Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
Jammer,
You're right that the rest of the country is not as Chevy friendly these days. In Northeast TN I see way more Honda's than anything else. We have three to four dealerships within thirty miles depending on what part of the tricities you live in. Any time I pull up to a stop light I have a habit of counting what manufacturer is represented. Most of the time there are multiple Honda's and just one of everything else.
This is clearly not representative of the rest of the country because Toyota's sales numbers are higher so I am sure there is a region where everyone drives a Toyota and has never heard of anything else...
The volt's MPG and efficiency are definitely a stunt that most of us here recognize. MPGe shouldn't be measured in equivalent energy stored(how they got the really high 230) but in a conversion of cost/mile or if you prefer a less useful metric CO2/mile.
They didn't do that on purpose. 230 mpg sounds pretty impressive even here in the hypermile community, out there it sounds astounding. When compared to the cost/mile of a diesel or a sipper gasser its not all that impressive. The volt probably gets less than 1 kwhr for 33 miles like most of the EVs here get close to. Its just too heavy and too big(CDa). That kept in mind with charging inefficiencies, battery depletion/lifetime, the car to go 40 miles on EV reliably would need at least 10 KWhr or the batteries woul go belly up after 2 years.
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I have often been down to north east Tennessee, near Bristol. I do see more Hondas down there, but to be honest I see a more deserve market of cars in general there. Here in east/mid Kentucky We still have mostly "The Big Three" (small 3?) cars and pickups on the roads, with the slight edge given to Chevy, based on a recent count of cars I did in Morehead Ky recently. However we are starting to see more Hondas and Toyotas here. But we still have a lot of "good ole boys" here that will always be either Chevy or Ford folks, with a mix of Dodge Pickup truck lovers (despite some of these trucks being big-gas hogs, some owners advise me they get 9 MPG at times!Newer trucks seem better).