Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

cbsnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 291 posts

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

#181

Post by walrus01 »

Baeocystin wrote: post #88
technobabble wrote: post #68

Something I don't understand, but why don't they take the Chevy Bolt chassis and turn it into a PHEV Crossover a la Kia Niro? They already have the platform developed, and crossovers seem to be all the rage.

I'm almost certain they will. The tech they used isn't going anywhere. It's simply that no one buys sedans. I expect to see a Volt-powertrain-derived crossover or SUV soon.

No one buys small sedans for the American market, sure, but cars the size of a Yaris or Corolla seem to be wildly popular in the rest of the world.

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

#182

Post by davidgould »

Brakenshire wrote: post #176
davidgould wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Demand for the Bolt is substantially outstripping supply in Europe, because high fuel costs mean that pure EVs already have a lower TCO than ICE vehicles; It's likely that GM can achieve profitability simply by ramping up production, assuming that their battery suppliers can keep up with demand. GM does not sell the Bolt in Europe at all. It was originally sold as the Opel Ampera, but GM sold their interest in Opel…

Opel Ampera is the Volt not the Bolt.

Sorry, I meant to have typed Ampera-E which is the Bolt. Apparently the one consistent thing about GM's marketing of these cars is the desire to confuse with similar names.

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

#183

Post by chiefalchemist »

"Yet the Volt did serve a purpose. It led to advances in lithium-ion batteries similar to those that power smart phones and computers. But such advances ultimately led to the Volt's demise as GM and other manufacturers developed fully electric vehicles that can go 200 more miles per charge."

A better headline would be:

The Volt Dies but the Bolt Lives On.

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

#184

Post by CydeWeys »

lgleason wrote: post #126
CydeWeys wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically speaking, how important is it that a car last 20 years? If it only lasts 10 years, which current EVs seem on track for, so what? You're not actually out that much on an annualized basis. And don't forget that years 11 through 20 on an ICE car are quite a bit more expensive maintenance-wise. Depending on how much you drive, two electric cars over 20 years might well be cheaper than one gasoline car lasti…

The ICE car is still going to be cheaper overall beyond 10 until major problems hit, especially if you buy them when they are 4-5 years old where someone else took the major depreciation hit. You can save even more if you're able to do some of the work yourself.

Depending on how much you drive, the ICE car really won't be cheaper overall through ten years. Gasoline is significantly more expensive than electricity to go the same distance. If you have a way to charge your EV on someone else's dime (like an electrical charger at work), then the savings get even larger.

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

#185

Post by CydeWeys »

mikeash wrote: post #43
CydeWeys wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically speaking, how important is it that a car last 20 years? If it only lasts 10 years, which current EVs seem on track for, so what? You're not actually out that much on an annualized basis. And don't forget that years 11 through 20 on an ICE car are quite a bit more expensive maintenance-wise. Depending on how much you drive, two electric cars over 20 years might well be cheaper than one gasoline car lasti…

A car’s lifespan is somewhat probabilistic, so if the average is only ten years then there’s a decent chance of a maintenance catastrophe well before that. People don’t like to make that sort of gamble. That said, I have no idea why the other commenter thinks current EVs are five-year cars. My Model S is four years old and drives like new. I see no reason it won’t last just as long as a conventional car.

Electric cars and especially hybrids have been around long enough to pretty thoroughly disprove the notion that these kinds of cars only have short usable lifespans. I agree, I have no idea where these figures are coming from. Battery degradation is a well understood phenomenon, and EV manufacturers aren't stupid when it comes to their charging circuits. A Tesla maintains over 90% of its battery capacity after going >160k miles: https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/16/tesla-battery-packs-live...

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

#186

Post by CydeWeys »

bsder wrote: post #42
CydeWeys wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically speaking, how important is it that a car last 20 years? If it only lasts 10 years, which current EVs seem on track for, so what? You're not actually out that much on an annualized basis. And don't forget that years 11 through 20 on an ICE car are quite a bit more expensive maintenance-wise. Depending on how much you drive, two electric cars over 20 years might well be cheaper than one gasoline car lasti…

> Depending on how much you drive, two electric cars over 20 years might well be cheaper than one gasoline car lasting that long. This might be true if it weren't for the fact that the price of a new car keeps going up as a percentage of median income rather than down. I had two cars bought new from the late 1990's (one finally got totaled). The annual maintenance cost could be quite high (I calculated that about $4K…

Don't forget that car safety has improved significantly over the past 20 years. Crash avoidance and survival has gone way up over that timeframe. Once you price in the value of your and your loved ones' lives the old junker car starts looking a lot less appealing.

