Volt Ahead

Raw Response to
Chevy Volt Redefines EV
at Wired's Autopia at
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/01/chevy_volt_coul.html

Great concept!!!

Hats off to one of the most efficient cars we've seen in a 100 years. The design is very similar to Porsche's World's First Hybrid built before 1900 estimated at 83% efficient.

The radical turbine electric car helped Ferdinand Porsche set world land speed records, win an award at the World's Fair as well as the Semmering Uphill, jump starting a long career in racing.

Why did he build it? Because his boss wanted a more powerful longer range electric (before grids were around).

How does the Volt compare to the EV-1, Tesla and Prius in terms of efficiency.

First of all, over 700,000,000 vehicles on Earth are burning 8 or 9 of every 10 gallons of fuel we pay for before turning our wheels...

So in terms of efficiency, the VOLT is probably twice or three times as good as most. But the Tesla and EV-1 are able to use almost 9 of every 10 units of electricity. Unfortunately, grids are less efficient than fuel value chains (well to truck, truck to tanker, tanker to port, port to port, tanker to truck, truck to refinery, refinery to truck, truck to station).

The Tesla Roadster is rated at almost 90% and California has a pretty clean grid. The grid is why the Prius can leverage it's 37% efficiency against 80-90% gasoline for a high well to wheel. The plug-in Prius is getting 94 mpg in testing.

How efficient is the VOLT? I don't know, the Prius and Tesla are the only automakers to release efficiency studies.

If the VOLT is over 37%, there's a window of opportunity to advertise the world's most efficient vehicle before electrics run over hybrids.

Conventionals (15%) are yesterday, hybrids (35%) are today, plug-ins (50% est) are next and electrics (90%) are tomorrow...

Posted by: John Acheson | Jan 22, 2007 11:52:11 PM