of home installation.

It's all being paid for through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Many owners will plug their Volt into a normal 120-volt electrical outlet, charge overnight and drive to work in the morning using only battery power," Tony DiSalle, product and marketing director for the Chevrolet Volt, said Thursday in a statement. "For Volt owners who want to install a faster 240-volt charge station, we expect the Department of Energy project to save $1,000 to $2,000."

The program will collect data from customers to learn about average charge times and time of use so that the Energy Department can better understand how electric vehicles are used.

GM has said the Volt will be able to go 40 miles on an electrical charge alone. After that, an onboard gasoline generator will provide power to recharge the batteries and keep the vehicle going.

Tony Posawatz, Volt vehicle line director, said a 240-volt charger will recharge the car in about four hours.

He said some of the program's engineers already have installed 240-volt outlets to charge test versions of the Volt at home.

"These guys would never use any gas on the weekends unless they would drive the Volt up north," he said. "We're learning through the whole process that the charging experience is important to us."

Meanwhile, electric and hybrid vehicles are expected to help increase the sale of global alternative-fuel vehicles by 28% this year compared with last, according to a new report by J.D. Power and Associates. That outpaces an expected 8% industrywide increase this year.

(this sounds like if you have pre order a Volt -you get a bonus .if you wait you get a car but no charger to keep it running after you get it home. but for a extra 2 grand we have a home charging system you can buy.
WTH is good is a eletric car if you can't charge it when you buy it new for $40,000 plus. but i guess if you can shell out 40 plus grand whats a extra 5% ?)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/201 ... htm?csp=15

Ren,

The volt takes a standard 110v by default and takes I think 8 hours. They are talking about a 240v "quick" charger which takes 4.

If the thing was 25-30k it might do well. But at 40k, it really a novelty for the rich.

The car I'm really interested in seeing is the Tesla Model S:

http://www.teslamotors.com/models/

Still too pricey at $50K but if they sell enough of them the price will come down. The technology has been proven on the $100K Roadster model. All electric and they can consistently get 245+ miles on a single charge in real world use.

More technical details on the charging system here:
http://www.teslamotors.com/electric/charging.php

FlyingPenguin wrote:The car I'm really interested in seeing is the Tesla Model S:

http://www.teslamotors.com/models/

Still too pricey at $50K but if they sell enough of them the price will come down. The technology has been proven on the $100K Roadster model. All electric and they can consistently get 245+ miles on a single charge in real world use.

More technical details on the charging system here:
http://www.teslamotors.com/electric/charging.php

On May 19, 2009, Germany's Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes, acquired an equity stake of less than 10 percent of Tesla for a reported US$50 million.[29] As part of the collaboration, Prof. Herbert Kohler, Vice President E-Drive and Future Mobility at Daimler AG, took a seat on Tesla’s board of directors.[30] In July, Daimler announced that Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments bought 40 percent of Daimler's interest in Tesla.[31]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors

After reading this, the idiots at GM killed the EV1 which showed lots of promise.

While customer reaction to the EV1 was positive, GM believed that electric cars occupied an unprofitable niche of the automobile market as they were only able to lease 800 units in face of production costs of US$1 billion over four years.[9] An alliance of the major automakers litigated the CARB regulation in court, resulting in a slackening of the ZEV stipulation, permitting the companies to produce super-low-emissions vehicles, natural gas vehicles, and hybrid cars in place of pure electrics. The EV1 program was subsequently discontinued in 2002, and all cars on the road were repossessed. Lessees were not given the option to purchase their cars from GM, which cited parts, service, and liability regulations.[5] The majority of the repossessed EV1s were crushed, and the rest delivered to museums and educational institutes with their electric powertrains deactivated, under the agreement that the cars were not to be reactivated and driven on the road.

The EV1's discontinuation remains controversial, with electric car enthusiasts, environmental interest groups and former EV1 lessees accusing GM of self-sabotaging its electric car program to avoid potential losses in spare parts sales, while also blaming the oil industry for conspiring to keep electric cars off the road.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EV1

Tesla also partnered with Toyota: http://green.venturebeat.com/2010/05/20 ... lets-slip/

They also got a half billion low interest loan from the US government last year: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/san ... ily18.html

Everyone who has a $100K+ Tesla Sportster is just elated with it. If they can put the same tech in a more affordable car for the masses, I'm all over it.

From what I know, some manufacturers are considering reducing the discharge of the batteries to increase life (only allowing the user to drain the battery to 30% charge or so). Sure, it'll reduce range, but they're expecting about 30-40% increase in battery life. That right there will be nice.

Also, if these things ever end up getting mass produced, there will likely be reduced battery prices in line as well.

All that said, until they come out with ones that are in the $15-25,000 range, electric will not be taking off in a big way any time soon.

FlyingPenguin wrote:Tesla also partnered with Toyota: http://green.venturebeat.com/2010/05/20 ... lets-slip/

They also got a half billion low interest loan from the US government last year: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/san ... ily18.html

Everyone who has a $100K+ Tesla Sportster is just elated with it. If they can put the same tech in a more affordable car for the masses, I'm all over it.

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/C2jv39qUXeA&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/C2jv39qUXeA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

The first gen Sportsters are for the wealthy first adopters. Reliability has actually been good on the single speed model. They aren't designed to be run flat out on a test track like Top Gear did, though.

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AXd9g-RqlrA&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AXd9g-RqlrA&hl ... fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

After reading this, the idiots at GM killed the EV1 which showed lots of promise

What is idiotic about killing a program with $1 billion in production costs and your only by direct revenue stream is the value of 800 vehicle leases?

GM built the EV-1 so they could sell their other cars in California. They gave the users sweetheart leases and when the courts killed the California Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate, did away with the program.

I wonder if all those users who mourned the loss of their EV-1's would have paid $125,000.00 for one.

It is now eleven years since GM "killed" the electric car. No other vehicle manufacturer in the world - except Tesla - has decided to bet their company on an electric vehicle since the EV-1, even with real advances in batteries.

Toyota lost a lot of money on the Prius for a lot of years. They had the financial muscle to do so and it was a visionary and very risky move. Even so, notice that a hybrid is fueled only by gasoline, relies mostly on its gasoline engine and uses the electric motor to augment a conventional drivetrain.

I hope the Volt works out for GM. Although it is popularly held in very low esteem, GM has serious engineering talent and actually has a history of implementing technological innovation.

Yeah $1 billion because of the greedy unions. I doubt I would buy a car from government motors any time soon. I hope Tesla Motors makes it. I would love to have their roadster.

I hope this car saves GM. I'd hate to see another automotive icon gone. I'm really curious as to how these cars behave in cold weather. I'd also like to see a sedan with AWD using independent motors for each wheel.