No kidding, a turbo on a range extender was a really dumb idea. They should have just use the 1.0liter then it would have been cheaper, lighter, and more efficient. But they decided to use the Volt as a Range Extender instead of a battery charger so once the battery hits it's Depth of Discharge boom it's ICE powered till you plug in the battery. Thankfully the inefficiency of going through the generator and the drive motor is at least respectable or it'd get worse efficiency than an ICE powered Volt.
There is other variables too. The durability of a 1.0liter Turbo could be less than the 1.4liter if it was ran with the turbo running even half of the time. Turboes are not a good choice on Electric Vehicles anyway.
Why use a diesel?
It's heavier and more expensive. That alone disqualified it before we had a chance to even consider. I'd love to discuss it more. Now with DI getting more expensive I don't doubt the price is becoming comparable to Diesels. But Diesel is necessary for Commercial vehicles so any more competition with business is bad in my book.
And I agree with you dcb. But when they build a mass market car that annoying ICE needs to be silent for them consumers. I don't mind a noisy car even if it is a bit annoying but the silent ones are the dangerous ones. The Prius received flak for being quiet at <35mph but many cars could run you over before you heard them coming at much faster speeds. Double standards. I grew up being extremely cautious about roads and when I did start spending a lot of time around traffic I would still be caught off guard by vehicles that I couldn't see or hear until they were too close for comfort.
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-Allch Chcar
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