Chevy Volt Electric Car

[Caeser2001]

How does giving up your gasoline powered car with strict emissions to buy a battery powered Chevy Volt that requires being charged by electricity constitute being "green", considering how much of our electricity comes via coal?

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...rly-look_N.htm

[Ten*K]

How does giving up your gasoline powered car with strict emissions to buy a battery powered Chevy Volt that requires being charged by electricity constitute being "green", considering how much of our electricity comes via coal?

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...rly-look_N.htm

not to mention that the materials used to make the car are incredibly hazardous, and I wouldn't even want to be in the same TOWN as one involved in an accident.

no thanks. Honda's got a new motor that breaks down regular pump gas into ions and burns at an incredibly clean and efficient rate while able to still plenty of power due in 2011-12. BMW is building a 1.3 liter tri-turbo engine (a single turbo with 3 variable internal gates for optimal performance no matter the rpm) that's able to pump out 225 ponies and get over 80 mpg.

solar and solar electric in a car is just pointless. on a HOUSE, yes, great... not so much under a hood.

[MuzzleFlash]

It's simple. Once we're all driving electric cars powered by the grid, our savior Obama will throw money at the clean coal project until the only byproducts are diamonds, filtered air, filtered water, and singing butterflies that leave a rainbow trail.

This could have a tactical advantage. If the vehicles are powered by coal, it reduces our dependence correct? On the flip side, that may free up the barrels, dropping the price, which would then be bought up by China as their production goes through the roof on cheap fuel.
I think the ultimate goal is to switch to a combination of nuclear and natural power sources, so putting cars on the grid does make some shred of sense. Even though the power plants won't catch up and be 'green' for probably a decade or more, at which point you'll be in the market for a new and much better car.

[pandemic]

The biggest joke is ethanol. The only thing it does is reduce our need on foreign oil. Tip: buy gas w/o ethanol. It's not such a big deal now but when it was $4/gal it made a world of difference. 10% ethanol mix yields lower energy than 0% ethanol. So it takes more fuel to drive 10% ethanol. I dont think I explained it that well but... I'll go with it for now

[autotech6506]

the volt can only go 75 miles on a charge. To get the rest of the way it has a small gas powered generator to drive the car. This setup gets you the equivalent of 100 miles to the gallon. I'm not sure I get the whole hazardous materials thing because all cars have a battery it's just that the volt has a larger one and i'm sure it is very well protected in a crash.

I think they priced themselves out of the market though. I've heard 30 to 40k. I'd buy it if it was an affordable car because my commute is only 1.5 miles.

[Emptymag]

Oh, and as for the question posed by the OP, I'm not certain, but it seems that giving the APPEARANCE of being "green" is much, much more important than actually doing it.

[GHogHarvester]

Oh, boy - where to start...

A massive recycling problem with batteries.
An extreme fire problem from damaged batteries in an accident.
Replacement batteries that cost 20-30% the cost of the vehicle.
Batteries that last only 20% of the life of the vehicle.
A power grid that is incapable of carrying the 100kw-hrs needed to recharge (85 amps for 10 hours).
No recharging infrastructure for long trips.
Coal fired electricity generation that is less than 40% efficient.
The coming cap and trade that will push electricy costs far above that of equivalent liquid fuels.

<government mode on>
It's a great idea. Let's inflitrate GM and make them do it.
<government mode off>

Ethanol (cellulosic, not corn) or butanol with fuel cells is a better path IMO.

[bgeddes]

The biggest joke is ethanol. The only thing it does is reduce our need on foreign oil. Tip: buy gas w/o ethanol. It's not such a big deal now but when it was $4/gal it made a world of difference. 10% ethanol mix yields lower energy than 0% ethanol. So it takes more fuel to drive 10% ethanol. I don't think I explained it that well but... I'll go with it for now

Ethanol only produces about 60% of the energy gasoline does by volume. As we buy fuel in a quantity of gallons, buying a mixed fuel will yield less energy than straight gasoline.

[Brick]

Funny I can recall people discussing the Volt when the GM bigwigs drove one to plead for money. I distinctly recall the range was 40 miles and the reason it stuck is because it is 22 miles from my house to the nearest grocery store. That makes it an immediate fail afaic.

The Volt will do nothing to mitigate the total amount of carbon dioxide "pollution" it will only relocate to the place where the electricity is generated.

But, then if they keep making the cars smaller and lighter, they can make accident clean-up and disposal of fatalities more efficient by using the car as a coffin and burying the whole mess,

[ALS]

At $40K the Volt is way over priced. You can get a Fusion Hybrid under $28K that will get you similar mileage.

In fact last weekend a team of drivers including Carl Edwards took at Fusion Hybrid for a short drive. They ran out of gas at 1,445 miles or 81.5 mpg