Quote:
Originally Posted by tjts1
If you can't tell the difference between a hybrid and an EV or an EV with an on board generator, I'm sorry. I can't help you there. At this point the Volt is little more than a Prius with 1000 lb worth of extra hardware tacked on and a 75% price premium. And the whole 230mpg thing was down right shameful.
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As I suspected: You're misunderstood. Entirely.
Can a Prius run at highway speeds on battery power alone? No.
Can a Prius run for 40 miles on battery power alone? No.
Can a plug-in Prius run for 40 miles on battery power alone? No.
Starting to see a pattern?
The 230mpg thing was a bit misleading, yes, but it's theoretically possible. If you run the Volt for long enough then the gasoline engine will fire and you'll have to keep filling it up, but what if your daily (or even one way) commute is under 40 miles? You could go for weeks, and many miles on battery alone, never firing up the gas range extender.
Calculate your MPGs
then and I'm quite sure you'd see 230mpg.
Like I said: Big media ado about nothing. Journos driving a Volt all day are
never going to see the benefits that someone who uses the car in a normal fashion will. Best to wait for long-term tests of the car, or better yet, hang around Volt forums to see what actual customers think.
And no - I'm not a Volt fanboy. Mostly because I can't afford one, partly because I'm not really a fan of GM cars (neither in the States
nor here in the UK), and partly because if I
could afford any EV, it'd be the Smart Electric Drive or the upcoming Renault Twizy, since I have no need for a family-sized car. But I'm not too short-sighted not to see the benefits of the Volt, nor am I too hysterical to think that GM have been spouting lies for the last few years...