Still want to go electric ?

[Falcon]

Eric test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors...and he writes...For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.

Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles.

It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery. The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what I pay for electricity. I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.

$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery. Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile.

The gasoline powered car costs about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000.........So the American Government wants proud and loyal Americans not to do the math, but simply pay 3 times as much for a car, that costs more than 7 times as much to run, and takes 3 times longer to drive across the country..... Where do I sign ?

 

[Don M.]

Interesting topic, and I agree that we are quite a ways from electric/hybrid cars becoming practical, and affordable, for the average user. However, in your calculations regarding the costs of electricity, I think you need to move the decimal point 1 step to the left. We have some of the lowest electric rates in the nation...at about 8,3 cents/KWH. The national averages fall somewhere between 10 and 12 cents/KWH....so 11.6 cents would probably be quite normal for S. California. If a KWH cost $1.16/KWH, the average household would probably have a monthly bill in the $2,000 range.

The problem with hybrid vehicles is their high initial cost and the major expense of replacing the batteries when they reach end of life. Even though most get mileage in the 50MPG range, this hardly offsets the initial price, even with government subsidies, and if the owner keeps the vehicle long enough to require a battery replacement, any savings quickly go away.

The objective for going "hybrid" is supposed to be to lessen the pollution from burning fossil fuels. However, if a person has to charge their battery frequently, the pollution generated by the coal fired power plant which supplies the electricity quickly offsets any "cleanliness" of the hybrid.

 

[Ruthanne]

That sounds like a royal rip off!! I have been wondering about electric cars and now I know. Thanks for that information.

 

[SifuPhil]

You might want to check around before you believe anything that a single story on the 'Net claims.

At this site the Volts got from 32 to almost 100mpg on electric, while it averaged around 30mpg on gas.

From Chevy themselves:

As it slices through the air, Volt can travel up to an EPA-estimated 38 miles[SUP]†[/SUP] in EV mode without using a single drop of gas. Plus, Volt uses its gas-powered generator to travel up to 380 miles on a full charge and tank of gas[SUP]†[/SUP], so you won't have to worry about being stranded in this car.

[h=3]2015 Volt: Electric Cars - Hybrid Cars | Chevrolet[/h]

And remember - electric cars are not really MEANT for long-distance travel as of yet - they are urban cars, designed to go to the supermarket and pick up the kids.

 

[Guitarist]

I'd rather go equine than electric. If I had my druthers.

 

[Ken N Tx]

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