The Chevy Volt Electric Car

Ok; two questions,
1. What is a Chevy Volt?
2. Why do you really want one?

Chevy Volt is an "all electric drive" car that plugs into the house current to charge. It has a large battery pack that also has a small gasoline generator on board to extend the car's range.

It will go about 40 miles on battery power alone -- it can go "hundreds of miles" (read: Probably 200-300 max) using the gas the whole way to supplement the battery. 99% of our trips are likely under 40 miles round trip -- food store, errands, shopping mall are all under 20 miles away. Long trips would likely require another car or reting a gas car. We figure if we need to rent a car 2 or fewer times per month for 3 days each it's better than owning another. (It's likely we'd need to rent a car only 4 or 5 times a year, but we're "planning" on 24 just in case.)

Unfortunately, the Volt's price tag estimate started in the high $20's, and now is in the mid $40's -- they may be pricing me out of the market. It's due out in November.

My money gobbling old wreck:

Ron, do you know how much power it sucks up from plugging it in? I always wonder how much of a difference it would be in your monthly electric bill.

I don't know how many KWH they take to charge but both the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf are said to consume the equivalent of a gasoline car getting 150 mpg (that assumes that the power is being generated by fuel oil I suppose). I have read that they can be expected to run about 100 miles on a charge under normal use.

So the cost of fuel will depend upon your local cost of electricity and the rate structure. In the US when you exceed the base rate amount you are charged is at a higher rate, which is a disincentive to some degree to having to charge a car on top of your normal appliances.

The current crop of plug-in electric cars use lithium-ion batteries like a laptop or cell phone. As we all know cell phone batteries last a few years and then begin to lose the ability to hold a charge. Replacing them isn't a big deal until you realize that the Tesla, an electric sports car made in California on a Lotus chassis, actually uses 1500 laptop batteries.

So you have to factor in the cost of replacing the batteries every 4 to 5 years probably, unless the manufacturer covers it under the warrantee. I expect for the near future, plug in electric vehicles will operate close to the annual cost of a small, efficient gasoline car over the long haul. That will probably improve particularly if there is a breakthrough in better battery technology.

As some of you know I am a car museum docent. Before WWI there were about as many electric cars in the US as gasoline. They were mostly in-town cars used by women because they didn't need to be crank started. We have a 1912 Raush & Lang electric car at the museum. The 100 year old car runs silently on regular lead acid car batteries and goes about 30 mph for 60 miles on a charge so the idea of all electric cars is really nothing new. It's beautiful, drives from the back seat with a tiller, has a little bud vase on the door pillar, and your friends (or dogs) sit in front facing you so you can talk while you drive. Worse distraction than a cell phone I bet.

By the way, the two pictures of my '34 Auburn are the same car. It goes about 85 mph and gets about 15 mpg and I can fix everything on it. I only pay $60 US to register it each year and my insurance rates are actually lower than my modern cars. Best of all, everyone stays out of my way which is a good thing because they hadn't invented seat belts or turn signals yet.