Volt Birth Watch 93: Lutz to Toyota: Eat My Dust
Why is GM Car Czar Bob “I Stopped Making Sense Years Ago” Lutz so damn defensive about the Volt’s design? Writing on the FastLane Blog, Maximum Bob wants to tell all those naysayers (oh me! choose me!) to shut the Hell up. “The Volt is going to be bought… for the emotion tied to the technology contained therein.” And while he’s at it, Bob takes yet another sideways swipe at Toyota (who are none to pleased with The General‘s alt prop lobbying these days). “In terms of the impact of Volt on the automobile industry, I think you’ll see lithium-ion technology filter out to the rest of the industry, even to our competitors who initially said it wouldn’t work,” MB hints hubristically. “I think they’ve figured out that we may well be onto a winning formula here, with 40 miles of driving powered by electricity from a battery and a small engine — powered by gasoline or E85 — to create additional electricity to power the vehicle for several hundred additional miles. I suspect most of our competitors will have vehicles with technology similar to the Volt within four or five years.” Bob touts the patriotic side of the project, and then gives TTAC (et al) the middle finger. “With the Volt, you go home, you plug it in, and you’re done. And for roughly 80 cents’ worth of electricity, you’ve got a fully-charged battery, ready to take on another forty miles of gas-free and tailpipe-emission-free driving. If that’s greenwashing, then come on in — the water’s fine.” What, into the washing machine?
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Does anybody know where this 80 cents for 40 miles worth of charge comes from? 2 cents per mile for an electric vehicle is much cheaper than other estimates I've heard.
80 cents will get you about 8 KWh. 40 miles from 8 KWh is pretty standard -- but of course this depends on how you drive. At 90mph you won't anywhere near that.
I have some emotions for GM's drive train technology but it isn't positive and it sure doesn't make me want to buy their products.