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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

#231

Post by zeckalpha »

gameswithgo wrote: post #189
speedplane wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

This may be true, but Audi was relatively late to the CVT game.

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

#232

Post by greglindahl »

cladari wrote: post #164
speedplane wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The loss per unit sold is a non-real accounting artifact. GM can clearly make money from this vehicle if the tighten up their production. I'm sure engineers there know exactly what needs to be done to get there. It probably takes investment, but there will only be a return on the investment if many more Bolts are sold. To sell more of these cars, they have to overcome public perception that they are some weird new…

I think you would see electric cars take off if those without garages or driveways had a way to charge them nightly. I know I would have one on my list. Perhaps use the government buyers incentive to instead give a write down to developers to install charging stations in their parking lots.

The market of "people who can already conveniently charge an electric car" is big enough for them be much more popular than they are now.

Also, many places in the US already have government incentives or requirements for charging infrastructure.

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

#233

Post by Brakenshire »

davidgould wrote: post #182
Brakenshire wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh, I didn’t realize that, yeah I agree. Really odd that they built a hatchback and then didn’t bother to properly market it in Europe. They had a window when it could have done really well.

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

#234

Post by [deleted] »

bluedino wrote: post #223
Shivetya wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tl;dr very long, owned a Volt, because of it bought a TM3 Owned a 2017 Chevrolet Volt, I made this choice because I wanted to "dip my toes" into the EV experience and only needing one car I needed one that could go anywhere. I make two trips per year by car one of which is thirteen hundred miles round trip. The fit and finish was very good for any car, it drove very well, and EV mode was an eye opener. Being in Georg…

>> I make two trips per year by car one of which is thirteen hundred miles round trip. Why not rent a car or fly?

[deleted]

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

#235

Post by unforeseen9991 »

Shivetya wrote: post #193
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…

tl;dr very long, owned a Volt, because of it bought a TM3 Owned a 2017 Chevrolet Volt, I made this choice because I wanted to "dip my toes" into the EV experience and only needing one car I needed one that could go anywhere. I make two trips per year by car one of which is thirteen hundred miles round trip. The fit and finish was very good for any car, it drove very well, and EV mode was an eye opener. Being in Georg…

Why wouldn't you just rent a car???

It would be a tiny fraction of the price and you get a brand new car to drive!

I do this, because I realized I would have approx 80% by renting for these outlier events and taxis as I work from home.

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

#236

Post by cowmix »

Shivetya wrote: post #193
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…

tl;dr very long, owned a Volt, because of it bought a TM3 Owned a 2017 Chevrolet Volt, I made this choice because I wanted to "dip my toes" into the EV experience and only needing one car I needed one that could go anywhere. I make two trips per year by car one of which is thirteen hundred miles round trip. The fit and finish was very good for any car, it drove very well, and EV mode was an eye opener. Being in Georg…

As a current 2013 Volt and soon to be TM3 owner, I agree with most of what you say. However, the TM3 bluetooth integration doesn't need to do as much as the Volt because the built-in infotainment does so much.. phone integration is not really a big deal.

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

#237

Post by wool_gather »

FreakyT wrote: post #219
xvf22 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true but you could allow the user to set an offset.

This is the approach that the Apple Watch engineers used, and it remains the only device I've seen with this option. Does anyone here with an Apple Watch use the time offset feature?

Yes. I've set my clocks a few minutes ahead for years, and I do the same on my Watch. It's nice to have, but the helpful illusion is not entirely maintained: it is only the main watch faces that display the time with offset. There are other views where the current time is shown incidentally, and it is the actual, non-offset, time.

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

#238

Post by timbit42 »

anovikov wrote: post #207
timbit42 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zero fuel costs on short trips and unlimited range when you need it without needing to wait for recharges.

But expensive and can't be made cheap because it combines complexity and cost of ICE and EV. Was always meant to be just a temporary solution to kickstart li-ion battery mass production to drive down costs.

Yes, but the 'temporary' phase hasn't ended yet.

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

#239

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

gok wrote: post #70
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely disagree. I have a Volt, and having a gas engine is not a "little benefit" to me. It's a huge benefit, despite the fact that one tank of gas lasts me about 6 months on average. I never have to worry about running out of electric charge and trying to find a charger, and I can go on long trips without having to worry about whether or not I have the range.

So why bother with an electric at all?

That question seems like trolling, but I'll answer it anyway. On 90% plus of my trips, I never use gas, and I'd estimate 90% of the rest I use gas for less than 3 miles. So I save a lot of money, it's better for the environment, I rarely have to go to a gas station, and since I use the engine so infrequently the maintenance costs are much lower.

But most importantly, I love the way an electric car drives. Smooth, incredibly fast, quiet acceleration is a joy, and the times I have to go back to driving an ICE car I immediately miss having an electric motor.

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

#240

Post by cptskippy »

tomatocracy wrote: post #187
michaelt wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Honestly I feel these types of comments do more harm to EV adoption than anything else as they're used as justification to not adopt an EV by those who otherwise could. Most EVs today support a flavor of DC fast charging beyond L2, a Leaf can be charged up to 80% in like 15 or 20 minutes. That sounds like a lot but when those chargers are in Market or Restaurant lots where you can charge and shop/eat then they make sense. I think the biggest issue today is the exclusivity of charge networks and proprietary chargers.

I don't know your specific route but there are plenty of routes in the UK that can easily be done. Brighton to Inverness and back can be done in a Model 3 with only 5 hours of charging along the way. Not great but also not horrible if they can be combined with regular rest stops.

In the US the charge networks were initially rolled out at odd locations that didn't make much sense but gradually they started putting them in office and apartment car parks and now thankfully in malls and retail areas where people actually go.

I still don't understand why restaurants haven't adopted them more when you have a captive audience for 15+ minutes and can upsell meals by offering charging discounts. I guess as adoption climbs they might catch on.

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