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Disclosure: im an automotive engine mechanic by trade. The Volt was a political nightmare. trade rags beat this car night and day for being a fake. but honest
by nimbius 8y ago
Disclosure: im an automotive engine mechanic by trade.
The Volt was a political nightmare. trade rags beat this car night and day for being a fake. but honestly its a damn good car. it was never going to see tesla style torque or mileage but the people driving it werent the whole foods kind of crowd anyway.
the hybrid electric was borne out of the need to create something that couldnt be patent-struck by toyota, whos hybrid synergy drive is basically the entire hybrid market outside of Komatsu/Caterpillar these days. electric motor final drives until the engine kicks in to drive the electric motors also allowed them to avoid the honda tax on motors in the transmission that assisted the drive inline.
the engine drive was crucified by its owners for ever starting. in-town drivers would be well under the range of the vehicles batteries, yet routinely traded the car in or returned it when the engine kicked on. What they didnt understand is that this was done to prevent stale fuel or cycling problems in cold weather. The ECU was smart enough to maintain the engine even when you didnt need it.
If you find one of these used and youre into hybrid (mostly) electric drives, id recommend it. it has a planted and firm drive, similar to a windstar minivan but without the body roll.
The stereo is also surprisingly overpowered for something like this as it borrows heavily from Fords Shaker platform (harmon kardon.)
- speedplane 8y ago> The Volt was a political nightmare. trade rags beat this car night and day for being a fake. but honestly its a damn good car. So you're saying widely publicized biased opinions based on antiquated but longstanding social norms were able to prevent good engineering, measurably better than the status quo, from coming to market? Are you saying that marketing and media can often overcome solid facts? Welcome to humanity.
- gameswithgo 8y agoWhen audi first introduced continuously variable transmissions they had to make them act like discrete transmissions because users complained it felt like the tranmission was slipping. arrggghghghg
- zeckalpha 8y agoThis may be true, but Audi was relatively late to the CVT game.
- walrus01 8y agoSince you mention patents... How does the Hyundai Ioniq avoid Toyota's many hybrid drive patents, and get comparable mileage to the Prius? It's essentially the same size of car, same aerodynamic design, same engine size, etc.
- lscotte 8y agoMaybe because it's Paice, not Toyota that holds all the hybrid patents - Paice sued many car manufacturer and won - Toyota, Ford, Kia, and Hyundai (and others?) - all had to "license" from Paice.
- cobookman 8y ago+1. Have a chevy volt. Something like 90% of my driving is on electric, but you are still able to make long distance drives. What killed it was lack of marketing it as a better hybrid & the smaller size. If I had kids I'm not sure I'd of bought the car. I wonder if they put the volt drive train on a crossover how it'd sell. EV Range for the groceries, gas for the long distance road trip.
- zepearl 8y agoA friend of mine owns it since a long time - he has always been very happy with it and never had any problems with it. I've been in it a couple of times and it felt nice while driving. It's a pity that people basically didn't understand it.
- EADGBE 8y agoI feel like the stale gas argument is one that isn't considered often. Especially with ethanol-blended fuels decreasing the shelf life even more.