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GM Criticized Over Chevy Volt's Hybrid Similarities
Attila Dimedici writes "This article says the Chevy Volt is not what GM claimed it was: an Extended Range Electric Vehicle. The Volt is simply a plug-in hybrid. Instead of a vehicle that is only driven with the electric drive train that uses a gasoline engine to charge the batteries, the Volt actually uses the gasoline engine to drive the front wheels at speeds above 70 miles per hour or when the batteries run down. Additionally, the Volt gets nowhere near the 230 mpg that GM was claiming for it. If this is all true, why did GM misrepresent the car? The facts as stated in the article make the Volt a pretty decent competitor to the Prius and other hybrids already on the market."
A post at the Car Connection blog takes the opposing view, saying that accusations of GM "lying" are overhyped, since the capability to power the wheels with gasoline is reserved for situations where electricity isn't a viable option. The author says GM didn't mention this ability before now due to concerns over patents and competition from other companies.
The $400 hammer joke died 10 years ago.
Not if you're retarded.
The bottom line is that private cars are no longer a viable solution to our transport needs due to energy shortages and the companies that manufacture private cars can not admit this as it means going out of business.
What evidence do you have to back up this popular, yet incorrect assertion? The fact is that public transport at least, consumes more energy per mile than cars. Why? here is the data and the reasons. It is not the answer, especially when you include the insane costs of transit operation, vs. the incredibly cheap costs of highway construction. Finally, repeat after me, there is no energy shortage. There is no energy shortage. There is no energy shortage. There is an energy collection, storage, and distribution problem. Energy exists all around us. 175 petawatts hits us constantly from the sun. 1000's of years, minimum, is locked in fission fuels. Even wind can provide more than the total energy use. If you want to consider fusion, we have literally oceans of energy ready. The problem is capturing and storing this energy. It's just too expensive. The volt, and other "toys" provide us the technology that we need to solve this shortage.
Responsibility is an addiction
Virtue is a temptation
Community is a cartel
What if there is an imminent accident and you need to briefly accelerate above 70 to avoid it while slowing down would make it worse.
every anarchist is a baffled dictator. Benito_Mussolini
YMMV. 80 is really fast for an old Ford Fiesta, but barely cruising for an Audi R8. It's also really fast if you're 85 years old, not nearly as fast if you're 25.
I'm guessing the Volt will do just fine at 80 MPH, along with most modern cars. It just won't be as efficient compared to a slower speed.
Living in Texas makes people ignorant. An ex of mine posted some BS about how she hates that her taxes are going to help people getting financial help from the government. When I met her, her mother was getting subsidized housing and she had health insurance from the government herself. That and what they let the schools teach their children about history.
Honda Insight == 90mpg. If I carry a friend it increases to 170 people-miles/gallon.
The VW Lupo 3L gets similar numbers but can carry 5 people, and get 440 people-miles/gallon. And then there's that soon-to-be-released gets 240 MPG for one person and 480 with two people. Can mass transit beat any of these? Not even close. A typical buss or train averages the equivalent of 25 people-miles/gallon.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
The biggest advantage of a purely electric drive is that it is likely to be mechanically more reliable than the hideously complicated transmission used on the like of Prius.
"Hideously" more complicated than a pure electric drive, which may be / often is direct drive (no transmission at all). However, your Daihatsu's transmission is almost certainly hideously more complicated than the prius transmission. The prius transmission has something ridiculous like FIVE moving parts. I've seen mechanical pencils with more moving parts than a prius transmission. Its basically a very simple planetary differential. Should be about as reliable as a conventional cars RWD differential, in other words pretty much maintenance free and last pretty much the life of the car, with exceptions very far and few in between.
Now hideously complicated would apply to the prius electrical system, compared to... almost anything. Maybe a diesel electric locomotive has more electronic "guts" but the locomotive has many more driven wheels than a prius.
Thats the danger of making judgments on inaccurate facts, you're worried about one of the simplest and most reliable parts of the Prius without even mentioning the complicated parts.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger