I am amazed by all the naysayers on this thread. Let me try to explain the efficiency of this vehicle. I drive 80 miles per day on 18 kWh of electricity and never use gas (my employer let's me charge at work). And by never, I mean it's been 4 months since I've used gas. I pay 8.5 cents per kWh and with a 16% efficiency loss in charging that comes out to 9.9 cents per kwh or $1.80 in electricity to travel 80 miles per day. Gas in my area is $3.10 per gallon. So paying $1.80 means I am using the equivalent of 0.58 gallons of gas. 80 divided by 0.58 gallons is an MPGe of 138. Find me another hybrid that gets that kind of mileage. This is brilliant technology.
Of course, there is nothing Toyota can ever do wrong. Even though this vehicle is a very well thought car, The Toyota marketing department has convinced a bunch of people that the VOLT is still a piece of garbage. Scotty Kilmer is their cheerleader.
I have the UK Vauxhall Ampera, so the same mechanicals as the Chevy Volt, I also have a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance. The Vauxhall/Chevy is every bit as good as the Tesla in many ways. It’s more comfortable in my opinion, and the steering is less numb feeling, it’s also more efficient on electric mode in normal driving than the Tesla. However, due to its limited electric range, it’s only making a useful cost saving for you if you happen to work just at the edge of its full winter range... and you can charge back up at work. The Tesla is, obviously, the first really useable electric car
Ooo, I'm so glad I have my Volt! I got it when I was in grad school for $10k and have saved thousands not buying gas. Plus it's relatively low maintenance. Before the great plague I had been commuting 30 miles/day to work over hilly terrain, the total electricity consumption was costing me less than $20/mo. I fully intend to drive this car as long as feasible.
Higher voltage is much more efficient, requiring smaller cables and producing less heat. It is also easier on the batteries to deliver high voltage at low amps than the other way around. Using AC allows the use of brushless motors which are more reliable and powerful. It also allows easier control of timing on the electric motor.
Your video(s) on the Volt got me on the path to buying one (2018) in May 2021. Even then, I didn't truly understand how the hybrid drivetrain was working until I did a lot more close looking and research.
I just bought a used 2014 Volt and it's honestly the coolest car I've ever owned. I'm in love with it and I don't even have a home charging option! It does all of the work this video describes behind the scenes and you absolutely cannot tell! It's so smooth.
@@mv80401 A LOT changed. There is a video on youtube. Just do Gen 1 vs Gen 2 volt. The chief engineer at GM explains it himself. BIG difference between the 2, but it seems as GEN 1 was built better.
My 2018 Volt has 65K miles with no problems and almost no battery range loss. It is also very quiet and smooth versus the Prius Prime which is noisy, rough and gets only about 20 miles on EV...GM obviously has the skill to build excellent EV cars...if they want to...
@suad01 GM has excellent engineers. Their biggest problem is the board of directors. A bunch of suit and ties more concerned about Wall st. CASINO games than their products and customers.
ive had my volt 3 months and i love it. its funny how the gas generator revs independantly of the accelerator. amazing all electric performance, gas operation is fine, but im heading home at that point
I bought my 2014 Volt Premium for $18,000 USD with 19,000 miles. I rarely travel outside of town and only drive about 22 miles a day. This works perfect as I charge it everyday for $0.11/kwh. Regardless of all that, your focus is more economics than environmentalism. Some will argue with the process of battery production, but having the ability to charge the battery 5,000 times or more is pretty nice when preventing fossil fuels from being dumped into the atmosphere.
I have a Volt. Since I bought it, 5 months ago, I haven't bought gas and I have used about 10% in the gas tank. At this rate, I won't have to service that ICE for the next 3 or 4 years. And that's probably going to involve changing the oil because it's been standing around a lot. My gas millage is about 280 miles to the gallon.
I like the idea of the Volt, but I'm worried about the added mechanical complexity that offers more to break down and need repairing or replacing. I'm looking for a fully electric car, and the Bolt (with a 'B') is looking great. Second hand ones are around $20000 - 26000.
@@JustWasted3HoursHere You make a good point, but this car is so well built that Eric Belmer a guy working at the Lordstown plant racked up 400,000 miles on his 2012 volt and doesnt have any major issues with it.
@@bmw803 I did seriously consider an EV with a "back up plan" like the Volt or the BMW i3 with Range Extender. Not interested in a "normal" hybrid like the Prius, even though I'm sure they're great cars. A full BEV fits my lifestyle perfectly, and I'm really looking forward to never having to go to a gas station ever again (except to buy a Slurpee or a Big Gulp!)
Wow. what a great video. Clear, easy to understand, informative. Nice work. Too bad about all the stupid comments from misinformed viewers. The owners all have great things to say about the experience. That's who I'll trust.
My favorite car ever. Bought in 2016 as a lease return with 36k, my 2013 has been rock solid. I’m sad knowing that even with as flawless as it is, thanks to GM abandoning it, when my battery does start to fail (I’m at 105k now), the options will be limited at best for repair. It’s really quite depressing. The car is flawless, and everyone I know that owns one agrees. It continues to impress me every day. Here’s to hoping she lasts 150k (or more)! I’ve owned a LOT of cars, and nothing really comes close for the money. They overengineered almost everything except the power window regulators lol… GM really had a home run on its hands and blew it.
yup, best car ever! I got a prius for my kid and have now come to appreciate my volt even more for how refined and smooth it is. GM sure knows how to design great cars and kill them just as they are about to take off. Great engineers and terrible marketing and business people.
The Volt is an obvious "breakthrough", which should have happend many years ago, even without the progress in lithium-ion batteries. This is how every car built today should operate.
Except this wasn't possible before Lipo batteries. It takes complex battery management, oversized redundant packs, active cooling, running the pack only from 30% to 80% and never beyond to pull this car off and make the batteries last. To mimic all that with old lead acid or nicad's you'd need a 1-2 ton truck chassis full of batteries, and the batteries would only last a fraction of the time making it way more expensive than gas.
@@KTPurdy much harder to DIY and much more dangerous, also electronic systems are much less reliable than mechanically driven ones. I own a Volt though
@@lemonator8813 not true, anything with friction, can not be more reliable than with out. Properly built and protected electronics could last long long time. But yes, you need great scan tool, just like any progress, that requires new tools for new tech.
@@globuslive have you seen a diesel compression engine ? Or mechanical fuel injected? Those will last just about forever. Just huge hunks of metal. All modern electronics have semiconductors and they diffuse their dopants over time no matter how well protected. Needing a complex tool that needs an alternate power source, like the EV is inherently less reliable. I can't readily or cheaply store fuel for my EV in case of emergency but I can easily keep my other car full, and have extra fuel stored. No I'm not a survivalist nut I just live in the land of quakes and fires, one of the reasons I picked a Volt over a pure electric. If the power grid goes down people have used theirs as generators! Very reliable and practical. When we can cheaply and readily have power banks in our homes maybe it will be feasible but that seems like a major fire hazard.
In my 2015 Volt I bought 4 gallons of gas on March 11, 2016. I drove about 700 miles that month. Then the whole month of April I drove about 820 miles and used 2 gallons of gas. So far it is now May 17 and I have driven just over 300 miles so far and haven't used any gas. So if you drive less than 40 miles a day (or 50 miles if you get the new Gen 2 Volt) you can also go 2 or 3 months per fill up. My record is June 28, 2015 to December 11, 2015 on a single tank of 9 gallons. We just happened to not drive out of town that much during those months.
I bought a 2013 Volt back in 2016, I actually never visited the gas station from April 2016 to April 2017. I went a whole year without gas. It finally told me it was going to start using gas because it was getting stale. So basically if I had not had the gas go stale i would have never needed gas for a long long time. I've got a 2019 Volt now, because I wanted the latest and greatest since they stopped manufacturing them.
@@jacksonbangs6603 As a former Volt owner (sold before a sabbatical abroad, now in a Leaf) I know that the car will force the use of the engine at some point. One of the criteria is outside temperature (you can set that forced-on temp lower or higher).
Although it's a great question, you'd get a better answer asking an automotive electrical engineer. We are an art studio that specializes in digital media and animation for companies such as General Motors. We'd rather let the experts answer that one for themselves.
The alternating current is what actually makes the motor turn. By constantly changing the polarity of the current going through the coils, the magnet in the center of the motor spins to catch of up to it's opposing pole.
Weswada, this is different. The motors are brushless motors and it is the continuously varying AC currents through the windings that replace the old-school commutator brushes. In the electric car and airplane world, we wouldn't call it an Inverter, we'd call it a Brushless Speed Controller. Does this answer your question?
This concept it is very good just need a smaller gas engine, a more powerful electric engine and a bigger battery pack like tesla...RWD will be a very good option
At least in aircraft, AC at 115V is able to pack much more punch than 24VDC (Which our Transformer Rectifier Units produce for things like passenger reading lights and a few instruments).
Amazing. GM would be my first choice for electric or electronic hybrid vehicles. They been tinkering with the idea for so long they sort of 'hit the ground running'.
(Part 2) Next is the question about DC to AC conversion. There are a few good reasons why you want AC; 1) it's multi-phase AC which means less current for the same power. 2) with AC you get "free" speed control since speed is related to frequency. 3) speed control on DC requires more complex controls + expensive hardware. 4) either the DC motor uses brushes that will wear out, or you get reduced power at low speeds. Since conversion to AC is very efficient (>90%) the choice is obvious.
I've heard, from a Tango EV video, that DC motors cannot turn in generators (reversing currents?), so the vehicle can't do regenerative braking. So, a good hybrid or EV uses AC motors so you can recapture energy when braking, so DC power from the battery needs to be converted to 3 phase AC power.
catch fire? it happens everyday on gas car. In 2003-2007, U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 287,000 vehicle fires per year. These fires caused an average of 480 civilian deaths, 1,525 civilian injuries, and $1.3 billion in direct property damage annually. I may buy the next gen Volt, it is gonna be cheaper, 5 seats and more MPG.
GEn 2 might give more MPG, but Is not built as solid as gen 1. GEN 1 uses gears to spin the shafts, while GEN 2 has a chain. Gen 1 is far stronger engineering than Gen 2.
I don't understand the last mode. How is the engine driving both the generator motor clutched together as well as the output gear, and being independent of gear speed?
Brilliant car..I've had mine for over 50,000 miles now.. without a problem. I've heard there are some on the road with over 200,000 miles. (In the US I think) They just seem to need the (front) tyres changed at around 35,000+. There is supposed to be an engine oil change in there somewhere... I'm expecting my first one at about 100,000 miles. It's showing lifetime 207 MPG.
I think it is a matter of interpretation. I once drafted behind a tractor-trailer rig in my MG midget and covered over 50 miles on a single gallon of gas. Is it not fair to say I got 50 MPG? My average for the entire tank was probably around 25 MPG; never the less, whatever metric I use is legitimate as long as I provide the details. Regarding Michael Monk's posting, I do agree that he should factor in whatever fossil fuel might have been used to charge the batteries and its cost. (I suspect he knows this.)
MrTeff Yes.. you're right. The figures reflect how much petrol was used (MPG) to cover the mileage since the car was new in 2012. Sure there was also electricity. But it was very cheap, you don't use much, and it is not measured in gallons! We need to keep in mind that ICE's are about 20% efficient, whereas electric drive is around 80%. The drive train is in effect a series hybrid, whereas the Prius is a parallel hybrid.. ie completely different. I will say though, that if I undertake a trip completely on petrol.. not charging the battery at all.. I get a steady 48mpg regardless of how I drive it. A friend of mine is an Airbus pilot.. when he flies to the Caribbean he uses a lot more fuel getting there than getting back! So what would his true "MPG" be? Well yes.. it's an average of both.. there's nothing wrong with measuring it that way.
Gasoline supplies about 32.78kWh of energy per gallon. They calculate MPGe by computing how far the car goes on 32.78kWh of electricity. It turns out running the generator is more-efficient than driving the wheels, and driving the wheels by electric motor is highly-efficient, so you can get more of that 32.78kWh out of the gasoline this way. Plug-in charging generally gets around 400MPGe in cars like the Tesla Model 3.
With 32 kw/h(it's like charging em 3 time full) a chevy volt can go around 130-150mile,so int means that is around 130 to 150 mile/gallons in cost efficency.
I got to 101 mph before my 2013 Volt indicated I was at max and would go no faster. This was on level ground. Were you going downhill by any chance for your 102 mph run?
Is that supposed to be a flywheel on the gas motor? Does that mean the gas motor uses a normal starter?. I have to recheck the details of how my Escape Hybrid operates but I know it's spun on by the electric drive system.
Great idea, but how the modes are label in the car is different then hkw this video describes. Normal would be battery only, sport uses both and changes the throttle response curve, mountain charges the battery up to max around 15miles, and hold mode keeps the battery level where you switch over. There is no extended drive mode were it sips from the battery amd engine together for the duration of either. The hold mode in my experience does try to replicate this mode from the video far closer, but it always recharges the pack back up no matter what. There is no highway more efficient mode where it uses both and then doesn't recharge and waste gas to recover the battery level. This would need to be a 5th mode we do note have access too.
Seems like you could do away with breaks and adjust this to recover energy also speed moderator for inclines does it know wind forces how would tail wind effect both engines at the same time
They don't describe it in the video, but it has regenerative braking also. When you drive it down a hill, you see on the display the energy going back into the battery. It has traditional brakes also for emergencies and when the battery is already fully charged and can't take the energy from slowing down. Brake pads last the life of the car. Our Volt has 80,000 miles and the pads are still like new.
Aaaahhh, It's really not a parallel set-up. The engine only assists the motor, same as when it's purely electric. The engine isn't really driving the wheels, it's just adding a little power to the ring gear.
George Hendricksen You bizarrely start by saying I'm wrong, then repeat what I said, then finish by being wrong yourself. First, I'm only talking about when the battery is depleted. The controversy over the Volt's drive system is the fact that sometimes the generator is helping drive the wheels and the engine is helping drive the generator--does that mean the engine is directly driving the wheels? Some people said yes. What this video explains is that that is not true. The engine is NEVER directly coupled to the wheels--this is where you're wrong. The engine does directly couple to the generator, but the generator does not directly drive the wheels. It only assists the primary motor at those higher speeds. In some sense this is debating over nothing important. I suppose someone could say I just described a parallel system. I don't think so.
George Hendricksen From all the coverage of the drive train, I thought what you thought--that there was one mode where the ICE was clutched directly to the wheels. But in this video the narrator says that is not true, the ICE is never clutched directly to the wheels. It is attached to a planetary gear, so both the motor and generator/ICE are helping, but the ICE is not driving the wheels directly. That was my point in my original post. But as we were talking I realized that might very well be how a parallel hybrid works anyway, so it might just be labeling. At any rate the point, for me, is that the ICE never directly drives the wheels, even in that efficiency mode you describe.
@@greg55666 This was actually confirmed with realtime stats reading, even during CS at high speeds the ICE is always generating power via MGA and chucking it back out of MGB what the traction battery doesn't need, even if a bit of the ICE power is being transferred to the wheels via the sun gear the HV system will always need power and MGA is the only way to get it in CS. If this isn't allowed to happen (ie, climbing mountain without a charge) you get RPP. (reduced propulsion mode) Even years later one can admit the media fuc#$%#$ this car by misunderstanding it on purpose with an agenda. Even at 100MPH MGB has to play a huge role in keeping the car at that speed, not exactly magic.
Seems similar to the system Prius uses. With it's MG1 and MG2, 1 being the traction engine and 2 being the generator connected to the engine, when MG2 spins up it turns the planetary gearset that interreacts with MG1 blah blah blah.
Except with the Volt the generator can, at high road speeds, spin the ring gear of the planetary gearset which allows the primary traction motor (via the sun gear) to turn slower to increase efficiency. All in EV mode. My understanding is that the Prius ICE must necessarily turn on above certain road speeds to limit traction motor RPM.
How do I get the motor, The generator, and the engine to work together when going speeds above 70 in order to get that 15% more Efficiency In my 2014 volt? Hold mode?
Hold mode makes no difference in this instance. There is Charge Depleting mode and Charge sustaining mode. Hold mode vs discharged battery is effectively the same. The vehicle will attempt to maintain a minimum SoC either way.
@@nismology I just got my hands on a 2014 with under 70k on it and the guy I got it from told me to drive it on hold and save the battery for emergencies. Made sense at the time but only pushing 37mpg that way. Is driving it on normal the most efficient way for it to run?
@@ShawnErroneous Hold mode is used for if you are driving into an electric only area of a city. Drive it in Normal mode. Mountain mode is for what it says, driving in the mountains. The system saves 50% of the battery for a long uphill climb. Sport mode changes the throttle map to make it feel a little more aggresive. Hold mode maintains the battery charge at the current state in case you want to save the EV capability for when you will need it. Say you're driving from the suburbs into the city. Start out the drive with a full battery charge, put it in Hold mode for the freeway drive where you won't really hear the ICE, then put it back in Normal while you're in the city so you have nice, quiet all electric driving. But otherwise, leave it in Normal mode. I've also got a 2014 Volt, but mine just blew past 150,000 miles and still going strong. I go about 1000 - 1500 miles per 8 gallon tank of gas.
I have a Volt that I have taken on three 1500 mile trips. Can't do that with all electric yet. But I never buy gas unless I go on a trip. The Volt is a real electric car, but it has a built in electric generator when you need it.
Still going strong with the original battery and same enjoyable electric driving experience. My 8 yr old Volt with over 180,000 miles and approaching 160,000 EV miles: www.voltstats.net/Stats/Details/1502
I want to see simulated when the Volt gets a flat tire how pissed off the owner gets when realizes that instead of a spare tire he has a can of Fix-A-Flat all for $30K.
I want to see the first time some 17 year old boy takes out his Dad (or Mom's) Volt and gets a flat tire with his girl on a date. She'll be real impressed when they're in a spot where there is no cell service and the best he can do is whip out that can of Fix a Flat that GM gave you with a $30K car! He'll be using that Fix a Flat on his blow up doll because that will be the only action he'll get after that! Yeah, I see these are real chick magnets. I mean maybe an ADULT woman sees the benefits of green credits (while watching Animal Planet and pretending global warming exists), but a TEENAGE girl, she isn't going to care as much as having to stand on the side of the road while her date is trying to figure out why his parents didn't get a car with a spare tire and one that sounds like a golf cart at high speed. She's got friends and a social status and an event like that can traumatize her for life (at least in her mind). So boys, please don't take your date out in a Volt. Get a bike, a pedal car, anything you can at least get a spare tire for. We don't need any more teen drama. I think a teenage boy driving a Volt could even lead to bullying in school, we wouldn't want that would we? Maybe GM can make a commercial titled :The New Chevy Volt, the Best Contraceptive Money Can Buy! or "The Chevy Volt, Don't Let Your Son Get Bullied by Being Seen Driving a Volt!"
I respectfully disagree fred. We can do something about it by taking a stand and rebuking bullys. I find cowards are easy rebuffed when they see their negative behavior is being confronted. Its ok for some to let compactorkids rude comments go unchallenged however I feel I have done a civic duty be letting him know the error of his ways and perhaps, if he is as intelligent as he thinks he is, reflect and choose better ways to address his fellow man in future thanks for taking an interest
Just bought a late gen 1 volt. What a great engineering solution, and yet GM had to kill it off due to low sales. Major failure of the motoring publics decision making ability IMHO. RIP.
Because you get DC from the battery. If you transmit DC from the power station to your house, it would cost you a fortune. Convert it to AC, and you transmit for pennies. Yeah, DC from batteries but AC motors work better and have less moving parts. You save a lot.
Actually, the Volt -- and all electric cars -- are safer than conventional internal combustion engine-powered vehicles. Look into it. Seriously. I just participated in an EV training program for firefighters. The bottom line is simply that EVs are amazingly safe! They're not perfect, but they are the best transportation tech available today. Firefighters are interested in facts. The Volt has one foot in both worlds, but it does have a 5-star crash rating, and a totally clean operational history. That may be shocking to some folks who have been hoping that this technology will fail. The future is here…and it is ELECTRIC!
I like the Volt been fixing them for years, but there is one thing EVERYBODY over looks that is the supper wide post blocking your view while driving at each side of the windshield. That post could be made to block under two inches of view. well then why is it so wide, the same reason other automakers are are designing them like that there are more accidents when you can't see, that way you wreck the car and they sell you another one. 99% of people here are not going to believe me but i have cut the cars apart in that spot i know what I'm talking about It's all about money, and it wont change unless people start suing.
Great point!,it's the first thing i notice when i drive mine for the first time,that post is really dangerous and we really have to check2-3 time to be sure that is have not a car comming in that dead spot before traveling an intersection.
