The Chevy Volt
Ars Technica has posted a review of the upcoming Chevy Volt. My first reaction to it was, "WOW, I SOOO need one." But, calming down a bit, its time to look a bit objectively.
1. 40 miles per charge
40 miles is both not a lot, and quite a bit. This is what it can do on a single charge before it has to fire up the gas motor for more electricity. According to the article, the total range between fill-ups should be north of 300 miles; 40 miles on pure battery and the rest on gas-generator. This means it'll have the same effective range as conventional cars, which is critical for consumer acceptance. So when you move from Chicago to Memphis, you can at least drive the car all the way there without having to pay to have it towed.
In my case the 40 mile range is very reasonable. My round-trip commute is rarely over 35 miles, even with side-trips. Weekend errand-runs are another story, but the large majority of the run would be done on electricity sucked down in my garage. So in our case, the effective miles-per-gallon should be very high.
But for people who commute 40 miles each way, it won't buy a lot. It'll probably mean a MPG rating comparable to some of the smaller hybrids, which won't really justify the cost of the car. However, as the article points out these people are not the primary target market for this car.
2. Cubic footage lost to battery
Even more than hybrids, the Volt has a lot of cubic footage spent on housing the batteries. This is not a car designed for road-tripping to Grandma's house, it is designed for trips under an hour. Looking at it, I see potential problems for those who are over six feet tall, or are well-padded in the hip.
For our average usage, this should be just fine. That trunk can handle our groceries and usual errand-swag. For larger cargoes, longer travel times, or hauling passengers, we have the internal-combustion station-wagon. As neither of us are vertically or horizontally enhanced, we should be able to fit inside it just fine. Considering that our current 'commuter' car is effectively a 2-seater, the Volt should be an easy drop-in replacement.
3.0 Glass cockpit
Continuing the trend brought on by the Hybrids, the Volt doesn't have analog gauges for things like speed, it has LCD screens. The thing I noticed is that the driver's LCD is markedly smaller than most dashboard displays I've seen. Considering the technical challenges of this car and the column inches Ars Technica devoted to describing the software development process for the car's hardware, I strongly suspect that early-adopters are going to have to put up with regular updates to that software.
Seeing as how the target demographic is urban commuters who live relatively close to their place-of-work, it is nearly certain that there will be some kind of 3G network available. OnStar is already usable in most of the US. I suspect that this channel could be used to push out software updates to the cars themselves. We'll see how this is handled once it actually hits the streets.
I like the glass cockpit, but I do like a certain density to my information display. At a glance, without twiddling knobs, I'd like to know at least speed and estimated miles before turning on the gas-powered generator, as well as the typical gauges like fuel-level and engine-temp.
And finally, if cars like these do take off, 220v outlets in garages are going to be all the rage in new construction.
1. 40 miles per charge
40 miles is both not a lot, and quite a bit. This is what it can do on a single charge before it has to fire up the gas motor for more electricity. According to the article, the total range between fill-ups should be north of 300 miles; 40 miles on pure battery and the rest on gas-generator. This means it'll have the same effective range as conventional cars, which is critical for consumer acceptance. So when you move from Chicago to Memphis, you can at least drive the car all the way there without having to pay to have it towed.
In my case the 40 mile range is very reasonable. My round-trip commute is rarely over 35 miles, even with side-trips. Weekend errand-runs are another story, but the large majority of the run would be done on electricity sucked down in my garage. So in our case, the effective miles-per-gallon should be very high.
But for people who commute 40 miles each way, it won't buy a lot. It'll probably mean a MPG rating comparable to some of the smaller hybrids, which won't really justify the cost of the car. However, as the article points out these people are not the primary target market for this car.
2. Cubic footage lost to battery
Even more than hybrids, the Volt has a lot of cubic footage spent on housing the batteries. This is not a car designed for road-tripping to Grandma's house, it is designed for trips under an hour. Looking at it, I see potential problems for those who are over six feet tall, or are well-padded in the hip.
For our average usage, this should be just fine. That trunk can handle our groceries and usual errand-swag. For larger cargoes, longer travel times, or hauling passengers, we have the internal-combustion station-wagon. As neither of us are vertically or horizontally enhanced, we should be able to fit inside it just fine. Considering that our current 'commuter' car is effectively a 2-seater, the Volt should be an easy drop-in replacement.
3.0 Glass cockpit
Continuing the trend brought on by the Hybrids, the Volt doesn't have analog gauges for things like speed, it has LCD screens. The thing I noticed is that the driver's LCD is markedly smaller than most dashboard displays I've seen. Considering the technical challenges of this car and the column inches Ars Technica devoted to describing the software development process for the car's hardware, I strongly suspect that early-adopters are going to have to put up with regular updates to that software.
Seeing as how the target demographic is urban commuters who live relatively close to their place-of-work, it is nearly certain that there will be some kind of 3G network available. OnStar is already usable in most of the US. I suspect that this channel could be used to push out software updates to the cars themselves. We'll see how this is handled once it actually hits the streets.
I like the glass cockpit, but I do like a certain density to my information display. At a glance, without twiddling knobs, I'd like to know at least speed and estimated miles before turning on the gas-powered generator, as well as the typical gauges like fuel-level and engine-temp.
And finally, if cars like these do take off, 220v outlets in garages are going to be all the rage in new construction.
posted by Corwin at 1:11 PM
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