GM's 'Volt'... - Page 2

mookiemookie · 07-31-10, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

Taxpayer money is used to socialize GM and this "volt" is the turd they finally manage to squat down and push out?

give me an effin break.

Another wonderful thing you can (in part) thank the Bush administration for. Their parting shot to taxpayers.

TLAM Strike · 07-31-10, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Task Force

That phrase would no longer be Stop, look and listen! Just Stop, look, and pray a crazy driver dosent blast around the Corner!

Easy fix remember the sirens the Germans mounted on the Stuka?

Task Force · 07-31-10, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Easy fix remember the sirens the Germans mounted on the Stuka?

I would put one of those on it! Just think of turning it on in traffic!

Or maby a Ships horn. YA Take that you semis!

Bubblehead Nuke · 07-31-10, 10:19 PM

Many MANY things worry me about cars like this.

In a wreck, many municipalities REFUSE to cut the car apart to get you out in the event of an accident. They are worried about getting electrocuted.

As a Service manager/car tech, I dread trying to educate people in the care and maintenance of them. Instead of a mileage req on oil changes, you will have an hour spec. Mild hybrids are already a pain to work on. There are whole LISTS of do and don't associated with them.

That battery is going to consume a lot of energy just MAINTAINING itself. Too hot or cold and it can be damaged. That means the environmental controls have to be one ALWAYS. The car will be monitoring itself and adjusting to keep itself within a narrow temp band. This means using power to heat or cool itself.

I am also worried about the range limits. What happens when you get to the low limit of charge and the computer calls for the generator to start and it DOESN'T. Do you suddenly STOP (well, coast down).. right now, right here cause you MIGHT hurt the battery?

Also, the engine will NOT charge the battery, Once it is at the low limit, the battery is isolated and the generator does all the work. If is like losing a third of the power according to the test drives. GM has admitted that this is a problem and that later they are going to look at the possibility of using the generator to run the car AND recharge the battery. But this is in 2 or 3 generations down the road developmentally. I wonder how long till some enterprising hacker fixed that oversight in the software.

GoldenRivet · 07-31-10, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Another wonderful thing you can (in part) thank the Bush administration for. Their parting shot to taxpayers.

correct.

Any administration/political party and congress that writes the check - i blame.

So far that has been two fools in the white house that have done so.

Zachstar · 08-01-10, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Your welcome UAW

What does Union have to do with car tech? Union has no say in design.

Of course never miss a beat to express anti-union hate tho for some here.

Zachstar · 08-01-10, 01:35 AM

As for the volt it is rather crap. GM is far too worried about a good volt competing with its petrol lines. If I were GM I would go all in on electric. Tho I am not so I will buy a Ford instead.

As for charge time issues. That has NOTHING to do with the car or the battery. Most home lines can only push out a few kilowatts safely. Also the faster you want to charge the much more complex and costly the power converter costs. My PCs Power supply is 700W and it cost me a good 60USD. .7 Kilowatts...

What is not being mentioned here tho is that 40 miles you get is less than a dollar power bill. Way less in many areas. Also when an engine is "designed" for a fixed RPM its efficiency skyrockets. Most road engines these days are supposed to hit best RPM at normal conditions at 50 MPH That is why there is two MPG ratings.

Now in my opinion take the ICE out completely slash 10-20 thousand on price and let it go 60-80 miles on a single charge. That fits city dwellers VERY well.

mookiemookie · 08-01-10, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

correct.

Any administration/political party and congress that writes the check - i blame.

So far that has been two fools in the white house that have done so.

Indeed. One of the major things I fault Obama for - continuing many of the same crappy decisions of his predecessor.

SteamWake · 08-01-10, 09:42 AM

Ah its time to blame bush again.

I'm fairly sure that Bush did not intend to take over the company but thats actually fodder for another topic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bloomburg Buisness Week

Now that the United Auto Workers will likely own big stakes of General Motors and Chrysler (possibly 39% of GM and 55% of the latter) some very thorny questions arise. How will management work with some degree of union ownership?

First, let’s look at a few facts. The UAW won’t directly own equity stakes in the car companies. The shares will be owned by a Voluntary Employee Benefits Trust, or VEBA, which invests cash and manages a portfolio to pay union healthcare benefits.

When all of the legal proceedings are done, which should be next year, the VEBA trusts will have a board of trustees who could get representation on the boards of the companies.

http://www.businessweek.com/autos/au...ownership.html

nikimcbee · 08-01-10, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zachstar

What does Union have to do with car tech? Union has no say in design.

Of course never miss a beat to express anti-union hate tho for some here.

nope.
I wonder how much the car would cost w/o the union?

UnderseaLcpl · 08-01-10, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zachstar

What does Union have to do with car tech? Union has no say in design.

No, but they have a say in labor and labor costs, which directly affects the quality of products produced. Their lobbies also have a big effect on domestic production and international trade policy, and are usually focused upon insuring their jobs at the cost of everyone else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zachstar

Of course never miss a beat to express anti-union hate tho for some here.

Glad you like unions so much. Remind me to thank you for your blind support next time I pick up my ridiculous paycheck that comes directly from your wallet in the form of artificially inflated bulk goods costs.

