Oh oh! Not Good (GM temporarily suspends Volt production for slow sales)

[cfg83]

Hello -

Irony :

Chevrolet Volt/Opel Ampera wins European Car of the Year - SlashGear

CarloSW2

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Continuing to put the Volt sales in perspective (1626 year to date)...

Some other year to date sales figures:

1721 - Ford Fusion hybrid
1265 - Honda Insight
829 - Honda CRZ
1190 - Civic hybrid

Thanks for looking these (and the others) up. I've been wanting to do the same. These 4 especially are interesting, in that they are well known cars that you actually see on the road, not a Ferrari or Lamborghini. They are also relatively inexpensive. (Of course, maybe Ford and Honda are not making these profitably?)

[pete c]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

I think that GM has missed the mark by a bit and they need to stick with it and work it out. It is too expensive and a bit too small -- the backseat in particular is only good for up to 6' tall people.

They took an off-the-shelf cast iron 1.4L 4 cylinder block, and they are running the it in a low efficiency mode; varying the RPM depending on the load -- the engine should be run at a single fixed RPM and charge the battery directly in as short a time as possible; and then it gets shut off. They have three clutches -- it should have ZERO clutches. The only transmission should a single speed reduction gear.

They need to design a smaller displacement low RPM high torque 2 or 3 cylinder engine that has it's valves and intakes and exhaust all fine tuned to hit it's peak efficiency at a single RPM.

The engine's output only has to meet the *average* power use of the electric drive motor, by using the battery as a buffer. It would warm up more quickly, and should only have to run 1 hour for every 2 or 3 hours of driving, after the initial charge is used.

The engine would weight half as much, and the cooling system would be half the size. No clutches and no multi-speed transmission means a lot less weight, as well. Hopefully their next gen battery cell costs far less and is more powerful -- GM has invested in a battery company that makes cells that are ~$125/kWh vs the $500-600/kWh and it could have much greater range, as well.

+100

And put it in a cruze chassis. A 700cc twin or 3 cylinder should be enough.

Less weight means smaller battery, saving even more money. I really don't get why this car can't be built for 20k. Maybe a little more.

[TheEnemy]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

the backseat in particular is only good for up to 6' tall people.

Thats actually pretty typical for most mid sized vehicles. I'm 6'4" and can rarely fit into the back seat without having to cock my head to the side and or lean over to the side.

[NeilBlanchard]

Right, I'm 6'-4" as well, and I fit in the back of my xA, my wife's xD, and I have loads of room in the back of my brother's 2010 Fit. The Prius has plenty of rear room, and the Leaf is only a bit smaller in the back seat than the Prius. I'm hoping to give the Scion iQ a try, soon.

The Volt is too small for me and my family. We fit okay in my little xA -- if that isn't damning, I don't know what is.

[TheEnemy]

Its always supprised me when often compact cars have more rear passenger room than a midsized car.

[pete c]

Midsized sedans have to look cool. Therefore, they have sloping roof lines that eat into headroom. Subcompact boxes do not have this problem.

[rmay635703]

The Volt Would Be a hit if

1. The cost were lower
2. There were different tiers (cost brackets) of Volt with different battery sizes
3. The vehicle was optimized to allow prius like fuel economy if the user desired

Something I never could understand is why auto manufacturers are so resistant to lengthening cars while keeping them a bit more narrow.

If the volt was about 6" narrower and about 2' longer I would guess many of the I'm 7'2" 650lbs and I don't fit in the rear seat would go out the window with a bit of minor design tweaks, it would also allow the car to be more aero and hopefully improve FE numbers.

That said I would love to buy a $9k salvage volt that runs and drives

The volt concept we all have to admit is interesting engineering, even if you hate what they did and how complex it became.

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Continuing to put the Volt sales in perspective (1626 year to date)...

Some other year to date sales figures:

1721 - Ford Fusion hybrid
1265 - Honda Insight
829 - Honda CRZ
1190 - Civic hybrid

The fusion hybrid is out of production and being replaced later this year, Honda has been on a loosing streak for a couple of years now. None of their hybrids can compete with what Toyota and a few others are selling.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by tjts1

The fusion hybrid is out of production and being replaced later this year, Honda has been on a loosing streak for a couple of years now. None of their hybrids can compete with what Toyota and a few others are selling.

This also puts it into perspective that automotive companies can't really expect any model to be the gangbusters 100,000+ units either.

Perhaps having a diversified model base with common parts, AKA custom cars makes more sense than it maybe did years ago.