GM's 'Volt'...

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.

07-31-10, 10:19 PM	#1
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.