Platapus · 08-01-10, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

T
so lets see... if you have a 30 mile commute, and if you work some nights until 9pm like me, get home around 9:30 or 10:00 and have to turn around for a 6am departure, what then? leave out the next morning on 7 hours charging - maybe 8... and run dead within 10 miles of work?

For a person who seems to be bad-mouthing the volt, you know very little about it. The Chevy volt is a gas electric car. You can drive 40 miles solely on the electric battery. After that, the gas engine kicks in and you can drive about 300 miles more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevy_Volt

A little more research on your part will spare you this embarrassment in the future.

GoldenRivet · 08-01-10, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Platapus

For a person who seems to be bad-mouthing the volt, you know very little about it. The Chevy volt is a gas electric car. You can drive 40 miles solely on the electric battery. After that, the gas engine kicks in and you can drive about 300 miles more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevy_Volt

A little more research on your part will spare you this embarrassment in the future.

Im not badmouthing it outright.

Im badmouthing it in comparison to specific all-electric cars with electric motor ranges of approximately 120+ miles @ highway speed.

the heads at GM want to push this volt as some new, cutting edge, forward thinking car that will reduce our dependency on oil...

its simply not going to do that... not substantially.

yubba · 08-01-10, 06:11 PM

We can t get a brake from Bushanomics to Obamanomics they built the Volt purposely substandard, so that no one would want it , too make big oil happy,just think what kind of car the EV 1 would be now after a decade of improvements . Big oil crushed the EV 1 because it was a threat to their profits and in their greed raised gas prices that also crush the auto industry, and everything else, if we don t get this oil monkey off our backs it will be the end of us all .So when is our government going too addopt some kind of energy policy instead of taking bribes from big oil lobbist. Heck I m workin on building a HHO Generator let u guys know how that works out . Look at you tube HHO Generator.

ETR3(SS) · 08-01-10, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yubba

So when is our government going too adopt some kind of energy policy instead of taking bribes from big oil lobbyist.

When all the oil dries up and there's no more oil companies.

08-01-10, 01:35 AM	#22
Zachstar Sea Lord Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Shreveport, Louisiana Posts: 1,956 Downloads: 13 Uploads: 0	As for the volt it is rather crap. GM is far too worried about a good volt competing with its petrol lines. If I were GM I would go all in on electric. Tho I am not so I will buy a Ford instead. As for charge time issues. That has NOTHING to do with the car or the battery. Most home lines can only push out a few kilowatts safely. Also the faster you want to charge the much more complex and costly the power converter costs. My PCs Power supply is 700W and it cost me a good 60USD. .7 Kilowatts... What is not being mentioned here tho is that 40 miles you get is less than a dollar power bill. Way less in many areas. Also when an engine is "designed" for a fixed RPM its efficiency skyrockets. Most road engines these days are supposed to hit best RPM at normal conditions at 50 MPH That is why there is two MPG ratings. Now in my opinion take the ICE out completely slash 10-20 thousand on price and let it go 60-80 miles on a single charge. That fits city dwellers VERY well. __________________

08-01-10, 06:11 PM	#29
yubba Admiral Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: in a neighborhood near you Posts: 2,478 Downloads: 293 Uploads: 2	Obamanomics at its best We can t get a brake from Bushanomics to Obamanomics they built the Volt purposely substandard, so that no one would want it , too make big oil happy,just think what kind of car the EV 1 would be now after a decade of improvements . Big oil crushed the EV 1 because it was a threat to their profits and in their greed raised gas prices that also crush the auto industry, and everything else, if we don t get this oil monkey off our backs it will be the end of us all .So when is our government going too addopt some kind of energy policy instead of taking bribes from big oil lobbist. Heck I m workin on building a HHO Generator let u guys know how that works out . Look at you tube HHO Generator. Last edited by yubba; 08-01-10 at 07:06 PM.

07-31-10, 10:19 PM	#19
Bubblehead Nuke XO Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 435 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Many MANY things worry me about cars like this. In a wreck, many municipalities REFUSE to cut the car apart to get you out in the event of an accident. They are worried about getting electrocuted. As a Service manager/car tech, I dread trying to educate people in the care and maintenance of them. Instead of a mileage req on oil changes, you will have an hour spec. Mild hybrids are already a pain to work on. There are whole LISTS of do and don't associated with them. That battery is going to consume a lot of energy just MAINTAINING itself. Too hot or cold and it can be damaged. That means the environmental controls have to be one ALWAYS. The car will be monitoring itself and adjusting to keep itself within a narrow temp band. This means using power to heat or cool itself. I am also worried about the range limits. What happens when you get to the low limit of charge and the computer calls for the generator to start and it DOESN'T. Do you suddenly STOP (well, coast down).. right now, right here cause you MIGHT hurt the battery? Also, the engine will NOT charge the battery, Once it is at the low limit, the battery is isolated and the generator does all the work. If is like losing a third of the power according to the test drives. GM has admitted that this is a problem and that later they are going to look at the possibility of using the generator to run the car AND recharge the battery. But this is in 2 or 3 generations down the road developmentally. I wonder how long till some enterprising hacker fixed that oversight in the software.