Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year • Hacker News Board

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#121

Post by Xylakant » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 4:27 PM UTC

patrickk wrote: post #91

Xylakant wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

germany is one of the last countries where that may be perceived an issue. Literally all other countries in the world have a speed limit that is way below 150km/h. So top speeds above 150 are just there for germany and for bragging rights, not for any practical purpose. What's more interesting is the torque and acceleration available at higher speeds.

Sluggish acceleration or below par top speed isn't a perception problem on the Autobahn, it's a real problem. It's completely practical to drive long distances at high speeds because of the well-maintained road surface and well-maintained cars. There are plenty of stretches of the Autobahn with no speed limits. This is a common scenario: you're in the middle lane, and a particularly slow driver is in the middle lane…

lack of torque and sluggish acceleration are an issue that is unrelated to a top speed that is artificially limited for whatever reason. Electric cars tend to have vastly superior torque and acceleration at the same horse power rating. They are perfectly usable on the autobahn.

you're attacking a point that I never made.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#122

Post by mikeash » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 4:34 PM UTC

rwmurrayVT wrote: post #118

mikeash wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for the Bolt, but I bought a Tesla over a Volt for several reasons. For one, it's a much more practical car. The Volt has only four seats. The latest generation has a fifth sort-of seat you can squeeze someone into if you really need it. My Tesla seats five adults and two children. It also has about three times the cargo space in a five-seat configuration. Long range travel is not an issue. Visit https:…

That map was a really excellent link. I noticed there was one a few minutes away from my office. I just went and checked it out. Very cool! That explains why I seem to notice Tesla vehicles multiple times a day.

Funny! And yeah, it's a great way to keep track of Tesla's buildout, especially for people who can't see the map in one of their cars. And even if you can, they show (many, but not all) planned sites and sites under construction, whereas Tesla's official stuff only shows you ones that are operating.

For people interested in EVs in general, you can also check out PlugShare to see nearly all public chargers:

https://www.plugshare.com

Many of those are slow chargers not suitable for long-distance travel, but you can filter the map depending on what you're interested in seeing.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#123

Post by 35bge57dtjku » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 4:37 PM UTC

vinay427 wrote: post #89

35bge57dtjku wrote: post #37

A car that would leave you with about a $600/month payment is 'for the masses'?

"The federal EV tax credit of $7,500 gets the price down to less than $30,000" [1] "the estimated average transaction price (ATP) for light vehicles in the United States was $33,666 in March 2016." [2] A car that costs less than the median purchase price for new vehicles in the US seems pretty close to "for the masses" to me. It's at least in the running for more than half of all new car buyers in terms of price (not…

I'd be more inclined to agree with you if everyone always bought new cars.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#124

Post by mcguire » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 4:37 PM UTC

hx87 wrote: post #119

brightball wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I leased a Volt for 3 years to try it out without having to commit to the early adopter risk. Oil changes were every 20,000 miles. Occasionally the engine would turn on and run automatically because I hadn't used it at all in a few weeks just for maintenance sake. For a gas first approach like most hybrids I think it's a bigger concern. In the Volt since it's just a generator I don't know if the maintenance burden is…

The first gen Volt had a parallel-hybrid mode, which increases wear compared to a pure series-hybrid, so maintenance isn't as low as it could be.

Could you explain further?

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#125

Post by joezydeco » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 4:42 PM UTC

ohstopitu wrote: post #57

This is a pet peeve of mine, but I don't get why cars need to change design (subjective: and make them ulgy) just because they are EVs? Tesla showed the world that a car could look like a "car" and still be electric. I'm all for innovations in design, but weird/ugly designs are also a reason that stops people from buying electric cars.

BMW i3 is a great example.

http://o.aolcdn.com/commerce/autodata/images/USC40BMC601B021...

Would it have been that much more work to fit it all into a 1-series?

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2013/05/2013-b...

The wheelbase is only 3" longer on the 1er.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#126

Post by antongribok » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 4:49 PM UTC

I'm a little saddened by all of the comments about this "article" being written like an advertisement. Perhaps if people watched the actual award presentation they'd feel differently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SijPcSOhev4&t=1803

Also, some more info on behind the scenes: http://www.motortrend.com/news/behind-the-scenes-2017-car-of...