The engineering for this car is amazing! This car is definitely a trail blazer in the hybrid\ EV market. GM did an impressive job in almost every aspect of this car. Price came down about $7,000 recently and the tax rebates (in the US) makes it a pretty good deal. Here's my criticism of this car: complexity. When the warranty runs out I don't think I'd want to own this car unless I had a mechanic in the family and even then.... I repair things for a living and I know first hand how a great complicated gadget turns into a nightmare when it starts to wear out and this car is very complicated.
It doesn't need a CVT because the electric motor just changes speed continually. Gasoline motors use transmissions because of their narrow torque band and limited maximum RPM.
Depends on the mode it's operating in. In charge Depleting mode, yes 7:1 until the road speed is sufficiently high that it would accelerate the main traction motor to an inefficient RPM. Then the generator will come online to allow the tractor motor to slow down via the planetary gearset. In charge sustaining mode with the ICE on, the main traction motor can change the "gearing" by varying its RPM to affect ring gear speed. It's hard to explain without showing a model of how the planetary gearset works.
Did I hear this right? Once the battery is run empty, you need to plug it in to charge? It has a generator. Why can't the generator charge the battery. Not even a trickle charge?
If you actually drove one you’d understand. They mean while driving when full electric mode goes empty. It’s confusing to explain. But the car has two drive modes. Full electric, and hybrid mode. They don’t call it that but that’s why you are confused.
Man this thing is sweet. Its gonna be my second car when I graduate from college🤘🏼 (i got rid of my old car) im going to install lowering springs and upgraded brakes to get the best out of this car
Lowering springs? The car only sits about 3 inches off the ground stock. How undriveable do you really want to make it? Upgraded brakes? To what? My 2014 Volt has 153,000 miles on it and the original brake pads have only used 1mm of pad from new. This car uses regenerative braking for all but the hardest of braking, and if you're using the mechanical brakes a lot, you are driving like an idiot or you are forced to drive in the insane asylum called downtown Seattle ot NYC. The rest of us that are able to keep a coffee cup that doesn't have a lid from spilling while we are driving will never replace our Volt's brake pads...
I know this comment is 6+ months old but it seems nobody answered. As a Mech. engineer I'll take a stab at it. - For one, using 12v for the main drive is insane. The main motor is 150HP which means 9,250 amps at 12 volts! Imagine the size of the switches and wires you'd need to safely carry that much current - not to mention how much that would cost. (Continued in next comment)
I really love this system. One thing that I want to know, if it is possible to reprogram volt and lower 70 mph value to say 40mph? It's good when you drive with main 150hp and 370nm engine, but plus 77hp and 200nm generator at low speeds, would be great. so in total you will have almost 570nm and 227hp! No one interested in this?
That's not true, its just easier to build AC electric motors/generators with conversion to/from DC than to put in the brushes required for DC. electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/215997/converting-a-dc-motor-to-a-generator
The first generation Volt that is correct. The engine did nothing but charge the batteries. The kicker is that engine required 91 octane premium gas. Why I know not. It got in the low 30s mpg on the gas engine. 3 to 3.5 miles per kilowatt hour and people are bragging 4 miles per kilowatt hour on electric which would be very good even today.
4:50 They show the two being combined with a clutch more like a Prius hybrid. Far as I know this didn't happen in the first generation. Second Generation yes. maybe I am wrong. Either I got history wrong or it is rewritten ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-80E1fOp95rA.html
@@2148aa I own a volt and 4 miles per kw is possible if you go about 55 mph. It helps to be in traffic to limit speed. The car does great if you keep it at slower speeds. If you go 80 mph you get about 30 to 33 mpg vs 38 mpg on my 2nd gen prius under the same conditions. One thing to note about my prius vs my volt is there is about a 850lbs difference between the two cars. The prius is a tin can compaired to the solid drive feeling of the volt.
@@majorchungusTesla to date is hard pressed to hit the 4 mile per kilowatt. Granted the people who buy them wants to look cool and go fast. Someday people may know what electricity cost to run an EV. In Iowa our electric bills just topped $0.19 per kilowatt hour. That is total electric bill divided kilowatts used. Nothing is free
@@nismology Well, not full. The electric motor has a percentage of the total vehicle horsepower/Kw output, and the ICE has the other percentage. Without the ICE, probably over 50% of the power output is missing. However, the battery is big enough that the ICE doesn't have to kick in, apparently
@@vuhdeem That would be true if the vehicle linearly added the traction motor output and ICE output but that's not not quite what happens. In my unscientific testing full EV output is around 110 kW and full output with ICE/electric is around 114 kW. It's an increase, but not quite what you'd expect. Remember, in charge sustaining mode, the car is trying to maintain a certain traction battery SoC. So, it will not give full output compared to charge depleting mode. So in theory you're right, but what actually happens is a bit different.
