IMAGINE: A DAILY COMMUTE WITHOUT USING A DROP OF GAS

"Automaking giant General Motors on Tuesday said it was preparing to cut production of gas-guzzling SUVs while clearing the road for the electric hybrid Volt. The plug-in vehicle, introduced as a concept car in January 2007, will be powered by a lithium-ion battery that can be recharged either via a regular electrical socket when parked or by an onboard generator while driving.

The standard Volt generator will be configured to run on E85 fuel (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline), but other fuel sources, such as diesel, gasoline or even fuel cells are possible.
"
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,363203,00.html

"The extended-range electric vehicle is no longer just a rumor."
"...designed to use a common 110-volt household plug. For someone who drives less than 40 miles a day, Chevy Volt will use zero gasoline and produce zero emissions."
"We expect a driving range of an estimated 640 miles."

http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/

Some specs...(what concerns me is under "Battery System...Energy: 16kWh (minimum)"...not sure if this is 16kWh being drawn while charging)
http://www.gm.com/explore/entertainment/events/auto_shows/events/naias_2007/press/en/cv01_04.pdf

One more link
http://gm-volt.com/

How I get to & from town without using gas. This was this winters project. 40 MPH, 17 mile range.

40 miles a day?? what does the electricity cost to charge the car?? My diesel jetta will do a 40 mile commute on $4.89 worth of diesel... how much would my electric bill go up?? More I'll bet,, and I don't have to buy new-fangled batteries every year for $1500-2000...

This type of vehicle may work in cities, but not where I live..ever.

Greg L

Wouldn't work here either. I drive 42 miles one way to work and 16 miles one way to a grocery store. Electric bill would kill me, unless I could tow a coal fired generating plant behind me.

LOL, my daily commute consists of walking down to the kitchen to turn the coffee maker on.

Gas would have to be forty seven cents a gallon to be the same to buy electricity for my motorcycle. And...we have about the highest electric rates in the nation. (but I just charge it with my windmill). For sure electric vehicles aren't for everybody, but 50% of households that have two vehicles, one could be electric. We already have the capacity to charge them. You do it at night when not much power is being used. Some states even give off peak rates.

My prediction for the near future (5-10 yrs): Plug in diesel hybrids.

Diesel Hybrids, yes I really do see a future for that technology... There are just too many parts of this country that is NOT in a city.. or even suburbia...and you need some range with your vehicles..

I don't understand why Detroit doesn't try small diesel cars again,, the VW Jetta is a run-away success.. Detroit could put a similar small turbo diesel in the Saturns, the minivans, etc and get good performance AND good fuel mileage..

GM messed up badly in the 70's with their terrible 'experiment' with a 350 V8 converted [badly] to diesel... and it soured the public to diesels.. but they are much more efficient than gassers... Europe sells about 3 diesels to each gasser..

Greg L.

Here in Maine you cannot purchase a new diesel car. The feds in their great wisdom said they pollute too much for us. Diesel pick ups, no problem! But new car dealers are not allowed to sell diesel cars. The Smart Car, which is really only smart in it's diesel version, is not allowed to sell the diesel version in the USA. I'm assuming the Jetta and other efficient diesels run into the same problem of trying to keep uncle Sam happy.

LsFarm wrote:D
GM messed up badly in the 70's with their terrible 'experiment' with a 350 V8 converted [badly] to diesel... and it soured the public to diesels.. but they are much more efficient than gassers... Europe sells about 3 diesels to each gasser..
Greg L.

I used to work on those diesels in the '80's. Blown head gaskets were common, it was a royal pain in the ass torquing the head bolts to 150 ft lbs. One of the guys I worked with left a shop rag near the air intake, it promptly disappeared and the engine kind of ran funny for a while as the rag worked it's way through, little pieces flew out the tailpipe.

The standard Volt generator will be configured to run on E85 fuel (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline), but other fuel sources, such as diesel, gasoline or even fuel cells are possible.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,363203,00.html

LsFarm wrote:Diesel Hybrids, yes I really do see a future for that technology... There are just too many parts of this country that is NOT in a city.. or even suburbia...and you need some range with your vehicles..

Fully agree with you Greg...including the comments about small diesel cars...Lord knows something has got to happen in this country fast...faster than the increase of $ for oil. I'm not a tree hugger (actually have 3 I'm gonna cut down this weekend ) but I much rather walk down a street in the closest city to me and smell the exhaust of more electric/hybrids running around instead of the exhaust of a bunch of diesels.
My commute to town is about 4 miles and my wife's commute to any mall is about 17 miles.
One thing for sure, I won't be standing in line to buy one the first 2 years it comes out...I'll let them work the bugs out of it and I'm sure they'll have more data on electricity use by then. Who knows? By 2011 when these things are suppose to be in full production we might be paying over $10 a gallon for diesel or gas. I'm hoping the Chevy Volt wakes up Ford and Chrysler and gets them on the band wagon also.

http://gm-volt.com/chevy-volt-faqs/

Q: What is the driving range of the Chevy Volt?
A: The car is being designed to drive at least 40 miles on pure electricity stored in the battery from overnight home charging. After that the gas engine will kick in and allow the car to be driven up to 400 miles on a full tank (6-7 gallons) of gas.

Q: How many miles per gallon will the Chevy Volt get?
A: A bit of a trick question. For the first 40 miles it will get infinite mpg, because no gas will be burned. When the generator starts, the car will get an equivalent of 50 mpg thereafter. One can calculate the average mpg per for any length drive starting with a full battery: Total MPG = 50xM/(M-40)

Q: What is the cost of operation of the car
A: With current average U.S. electric rates of ~10 cents/kwh it should cost 80 cents to drive for the first 40 miles, and then get 50 mpg thereafter using gasoline (market rate).

Q; Does the car use regenerative braking?
A: Yes. This means when the car is slowed, the kinetic or motion-based energy will be recaptured as electricity stored in the battery.

I just watched a program about 2 weeks back on discovery about the plug in hybrids . They were saying less than a quarter to drive the first forty miles for electric cost. If washington would give the money they are giving to big oil we could easily put the infrastucture in place to run these vehicles at vitually no further cost to the public as the program stated. In otherwords they wanted the government to subsidise teh cost of the vehicle which is considerably more than a current vehicle of similar size.

I heard an interesting comment on one show where they were discussing an electric car, the electricity in the U.S. grid at night that I'm assuming gets wasted was enough to recharge 180 million cars. I'm assuming that's only a few hours charge but nonetheless if the amount wasted is that much.....

ok

Just a dumb armature plumber so I have to ask

How does the grid "waste" power at night???? its produced and simply send to ground? or are we referring to every street and yard light in so many neighbors yards plus the two in mine to keep the vandals at bay???

Well I'm just a dumb amateur electrician but from my understanding if its not used they can't store it. Where it goes I don't know. I'd imagine they ramp a lot of power stations down at night. A lot of areas have different rates for during the night and day. My uncle for example has an electric hot water heater that heats water at night to store it for the day use to take advantage of the lower rate.