Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

IBM was hosting the Chevrolet Volt Unplugged tour on our campus today, partially because IBM was involved in producing some of the software used on the car. With that, they brought the car to our campus and let us take a look, ask questions, and even get a test drive. Unfortunately the line for the test drive was too long, so I can't speak to that. Without further ado, here's some pictures (Click to enlarge):

Marc said 13 minutes later

I must say, I'm quite unimpressed with this vehicle (Especially after seeing and reading about the Tesla electric cars). The 40-50 mile range is OK, but not for the price. 40K is really steep for people trying to save money. That and the base Tesla vehicle is only slightly more expensive and you get 160 mile range on battery. It's also a much faster car which is a bonus. Keep in mind that plugging these cars in at night to charge is going to be like running an additional drier or refrigerator, so your electric bill will go up. At 40-50 mile range, you'll likely need to plug in every night.

The exterior of this car sucks. The front looks like a new Malibu, which is fine, but the back end looks like a Honda Insight. Why?! The black back looks OK in this color, but they had some white Volts here and it looked atrocious on those. I remember seeing the concept style for this car a while back and it looked awesome, but they dropped that entirely.

The interior of this car is odd. The dashboard looks better than the typical GM vehicle, but look at those yellow/greenish color door panels. That "accent" piece is all over the interior and is childish and ugly. The only reason the interior doesn't suck is due to the nice GPS/LCD screen in the center console.

I don't know enough about the technology, but I'm really surprised there's no regenerative charging. I assume it's too expensive, but when you're running on a combustion engine, it seems like a waste to not charge the battery. On a related and relatively funny note, the car has an additional 12V battery used when starting it. :)

I'm hoping GM didn't put all their chips in for this car, as I don't think it's gonna be a hit. It may not be a miss, but it's just a foot in the electric door for GM, it's not going to lead the pack by any means when its competitors still beat it in a lot of categories and have been out for quite some time.
Geoff said about 1 hour later

Tesla is still a ways off. Production begins in 2012 for the $50k Model S...assuming it really even gets off the ground. So in fairness, I wouldn't compare the volt to the Tesla until they have a production vehicle on the road (and not the $100+ Roadster).

Having said that, the Volt will fail. It is far too expensive, and 40-50 mile range, which in most cases will be impossible to achieve unless under the optimal conditions, is pretty low. As I had said earlier when the Volt was really being pushed by GM, it would ONLY have a chance for success if gas was still above $4 gallon and rising. At $5/gallon, I think you could more than justify the costs to charge up the car for people with commutes like me where I'd should never have to fill the gas tank up going to work.

Since the climate has changed a bit, and gas is generally below $3/gallon, I think I'd rather own a Fusion Hybrid. For 27K, you get better styling, power, and really, a car that feels like a regular car...which just happens to get 40mpg on the highway. It is a practical sedan which gets killer gas mileage and just happens to be one of the best vehicles on the road today. Win win.
GJ said about 2 hours later

Marc, the car does have a regenerative mode--when in that mode, the car works like an AFX car (no joke). Accelerator on, car moves, accelerator off, car decelerates due to regenerative action on the drive train (and slows considerably).

Overall, the car might make sense for a specific kind of buyer--that is, the one who will use it primarily as a commuter car and stay within its electrical range for most of their driving. The car has an extremely complicated transmission--I'd be very concerned as to the longevity of this car for both that and the battery pack. That plus the price is likely going to keep this a novelty for at least a year or two. While I think Geoff's argument about the Fusion being a better car has a lot of weight, I'd add that I'm not sure the Volt offers enough to truly distinguish itself from the Prius, which gets better gas mileage, costs less, and has shown already to be fairly reliable.

It's definitely not going to "save" GM. I think the Cruze is a far better shot in the arm for GM, in my opinion.
Marc said about 2 hours later

The marketing guy certainly didn't know about the regenerative breaking and based on the article you showed me it does sound like a hidden and not too fun mode you can put the car in. I'm really surprised about the alternator though. Perhaps not enough power to give a decent charge back to the battery?
Geoff said about 8 hours later

I wonder, does this car have two batteries? One for power and the other for typical accessories, lighting, etc...? I would think if it has two, the alternator has enough on it's plate.
Marc said about 11 hours later

The marketing guy said the car has a typical 12V battery in addition to the rest of the batteries. He said it's used for just starting the car, then I assume the rest is taken over by the big batteries.
Steve said 2 days later

Styling - I really like the car. It looks sharp, especially in red. I've seen a lot of them on the road, and the red ones are sweet. Why does it look like an Insight? Same reason that the Insight looks like a Prius. Aerodynamics. That's the shape you're going to get used to seeing on cars aiming for top fuel economy.

