The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

stickers at $40,280 minus the $7,500 tax credit= $32,780


http://www.chevrolet.com/volt/

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

My local dealer just took my order.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

I drove one here in San Antonio during a special GM event. It is basically what I would call a 'Super hybrid.' It CAN run in EV mode, but continually goes back and forth. During the short drive I had, it averaged 45-49 MPG. Great, but no better than a Prius for double the price of a base Prius.

I suspect that Toyota will introduce a pure EV version of the Prius about the time the Volts start to trickle in. Toyota already has a pure EV version of the Prius available in Japan; don't know why it isn't sold here yet.

And, Volt production will be limited to only a few thousand cars for the entire year. Toyota could easily outproduce the GM production for the year in only one month.

Don't mean to dash anyone's expectations, but if you are expecting 160-200 MPG, you are REALLY going to have to do some tricky driving techniques to get any where near that mileage.

Joe

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

I drove a Volt for a week. 45 mile commute one way. I was able to plug in at work and home. I would use about .25 gallons in the morning commute, none on the way home each day. By the end of the week, my average mpg was well into the triple digits. It only goes into charge sustain mode AFTER you've used your 40 miles of EV. Down to about 40 deg F or so, getting 40 miles of EV is not that hard. Of course, you won't get that in the dead of winter if it's parked outside, but every car's mileag goes down in winter.

The Volt-bashers like to focus on the mpg AFTER the EV runs out (and I can get 40 mpg in charge sustain mode around town, about 37 on the highway at 70 mph), but you have to average 40 miles of no gas into your 37-40 mpg. If you drive highways a lot, sure, the effect of the 40 miles EV is lessened. So maybe the Volt isn't for you. But what it can do will fit a big swath of the population.

Few thousand cars? Okay, 10K in year 1 while they're spooling up, but they will be at 60K in year two and more after that.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

I'm not bashing the car; just reported what I experienced.

If you make every post that you don't like personal, you will chase other users away from this forum because they won't want to read you venting.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Didn't really think I was being personal... just relating my experiences, like you. Some of your info about the Volt wasn't complete. I was just filling in the gaps.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

I'm curious how you managed to get to drive the Volt for a week. Where do I sign up. :)

I wonder how many MPG's an experienced hybrid driver or hypermiler could squeeze out of the Volt in charge sustain mode. Unfortunately I log a lot of miles so the Volt doesn't fit my demographics. But if my circumstances were to change and I found myself with a 20-30 mile daily commute I could definitely see myself trading in my Insight for the Volt. At least until the austarians kill off the tax credits.

It looks like GE and others will help the Volt out of the gate, if they follow through on their press releases, but I'm afraid the price might scare a lot of people off in the deflationary economy we are entering.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

GM just announced 1000 new engineering openings in their battery program. Get hired, and opportunities to drive a Volt (and their other PHEV/hybrids) will surely follow. Many of these folks will be working on optimization and taking cost out of battery packs, which are the single most expensive component in an EV. So go to GM online and submit a resume! Like anything else new, costs will drop dramatically. These cars will be near break-even cost-wise by 2nd gen, and stand-alone profitable by 3rd gen.

I'm sure hypermilers could get mid-40s in charge sustain mode in city/urban driving, and near 40 on the highway without too much trouble.

for all you prius lovers...
 

...a pure EV car will NEVER be able to do what a Volt can. Try to drive a 100% EV car from Colorado to California and see how far you get. the VOLT CAN do this as a hybrid a pure EV will not do this at least on current technology.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Well, not to pick nits, but technically you actually could drive the Nissan Leaf from Colorado to California if you wanted to. You could even drive it coast to coast.

With the Volt you would be stopping every 300 miles or so for as long as it takes to gas up, with the Leaf of course you would be stopping every 75-100 miles to charge the batteries. It would take longer to fuel up of course, but like I said, technically it could be done.

Of course that would be silly.