@@nismology In a Ford Fusion non PHEV, the electric motor is is 54 hp and the ICE is 141 horsepower, with a total output of 188 - yes a few horsepower are lost. But these PHEVs apparently don't have full electric horsepower access with the ICE. The Ford Fusion Energi (PHEV) still has 188 total hp even though the electric motor alone is a 114 horsepower motor. That would be a powerful car with 141+114 horsepower
Lol No worries Chevrolet is discarding all research and development on this solution and going forward with just electric vehicles. They pulled the plug in Europe and on the volt. Now you just need bigger batteries that polute a lot to manufacture, are super expensive per kWh, require More space from then vehicule and add up amlot of weight. And super chargers at home. Theerfect can drive 120 km On batteries and the rest with fuel. No super chargers at home just normal ac home socket. But yeah... Chevrolet went for the full electric nonsense. Brilliant management from GM. GM should have focused on the European market selling exclusively this car alone and no other, kind of like the Tesla just with its unique model S offer. For the rest of the market sector there was too much competition. But this solution was unique. They had no competitors for this.
The reason they pulled the plug on the volt is batteries are WAY CHEAPER than when this car debuted. The extra weight and complexity of the hybrid system can be replaced with battery cells and you get over 230 miles on a charge. Finally, full EV dont require all the ICE maintenance and exhaust systems
The battery is engineered to last the life of the car, so there is no "battery replacement cost". Mine has over 180,000 miles and still over 80% original battery capacity and no change in electric driving performance.
I've had my Volt for over 7 years.... used 67 gallons of gas total... changed the oil 3 times .. costing me about 3 cents per mile... brakes are still like new after 55 K hard city hilly miles. Far less maintenance and cost..... with performance better than my V8's. Too bad this car cost $80,000 in Japan, China etc.. because of unfair trade.
Yep Right hand drive ones sold in NZ and OZ badged as Holdens sold for 85,000NZD before they dropped the price to 75,000 NZD that was BMW and Mercedes money territory for a brand considered more like a Ford for quality.
The new Tesla is $45k. In 3 years I use $45k in gas. Electricity at Tesla charging stations is free. What will be the used market for Teslas? Will there be a better Tesla?
Actually, according to Tesla, the model III will have a base price about $35,000. The base model will do zero to sixty in under six seconds and have a range of 210 miles. For some people, maybe that won't be enough range, but for me, it would be more than enough for our second car. Since we bought our Chevy Spark EV six months ago, it's pretty much the only car we drive. It has range of about 80 miles. Our other car, a Mazda 3, stays in the garage most of the time.
Que porqueria de diseño le colocas a un auto electrico ENGRANAJES para variar la potencia hacia las llantas pues en que años se diseño este auto. Para hacer eficienta las variaciones se coloca sistemas electronicos los famosos puentes H (Variadores de energia) y minimo el carro te da otros 50 Km.
my question is: For VOLT, we are trying to complete day drive with only battery power, so that's pretty much full deep cycle each day for the battery. Compare with e.g. LEAF a fully BEV, a day drive is only about 1/3 of total range. So theoretically, Volt will have much tendancy to have battery fail than LEAF.
Not really cause the real power of the battery is 16kW/h but only 10.5 is usable each charging cycle.So years after year you never see battery degradation.Volt use about 60-65% of the real power of the batterie compare to the leaf use about 80%.You NEVER can really charge or discharge totally a batterie in a EV véhicule.
Fred P Absolutely correct. Plus the Volt has a sophisticated active liquid cooling strategy, whereas the LEAF uses passive air cooling. Big difference in longevity from that as well.
Honda Hybrids have poor battery cell balancing systems, the Prius is way better at handling the battery pack and so is the Volt and probably all other EVs
A typical automobile is 12v DC. I don't understand why the Volt is wasting energy and efficiency converting DC to AC. Almost as stupid as residential PV inversion. Can someone explain?
