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Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

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Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#111

Post by evv »

Kind of a fucking shame. As individuals, we are generally quite powerless in the climate crisis. The world is being ruined by companies and governments that we generally cannot influence. The power we retain: how we spend our money. Electric vehicles offer perhaps the most significant opportunity for the average consumer to improve the carbon emission status-quo.

Regardless of the ecological impact, I've quickly come to see ICE cars as quite gross. I don't want tail pipes, the smell of gasoline fumes, or the angry noises. My E-Golf is delightfully zippy and quiet. For the driving experience, I'd choose this car in a heartbeat over any old-fashioned-engine auto.

That being said, it does suck to have an EV because of range anxiety, having to hunt for charging stations, and being forced to camp while the car charges. I really wish I had an PHEV to address these issues, but there are sadly few options on the market today.

I can only drive an EV because I've installed a charger at home, but most people do not have the ability to do so. I'll have to get rid of my EV when I move, downgrading to mini-explosions in my car.

...which leads to my point:

If Tesla was serious about transitioning the world to sustainable energy, they would build a full PHEV lineup, or offer generator options for their existing cars. You need to appeal to the vast majority of consumers who are not ready for full electric. But I suspect Tesla won't do this because they have too much pride.

Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#112

Post by mcny »

zeroping wrote: post #109
avs733 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We talked for a while about using the onboard GPS to help the hybrid system optimize decisions about power management if it knew where you were going. We also talked about variable regenerative braking which ended up in the 2nd gen Lawyers and 'the idiot public' we're a lot of it.

I just want to know why the clock can't be set using the GPS.

Not a GM employee but I think the number of people who mess with their clock is bigger than we think.

People are weird. They set their clock five minutes ahead or whatever.

I also think an optional cellular/GPS based time update would be nice though.

Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#113

Post by BoorishBears »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #44
brightball wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most other EVs other than Tesla lack range, while you can still take a Volt on a long trip without having to plan around finding a special charging station. It’s the single best solution on the market to cutting fuel usage by about 90%, being fun to drive and not having all the headaches that go with range anxiety / locating available charging stations. The real question is why you’d by an all electric when t…

Because you’d buy a Prius (a wildly successful vehicle) instead of a PHEV (and still realize a drastic reduction in gasoline usage over the life of the vehicle, while still realizing a high level of reliability). There is a reason the Prius was often put into service as a taxi. I’ve driven my Tesla from the west coast to the east coast with minimal hassle (using only Superchargers), and with newer EVs having longer r…

The Volt has an excellent track record for reliability, easily better than that of the Model 3, and earlier Model S (haven’t kept up with if they ever sorted out the issues from back when I wanted to buy one)

It also has better fit and finish despite costing less.

The Volt was an all around better car than the Model S I test drove and that’s why I have one (and two other cars in a similar price bracket so that is clear it wasn’t a price issue).

This is a little off-topic but your comment resurfaced my sentiment on the matter... I firmly believe Tesla is making cars that survive on halo effect more than substance and am extremely excited to see what other manufacturers come up with in the future.

Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#114

Post by BoorishBears »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #44
brightball wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most other EVs other than Tesla lack range, while you can still take a Volt on a long trip without having to plan around finding a special charging station. It’s the single best solution on the market to cutting fuel usage by about 90%, being fun to drive and not having all the headaches that go with range anxiety / locating available charging stations. The real question is why you’d by an all electric when t…

Because you’d buy a Prius (a wildly successful vehicle) instead of a PHEV (and still realize a drastic reduction in gasoline usage over the life of the vehicle, while still realizing a high level of reliability). There is a reason the Prius was often put into service as a taxi. I’ve driven my Tesla from the west coast to the east coast with minimal hassle (using only Superchargers), and with newer EVs having longer r…

The Volt has an excellent track record for reliability, easily better than that of the Model 3, and earlier Model S (haven’t kept up with if they ever sorted out the issues from back when I wanted to buy one)

It also has better fit and finish despite costing less.