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#127

Post by WorldMaker » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 5:02 PM UTC

cx1000 wrote: post #85

Two questions: the article mentions "magnets made from a rare earth metal called dysprosium" are used in the motor. How rare is this and will it eventually limit volume? >the wide range of its current and projected uses, together with the lack of any immediately suitable replacement, makes dysprosium the single most critical element for emerging clean energy technologies - even their most conservative projections pre…

It's pretty easy to charge an EV and many owners do charge at home as their primary place to charge. I have a '12 Volt that I charge on a standard outlet in my garage at home. This "trickle charge" is fairly slow, but enough to charge the Volt's smaller battery overnight and give me just shy of 40 miles for the day, which is more than enough most days to get to work, run errands, get back home on a single charge without needing to charge away from home (work doesn't have any chargers right now or easily accessible outside plugs) or use a cup or so of gas.

This certainly works pretty well for me. I could install a higher voltage charger at home and charge faster, once I have the money to invest in that effort, but given my car is typically sitting in my garage overnight anyway, I haven't felt a strong need for it just yet.

I think that home charging is something of an overlooked game changer about EVs. Admittedly not everyone will have that ability just yet (apartment complexes and people that need street parking don't easy available electricity to their parking spaces yet), but there is something really convenient to know that your car is charging at Home while you sleep where it would be sitting unused anyway.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#128

Post by tromp » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 5:33 PM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #76

ohstopitu wrote: post #57

This is a pet peeve of mine, but I don't get why cars need to change design (subjective: and make them ulgy) just because they are EVs? Tesla showed the world that a car could look like a "car" and still be electric. I'm all for innovations in design, but weird/ugly designs are also a reason that stops people from buying electric cars.

I think it's a result of wind-tunnel design and also trying to maximize interior space on a small chassis. I agree though, I don't like the look of most compact cars these days and even the Model 3 has sort of a weird looking "bulldog" snout for a front end.

The Bolt sacrifices aerodynamic efficiency for cargo space according to

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/chevy-bolt-family-design-a...

"the Bolt still ended up with a drag coefficient of 0.32. The Toyota Prius has a coefficient of 0.24.

The Bolt’s relatively high drag coefficient explains why, even though its battery pack is more powerful than the Tesla Model 3’s, it has a 200-mile driving range, compared to the the Tesla’s 215-mile range, according to Electrek. The Tesla has a coefficient of 0.21"

More than enough reason for me to wait for the Tesla...

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#129

Post by stevenmays » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 5:33 PM UTC

archildress wrote: post #22

avar wrote: post #16

The article only briefly touches on this, but LG Korea is a huge part of this. They make the motor, battery & drivetrain, basically everything that makes this car an electric car. Chevrolet is just manufacturing the parts that would be mostly identical to any of their other cars. Rather than Tesla being worried about Chevrolet, I think they'd be more worried about the likes of LG & Samsung in the longer term.

This is a great point. Tesla is, to me, fundamentally a battery company.

Tesla is a "lifestyle" company... like apple. Think about how they're acquiring solar city, they have the powerwall and solar panels. They want to use their equipment to power your home/vehicle. If you're a tesla consumer you're at least upper middle class and care about the environment.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#130

Post by hx87 » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 5:43 PM UTC

mcguire wrote: post #124

hx87 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first gen Volt had a parallel-hybrid mode, which increases wear compared to a pure series-hybrid, so maintenance isn't as low as it could be.

Could you explain further?

GM initially promised that the first generation Volt would be fully series-hybrid--the engine would drive the electrical generator and have no mechanical connection to the rest of the powertrain. This means that the engine can spin at its most efficient RPM (most of the time, peak torque RPM) regardless of how fast the car is going and thus everything on this engine could be optimized to run at that speed, which reduces wear and maintenance requirements. However at the last moment GM revealed that at certain times the engine would drive the wheels directly, probably to prevent some idiots from driving at maximum power and depleting the battery.