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| Cost to Operate a Chevy Volt; consumer issue | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 26 2014, 05:49 AM (351 Views) | |
| Phillip | Mar 26 2014, 05:49 AM Post #1 |
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Blue Star Member
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Eric Bolling (Fox Business Channel's ‘Follow the Money’) test drove the Chevy ‘Volt’ at the invitation of General Motors. For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine. Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles. It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph. According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery. The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what I pay for electricity. I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery. $18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery. Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile. The gasoline powered car costs about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000........ So the Government wants us to pay 3 times as much, for a car that costs more than 7 times as much to run, and takes 3 times longer to drive across the country..... REALLY ??? Where do I sign ?????????? |
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| Bitsy | Mar 26 2014, 06:31 AM Post #2 |
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Veteran Member
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http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/chevyvolt.asp |
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| Trotsky | Mar 26 2014, 06:40 AM Post #3 |
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Big City Boy
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Phillip, That is impossibly high. Perhaps you mean $.116 per kwhr? Hard to believe they could flummox so badly. So our first shareholder meeting we were told that a whiz in the management company got us 67 cent electricity with hard bargaining. I thought he was going to stand up and take a bow. I was new to the co-op so I resisted the almost overwhelming urge to yell out "ASSHOLE." Our electric rates are preposterously high, but if they ever reach $.67, it is time to break out the candles. Geez, I got better than 30 mpg in my crummy all gasoline Hyundai Excel. Bitsy, I understand the snopes debunking but really, the 30-odd miles per gallon pretty much sucks and it seems valid for anything like a vacation trip. I think hybrids are the way to go currently where braking charges the battery and the car runs it's own generator efficiently when necessary to keep the battery charged. If the data as presented is correct, the Volt is really a 25 mile per day car...back and forth to the office. And at that price tag, it would be cheaper to take a cab. It can't REALLY cost $46K, can it? Research, research, research..>TAH DAH http://www.carpricesecrets.com/chevrolet/volt?mkwid=sZjhS0WhL&pcrid=39184540298&pmt=b&pkw=%2Bchevy%20%2Bvolt&pdv=c&pse=google&gclid=CLPw5Mmirr0CFYFQOgodaQQArw Seems it really costs about $27,000 and will go 37 miles on electric power...somewhat better. Again better:
But scary:
Yo...that kind of voltage will toast the testicles of a clumsy do-it-yourselfer. Prediction: these cars are going to FLAME OUT. Edited by Trotsky, Mar 26 2014, 10:16 AM.
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| Bitsy | Mar 26 2014, 09:31 AM Post #4 |
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Veteran Member
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It is obvious that Phillip got one of those anonymous emails and chose to post it without check for the authenticity of the content. signs081 |
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| Deleted User | Mar 26 2014, 09:54 AM Post #5 |
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Deleted User
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Thanx for the Snopes commentary, Bitsy. We are considering purchasing a volt next year. |
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| haili | Mar 26 2014, 01:34 PM Post #6 |
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Gold Star Member
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My daughter's friend has had one for a year or more and loves it. |
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| Delphi51 | Mar 26 2014, 01:49 PM Post #7 |
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Member title
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Electric cars have an environmental benefit only when the electricity comes from hydro, wind or solar. The electric car cannot have effective heating or cooling on battery power so it is only comfortable year round in a near California climate. |
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| FuzzyO | Mar 26 2014, 01:57 PM Post #8 |
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Would this not be considered a hybrid rather than an electric car? |
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| wildie | Mar 26 2014, 03:40 PM Post #9 |
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Veteran Member
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That's to say the least! That much voltage would likely blow his testicles out his ears! |
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| Trotsky | Mar 27 2014, 01:01 AM Post #10 |
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Big City Boy
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From the SNOPES refutation:
Firstly, one might think that a place like the New York City area might be ideal for the 30 mile round trip kind of driving...no wide open spaces to be found. BUT there's a glitch called Con-Ed, the electric company. Thus the $.127 average cost of electricity is not pertinent. Total electric cost to the consumer has been running $.32, give or take, in Fall weather and then spiked to $.42 in January. It will likely spike in Summer again because peak usage is even higher. But let's just use the low constant before they start making excuses for spike months ("Ohhh, natural gas has gotten SOOO expensive so we need to up the electricity rates.) At the $.32 figure using the Snopes and original numbers we get .32/.127 x $1.70 = $4.28 to drive the 25 miles or quite a bit MORE to drive in electric mode than in gasoline mode. (Any decent compact can get more than 25 miles out of $4.28 worth of gas.) At the $3.57 cost of gasoline national average, which pertains in the NYC Metro area) that 25 / (4.28 / 3.57) = 20.8 mpg in electric mode. The car simply cannot compete unless electricity is EXTREMELY cheap, or the car is extremely cheap...neither of which seems to be true at least in my neck of the woods. And, like Delphi says, if you must use fossil fuels to generate the electricity at a HUGE efficiency loss you are not even helping the environment but quite the opposite. I do NOT see a future for this design concept. A hybrid is EMINENTLY more sensible from every angle. Jesus, check the wipikepia entry for the Volt.
That must have been written by the Chairman of GM. What did they do, run the car for exactly a mile farther than the battery would take them? Talk about torturing data. And then look what "Hawthorne Chevrolet" adverts:
Gotta wonder why they didn't say 1000 MPG! With bullshit like this, now does a normal consumer make a judgement. One might almost assume the government is complicit is making sure the Volt sells and GM makes a profit. Hmmm, can anyone think of a reason the government would do this??? laugh123 <Tongue planted firmly in cheek.> Edited by Trotsky, Mar 27 2014, 01:24 AM.
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| Trotsky | Mar 27 2014, 01:40 AM Post #11 |
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Big City Boy
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Fuzzy, The way I take it, a hybrid can drive a car's wheels either with a combustion engine or with an electric engine. The Volt, if I read it correctly, is always driven by the electric motor, with a gasoline engine being used only to drive a generator to produce electricity to power the electric motor and/or charge the batteries. Correct me I'm wrong here? My transportation involves only a walk to the bus stop or subway station cross 07, so I can only report what I read. But perhaps it is a distinction without a difference, I too feel that an electric car should be an ELECTRIC car...like the Tesla which get 250 miles on a charge. Alas the car costs a friggen FORTUNE. Seems a bit silly to make a gasoline car and then toss on a 25 mile capability pile of batteries??? A wrongheaded and half-assed approach, every corporation's right, but when it involves public subsidies it becomes an issue for all of us. The reality "Hey guys, we'd LOVE to build an electric car but we cannot since we're GM, so when you run out of electricity, like you will quickly, never fear, we stuck in a gasoline engine to get you home. Besides we feel SO guilty about tossing out a good electric car because the oil companies demanded it." Watch (Who Killed The Electric Car detailing GM's building and destroying a very nice electric car that got 100 miles per charge...30 years ago.) Edited by Trotsky, Mar 27 2014, 02:14 AM.
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