Volt Birth Watch 127: Another Minor Volt Annoyance Evaded

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Kicking Tires has apparently been curious about yet another potential pitfall of the Volt’s Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) design: gasoline aging. If gas sits in the Volt’s fuel system for an extended period while its owner stays within the EV range, will it degrade over time and harm the gas engine performance? That’s what KT asked GM alt-energy poobah Britta Gross, and guess what? Her answer wasn’t wildly convincing! Writes KT’s Kelsey Mays “It’s certainly a concern, Gross said, but it shouldn’t be a problem: The Volt’s system stirs fuel in the tank about once a month to fight fuel-system buildup. At most, ‘it’s a minor impact on performance and emissions,’ she said.” Unconvinced, May took the query to Volt spokesman Dave Darovitz. “I wish I could talk about it,” he said, “but we will have solutions in place to address the aging-gasoline situation. It’s a great problem to have . . . [and] the engineers are addressing that situation.” Darovitz says the issue came up in product planning, and that GM wasn’t disclosing its workaround for “competitive reasons.” Not that consumers need convincing, or anything.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz on Feb 09, 2009

    It is only a problem if GM is telling the truth about the 40 mi. all electric range. Please raise your hand if you believe anything GM says? You, over in the corner, you don't really believe anything GM says do you?

  • RNader RNader on Feb 09, 2009

    I don't remember them having that trouble with the EV1. Maybe they could have just pulled the prints and started to build the EV1 again. Just a thought.

  • Kgurnsey Kgurnsey on Feb 09, 2009

    RNader: The EV1 didn't have a range extender, it was a purely a battery EV. Thus it would never have had any gas related issues. As for dusting off the EV1, that design wouldn't meet current safety regualtions, let alone be competitive with current technology. It's interesting to note though, that GM was working on a 4 seater variant of the EV1 with a range extending genset at the time, so in a way, the Volt is in fact a sucessor to the EV1, if only in spirit. Much of what GM learned then was likely used as a jumping off point for the Volt though. Technology has changed a great deal since the EV1, so a clean design is the only reasonable route at this point.

  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Feb 09, 2009

    Doesn't sound like a big problem. I leave the fuel in my old 4-cycle lawnmower over the winter and it starts on the first pull in the spring. The bigger problem is how a bankrupt company can sell an unprofitable $40k economy car that only a small portion of the population can actually use (no apartment dwellers, sorry), in only 2 cities at first (SF and DC), all the while hoping and praying for infrastructure changes deemed by GM to be "key" to the product's success. And they never talk about actual economy numbers, and they never talk about actual performance after Mile 40. The Volt is smoke and mirrors, nothing more; they'll never sell any, or else they'll only survive on government subsidies.

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