But but but, I thought you just said the Volt is driven on the battery some 90% of the time?
My point is that until Tesla Motors became successful with the Model S, most people were entirely unaware of
'range' beyond knowing that descriptions of electric cars always included the word
'short' in front of it.
Americans are notoriously afraid of mathematics
(and science). Anything that has to do with proportions, or statistics, or ranges simply put them to sleep. So, they concentrate on simple things instead. Because really, most don't actually understand what the phrase
'miles per gallon' means at all. They just listen for the number in front of it, and believe that the bigger the number the better*. They don't even know how many miles they get per tank of gasoline. They just automatically start looking for a gas station when the needle/indicator approaches the 1/4 tank mark, no matter how far they have driven.
The moment that a
'long range' electric vehicle became available, people began to point out how many cars had longer ranges, and determined that EVs were impractical, never
'ready for prime time'. None of them noted that the amount of energy stored in a Model S 85 was equivalent to 2.5 gallons of gasoline. Yet the cars could travel over 250 miles. They had also forgotten how often they used to fill up with gasoline, or why it was possible for them to go so far with it today.
For the longest time, just about any vehicle at all that was capable of 0-60 MPH in under six seconds... Or completing the 1/4 mile in less than twelve seconds... Was an absolute gas guzzler by default. If you were lucky, highway fuel economy would be as much as 12-15 MPG. City driving would give you perhaps 8-10 MPG. So even with a 20 gallon tank, if you drove to EMPTY, you'd manage 300 miles at best... And only 225 miles if you stopped to refill at a 1/4 tank left.
The only reason cars are able to do better now is because of the EPA's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which the entire traditional automobile industry has fought against tooth and nail since 1976.
Several technologies and techniques have been developed to improve range, by increasing the distance one could travel per each individual gallon of fuel. And none of those companies wanted to do it. They claimed that combined with emissions requirements, the fuel economy standards meant their cars would be wimpier, slower, less desirable than ever before and that their Customers didn't want to drive those types of cars.
Had the Detroit Big Three been able to do things their way, without
'government interference' 400 ci, 400 HP, 4-barrel carburetors, 4-on-the-floor, and dual exhaust would still rule American roads from sea to shining sea. So what if they got 3 MPG City and 5 MPG Highway? They would be POWERFUL... And gasoline is eternal, right?
The same guys who argued against fuel injection, overhead cams, computer control systems, continuously variable automatic transmissions, and hybrid electric gasoline engines now celebrate those very same technologies as examples of how ICE vehicles are today
'superior' to even long range EVs. They simply cannot accept that the time has come to change.
The funny thing is that green car freaks also argued vehemently against Tesla Motors' strategy. They insisted that
'carrying around that much weight in a battery pack' was wholly unnecessary and that it would be better to just have small, short range city cars that were low performance and inexpensive to purchase as an example of where the automotive industry should go. Interesting that they would want to lock people in a tight loop of driving no further than from home, to work, and back home, with no freedom to travel elsewhere at all.
The Toyota Prius is a car that people probably still stop to fill up when the needle gets to the 1/4 tank mark. They probably don't realize they've driven a bit over 520 miles. They probably only notice how seldom they have to do so. And many of them probably don't take long trips in their Prius if they don't have to -- they'll take the Sienna instead.
Am I wrong to imagine a world where a Chevrolet VOLT driver would have 100 miles of fully electric range available to him on a daily basis... And that if he chose to take a road trip, after filling up at a gas station he too could cover 500+ miles before reaching a 1/4 tank and thinking that maybe they should fill up again? That is a dynamic that has worked so well for the Prius. It has resulted in more sales per year, for 11 years straight, than VOLT has managed in its entire existence.
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* Well, except for V8 gearhead performance car nuts. Those guys believe the exact opposite. They believe that the lower the MPG, the better. "Boy, it don't git but 3 miles per gallon! This sucker here RUNS!" They associate 'power' and demonstration of immediate performance with the unmitigated, unrelenting, unrestrained consumption of gasoline. From their point of view, efficiency is measured by the number of gallons of fuel that can be translated into forward motion in the shortest possible amount of time. And a lot of those guys don't actually accept that their favorite drag racing vehicles have been running on an 'alternative fuel' for around four decades, and performing better year after year through the 1/4 mile than was ever possible with gasoline, whether leaded or unleaded.