The Volt was an all around better car than the Model S I test drove and that’s why I have one (and two other cars in a similar price bracket so that is clear it wasn’t a price issue).

This is a little off-topic but your comment resurfaced my sentiment on the matter... I firmly believe Tesla is making cars that survive on halo effect more than substance and am extremely excited to see what other manufacturers come up with in the future.

Also, to understand the benefits of the gas engine look at it like this.

Presuming you’re not one of the owners using/abusing supercharging to replace a home charger, the Volt ICE is like a supercharger.

You only use it on long trips or to top off when you’re a little low and want to get rid of “range anxiety”

Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#115

Post by usaphp »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #22

Best car I've ever owned from a reliability and fun-to-drive perspective. A bit cramped, but it's my commuter car, so don't care. I drive 100+km a day and charge at both ends, and most weeks use no gas. But still have the flexibility to take very long road trips without the hassle of stopping at DC fast charge stations every couple hundred km. When this one dies someday, I'll probably buy another used one if I can fi…

> fun-to-drive perspective

What do you consider by fun to drive?

Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#116

Post by lrem »

evv wrote: post #111

Kind of a fucking shame. As individuals, we are generally quite powerless in the climate crisis. The world is being ruined by companies and governments that we generally cannot influence. The power we retain: how we spend our money. Electric vehicles offer perhaps the most significant opportunity for the average consumer to improve the carbon emission status-quo. Regardless of the ecological impact, I've quickly come…

According to my neighbour it is no problem to drive a Tesla 2700km from Switzerland to Finland, through Germany, Czechia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#117

Post by waterhouse »

shawnz wrote: post #108
hakfoo wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lost route IMO was modular batteries. Say your Model S has a bank replacable modules instead of a single monolith. These can be pulled and swapped with pre-charged cells in minutes. This also allows older packs to be pulled from circulation, removing the fear of aging batteries causing depreciation on the vehicle.

Why would you ever not want to swap the whole battery? They've demonstrated that a whole battery swap can be done in minutes. And the whole battery discharges/ages at the same rate, so there'd be no point in only swapping some of the modules.

I figure that if you have different-size cars with different battery capacities (and shapes of their battery cavities), then "Car X needs 10 battery modules, car Y needs 13" is simpler (in one sense) to manage than "I have car X, do you have any of the batteries made to fit in it? No, you only have Car-Y-shaped batteries? Whoops."

Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#119

Post by radicalbyte »

avs733 wrote: post #18

>It's a true shame, as GM finally got the little details right on both how the engine was put together as well as the interior fit and finish on the 2017 model. Completely agree. I leased a first gen and am now leasing a second gen volt. I'm actually considering buying my current car at the end of the lease. As a bike commuter, it is my only vehicle, which is why I went the hybrid rather than full electric route. The…

You should ask her if she would be interested (and able) to do an interview with one of the prominent EV podcasters or youtubers.

Re: Chevy Volt discontinued: Chevrolet's last Volt rolls off the assembly line

#120

Post by door5 »

evv wrote: post #111

Kind of a fucking shame. As individuals, we are generally quite powerless in the climate crisis. The world is being ruined by companies and governments that we generally cannot influence. The power we retain: how we spend our money. Electric vehicles offer perhaps the most significant opportunity for the average consumer to improve the carbon emission status-quo. Regardless of the ecological impact, I've quickly come…

> Electric vehicles offer perhaps the most significant opportunity for the average consumer to improve the carbon emission status-quo

Public transit. Electric cars hardly put a dent in climate change. We need higher density cities, less sprawl, more robust public transit, and a nationwide high speed rail network. These all require political will, policy change and public money -- no private company will do this.

> As individuals, we are generally quite powerless in the climate crisis. The world is being ruined by companies and governments that we generally cannot influence.

Right now the green new deal is an extremely popular idea in public consciousness, and activists have pushed it to the point that nearly every Democrat running for president has signed off on it. We are not powerless, use your platform and your resources to advocate for political change.

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