Purely electric cars are meant for commuters and urban dwellers. They have their niche.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

really? does it take longer to put gas on the volt? does it have a 26gal tank too like the escalade hybrid? I think filling up every 600 miles for the Volt will beat recharging of the leaf every 75-100 miles.

with my escalade hybrid, I did not have enough "gas" to be continuously driving for 550+miles(range of the escalade) because I was tired, hungry or just sleepy.

edit: after reading back your post, you meant fuel up(recharging) of the leaf and not the volt:confused:

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Hi


I think we are in for some new changes in the near future only because of the competition between car makers to be one step in front of a changing market.
Plus the rising cost of fuel oil will force the average person into a hybrid
thus increasing tax revenue for the government.
I doesn't matter what the government wants the bottom line is the all mighty dollar.
Who cares if the gas cars won't start because there isn't enough oxygen
to run the engine.
Everyone carries bottled water wherever they go why not carry bottled air,
Oh yeah that's right you need a prescription to carry oxygen and that's a fact.
With this all in mind than why are we dragging our feet when it comes to
changing our mind set on the prospect of free energy (untaxable) can anybody say cash cow 5 million gallons of gas in Michigan per day translated into $1,000,000 taxable revenue feet dragging.
Someday that is before the next earth killing asteroid hits and returns us to the stone age that is the ones that were living in caves at the time of impact.(space travel)
We should try not to say that is not possible because it is, you are just asking the wrong poeple.

Sorry for the rant
Mark

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Couldn't you just pull a light weight trailer with a generator on it? Something the size of what a motorcycle pulls. I know people on the aptera forum were looking into this.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

They (GM) did something like that with a few EV-1s. Plugged a small generator into a trailer hitch and towed small trailer with generator.

That's where the idea of the Extended Range Electric Vehicle (Volt) came from.

Learning. The generator on a trailer idea was real clunky. It got terrible overall performance and fuel economy.

So the Volt has a more efficient and lighter generator under the hood.

Fisker has something similar coming soon. ~ $80k

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Gotcha. I should be test driving one in an hour or so. Doubtful my wife will buy today but I hope she leans the way of the Volt. I've been reading reviews on another forum and it seems to be getting great reviews with outstanding results in the fuel department. I think she will wait and see if she likes the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid more. It's more appealing to her since the Volt isn't.

Her current round trip for work is 20 miles. So the ICE shouldn't run but a few times to just burn the gas in the tank.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Went to order a Volt and the dealer, Fred Bean in Limerick, PA wants to charge $3000 in dealer markup because they believe the Volt will be in high demand. I was willing to pay $42,000, but not $45,000.

He called it a "market demand" markup. I call it frustrating.

It makes me want to keep my 2000 Honda Insight hybrid for a while until the competition heats up. The Insight just got 102MPG on my 26 mile commute this week. And why do I want a Volt?

Sorry for posting on this thread, but the user interface for this website using the iPad does not provide a "new thread" post button.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Unfortunately, GM can't dictate how the dealers sell the cars, which is why the "S" in "MSRP" is 'suggested.' They can try to dissuade dealers from marking up the vehicles, but don't have direct leverage. And most folks see their dealer as the face of the company, event though they are different entities.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Glad that you can order one or one is in the lot. All four high volume dealers locally doesn't one in site to look at or test drive.

Posted using an ipad. It does have new posts button in it.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Call Nigel at Ayers Chevrolet in Dover, NJ at 201-906-4415. Paid MSRP 4 months ago and love the car, I have 5,200 miles on it. Oh and you can get about 400 miles on the fuel tank and a charge. If you drive locally you probably will rarely have to visit a gas station. I have a 300 mile trip I do pretty often and if I owned a Leaf I'd have to take a different car.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

Disagree. GM has produced approximately 49,000 Volts over three model years, including exports. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt) Toyota Prius production peaked on ONE MODEL YEAR with 404,000 in 2009. Currently, there are numerous Volts sitting unsold on dealer lots. And, GM has already announced they are redesigning the Volt. So, it is one alternative, but apparently millions of car buyers have decided on other alternatives.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

the redesign would would be the cadillac ELR.

Re: The 2011 Chevy Volt!
 

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is probably the most fuel-efficient hybrid car in the marketplace. The Volt is the most innovative hybrid to now and quite probably the most fuel efficient car you will be able to buy. It looks less like an automobile control panel.