ljbad4life
Member
A more efficient connection, maybe, but gas engines just don't seem to be able to get over 100 miles, or 150 miles with careful driving, on a gallon of gas equivalent, like electric motors can. (I got 164 mpge on my RAV with careful driving on back country roads once)
The Volt is typical of GM, in my mind. It produces a standard truck, puts a big, heavier body on it, changes a few rubber hoses, calls it a Cadillac, and puts a badge on the sides and back "FLEX fuel", where hardly anyone ever puts E85 in it. Hype and mirrors and call it EV to cloud the issue. Sell half a million and run most of them on gas most of the time.
you do know that the average consumer/driver does not want to modify their driving habits to eek out more miles? Driving without heat/ac, driving slowly, planning their trips etc are too much for a lot of people. Hence tesla's montra of EV without compromises. The only way to get that witha BEV is a large range. 100 miles - hvac use- low/high temps = very short range. I sure wouldn't spend 30k on a car that I can't be comfortable in just to eek out the range I was quoted by the car co.
I'm not a fan of the volt (im buying a model S), but it serves it's prupose. It can greatly reduce the amount of gas somone uses even down to nothing if someone stays within it's range. At this point ev infrastucture on the east coast and mid west is severally lacking.
I live in NYC and travel to boston regularly. Do you know how many charging stations there are in nyc? 3! 3 chargers! I know you can top off with 110, but level one charging takes a large amount of time. Until charging infrastructure improves outside of cherry picked places, the volt will have it's place.