Fuel economy - 34 mpg is not correct. 34 mpg is what you get when the engine is running. Not the average fuel economy for normal drivers. Lots of magazines have been testing these cars, and in combined electric only and electric plus gas, they average 60-90 mpg. That's in one days driving. Sure, on a cross country trip where you can't recharge, you only get 34 mpg. But if you plug in every night, you'll get much better. One mag drove the car very hard and averaged 60 mpg.

Price - price is reasonable. The car is a sizeable car, not the size of a Prius or Insight. It's also going to give you the fuel economy of a Prius, and then some. It's also the first plug in hybrid being put up for sale to the public.

Tesla - I'll beleive it when I see it, them coming out with a good car for $50K or less. Same goes for Fisker, I don't think we'll ever see their car show up. That said, I saw a Tesla roadster run up the drag strip today, and wow that thing took off fast! Something about instant peak torque. Still only ran a mid 15 second time, not sure if it just runs out of juice at higher speed or what.

I think the Volt is a good thing for GM. They don't claim it's going to be their savior. The Cruze, Malibu, Camaro, Buicks, trucks, etc are what keep the company going. The Volt is a great move in the right direction, and will help expand the plug in hybrid field. For all those talking smack about GM and the Volt, I sure hope you're not the ones that were complaining when GM took back all of the Impact electric cars.

I give props to GM for going out on a limb with this car. I hope it's successful for them.

Marc said 2 days later

I don't necessarily mind the shape of the vehicle, it's actually relatively normal shaped, especially compared to the Insight. But what the heck is the point of the random black trunk? The Insight has the same design, so I find it odd that GM decided to go that route unless there's some reason it's needed. I've always thought it was ugly on the Insight and it doesn't look any better on the Volt.

Perhaps GM didn't bring their 'A' game marketers, because they never mentioned anything about the combined MPG. They basically said 34 with the gas engine and infinite with the battery. Naturally telling me infinite is the fastest way for me to dismiss your claims. :) I guess you could blame me for not asking the right questions, but they should know 34 isn't exactly mind boggling, so throwing out numbers like 60-90 would be a good idea.

I don't think the price is necessarily unreasonable for what the car provides, but it's a catch-22. $40k is outside a lot of people's price range for a car. Even with the discount, $30k is outside the range IMO. The people who will want or need to save this money, may not be able to afford the monthly payments. Perhaps if they offered a nice low-price lease it would feasible, but I don't think GM is going to be able to do that.

Another note that I didn't mention is the life of these batteries. I asked the guy how long he thought the batteries would last and he said they can't give a definitive length since there's so many factors which determine battery life. That's a fair statement, but then I asked: "Well what happens if my batteries die 5 years after I bought the car" and he said they offer a 10 year/80,000 mile warranty which will include battery replacement. But if I drive my usual 15k miles a year, I'll hit that 80k in a little over 5 years, so it doesn't really solve my problem. I imagine those batteries are a several thousand dollar replacement, so that would have to be factored into the price savings too. I guess most people don't keep cars much longer than 5 years, so maybe it's not a big issue for most.

If it turns out that people really like the car and buy tons of it, I'm all for it, GM could use the money. But I think I'll wait for the next generation electric cars before I'll consider it.
Geoff said 2 days later

I agree with some things Steve said, I think it is a move in the right direction, and if what he says us true about MPG, that's not too shabby. I'd like to know what real world driving puts the battery charge at. I imagine something around 30 miles. I still think the practicality of these is a few years off in development, but you do have to start somewhere I guess. I still have my doubts about it's success in the marketplace unless gas skyrockets again or until they can get the cost of the vehicle down to a reasonable level.

Interesting to hear about the roadster. They claim 0-60 in 3.6 seconds...but a 15s 1/4 mile run tells me the batteries don't have enough juice in the high end or perhaps the gearing is off (or it weighs too much). I guess could be a number of things, but I was watching American Chopper a few weeks ago where they were trying to create the fastest battery powered drag bike (and they did break the world record running a mid 7 second in the 1/4mile). I know they were about a second and a half off on their first initial runs and weight was a huge factor. Also needed to adjust gearing so it may not JUST be a battery issue. Either way, 0-60 in 3.6 seconds is plenty freaking fast!
GJ said 3 days later

The Tesla, last I checked, is using a single gear. They've toyed with twin gears, but the torque band for an electric motor is nothing like a gas engine (read: it's way better) and so transmissions can be way less complicated. I think they may eventually go back to a two-speed in the Tesla, but you won't need anything like the four, five, six, seven speeds found on high performance gas engines due to their narrow power bands.