I got rid of an old junker car after I almost got into what could've been a really bad highway accident (at speed) caused by someone not seeing me and trying to take the lane I was in. My car almost lost control when I swerved into the break-down lane to avoid him. A modern car with electronic stability control, or frankly even just no mechanical/structural problems, would have fared much better. No one is spending thousands of dollars replacing the entire suspension system in a junker car, but that's just the start of what you'd need to do to try to make an old car safer.

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

#187

Post by tomatocracy »

michaelt wrote: post #163
mehrdada wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it is my only vehicle, which is why I went the hybrid rather than full electric route. At least in the US, I think you'd be underestimating how much one can rely on a proper fully electric vehicle (i.e. a Tesla, and perhaps Bolt?). I doubt a Model 3 LR holder would ever need a second sedan.

At least in my country, two years ago (presumably when avs733 was buying his car) if you wanted an all-electric vehicle with >150 mile range, you had to spend £90,000 on a Tesla Model S. All the other manufacturers' cars (Renault Zoe, BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, VW e-Golf) were 145 mile range or less. It's only recently that EVs like the Hyundai Kona (£30k for 245 miles) and the Jaguar I-Pace (£61k for 235 miles) have come…

And even then the model S's range isn't enough. I do a 500 mile weekend roundtrip about once every couple of months and there's no way it would work for that as there's no place to charge overnight at the destination (250 miles away from home, which I do non-stop on a single tank of fuel). There are basically no fast chargers in the UK which you could guarantee being able to use on the route either, even if I didn't mind having to stop (which I do).

This isn't a long journey for the UK, which is not a big country. The only way I could realistically own a pure EV as an only car would be to hire another car for these journeys and use an EV for shorter journeys but an EV wouldn't really be worth it money-wise just for shorter trips and I'd have to put up with an underpowered hire car and the hassle of picking up and returning for the long ones.

Hybrids (not range-extenders like the i3) on the other hand do make sense and I suspect will see much better sales as people realise they don't all look like the (very ugly) Prius.

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

#188

Post by projektfu »

black-tea wrote: post #152
jac_no_k wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding "novice and expert" mode. Default should be novice mode. Extra steps to go into "expert" mode. Examples I could think of: * Launch control (maximum acceleration from a stop.) * Track mode (turn down or disable stability control) * One pedal drive mode. (Nissan Leaf e-pedal or just B-mode for strong regen) Ah well... It would be interesting to hear more of the reasons behind decisions.

No, expert mode is "turn all this crap off and let me control the throttle and gearbox directly".

That’s all good but this car doesn’t have a throttle connected to the drivetrain and the only thing that looks like a gearbox is a planetary gear that may be changed at high speeds.

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

#189

Post by gameswithgo »

speedplane wrote: post #144
nimbius wrote: post #139

Disclosure: im an automotive engine mechanic by trade. The Volt was a political nightmare. trade rags beat this car night and day for being a fake. but honestly its a damn good car. it was never going to see tesla style torque or mileage but the people driving it werent the whole foods kind of crowd anyway. the hybrid electric was borne out of the need to create something that couldnt be patent-struck by toyota, whos…

> The Volt was a political nightmare. trade rags beat this car night and day for being a fake. but honestly its a damn good car. So you're saying widely publicized biased opinions based on antiquated but longstanding social norms were able to prevent good engineering, measurably better than the status quo, from coming to market? Are you saying that marketing and media can often overcome solid facts? Welcome to humani…

When audi first introduced continuously variable transmissions they had to make them act like discrete transmissions because users complained it felt like the tranmission was slipping.

arrggghghghg

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

#190

Post by MisterTea »

mcny wrote: post #112
zeroping wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Back in uni days I would set my bedside alarm clock 10 minutes faster. No joke it almost never failed to fool my groggy morning brain on days I hit snooze one too many times. "Oh crap I'm going to be late!" toss clothes on, run to kitchen for snack only to see that I've got another 10 minutes. whew. Crazy I know, but it worked. I also think I did similar with my cars clock by setting it faster when I first started driving to work. Now I smoke a little weed before bed, sleep like a baby and wake up much easier.

Post reply on HN