Umm - Yeah we got a bit jargony.

Short version: The Volt turns out to be less like a real electric car and more like a Prius than advertised. I'll do the long version in separate post.

Attention conservation notice: extended discussion of the Volt and Hybrids for those who are interested. Skip if not a subject you want to focus on at the moment.

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OK Here is the skinny (and I hope that phrase is not read as pro-Anorexia).

1) Pure electric cars don't have an engine. They have a battery which you charge by plugging into your wall and that's is the only way they get electricity to run on. Downside: batteries are expensive, also if you don't have a permanent place to park, hard to install an extra wall plug to plug them into and charge them. (A few complexities dropped cause this is already TLDR)

2) A serial plug hybrid electric adds a little gasoline engine that charges the battery when you run out of the juice you got by plugging into the wall. So your car always runs off a battery, but sometimes the battery is charged by your gas engine. If you mostly take short and medium trips that means mostly your car is driven by the charging from the grid (the plug in your garage, carport or permanent place). But you have the gasoline engine to charge your battery when you travel further . That means you can use a smaller cheaper battery.

3) A parallel hybrid means your car can run directly off the gas engine and also off the battery at the same time. Conventional Hybrids do this with the electricity for the battery created by the gas engine. I won't bore you with why this gets better gas mileage than just burning the gas directly (unless requested) but it does. A parallel hybrid can also have a plug added, so you get a bit of the power from the grid (AKA your garage wall or a post in your parking spot), but not much.

4)The volt has been advertised for a long time as a serial hybrid that always runs off the battery. But it turns out that even if there is a charge in the battery that the gasoline engine kicks in at high speeds, supposedly because it is more energy efficient. I, personally doubt this. I suspect the real reason is to extend battery life. First if more of the drive for the car is provided by gasoline, then you are drawing less from the battery. And if the gasoline kicks at higher speeds, it means you are drawing the battery down as fast. You don't run into spikes of high discharge. Not getting those spikes also conserves battery life. A123 bid on the Volt contract and lost. They are a smaller company, but their batteries are much more robust with longer lifespans. I think Chevrolet made a real mistake by playing it safe and going with a larger company with a less robust technology.

The gasoline engine in the VOLT will never actually power the vehicle. There is no mechanical link between the ICE and wheels. The gas engine always provides power to the electric motor, which in turn moves the vehicle. It is a series hybrid only.

GM actually just announced today that it isn't quite that way. They claim they've been waiting on a patent to go through to reveal that actually at highway speeds the ICE helps with the drive wheels.

Here is a link to the story on Autoblog:

[link]

No, the ICE at higher speeds still powers a secondary electric motor to drive the vehicle. There are three motors--two electric and one gas--but the gas never directly powers the vehicle.

It's been driving people nuts for months now. How exactly do you explain and classify this vehicle?

That's not what is being said about the planetary gearset is the central transmission of energy from the motors to the wheels.

In my book I don't see how it really matters. For many people this is a car that will see 100+ MPG for commuters, why does it matter how that is being pulled off, and if it is an ER-EV or a new variety of plug in hybrid.

Oy, you think this would be explained properly internally before it's released to the press.

I still can't make sense of it. It looks like it only occurs in a very limited circumstance when the VOLT is above 70 mph, and it's never powered exclusively by the ICE.

Proper distribution of the correct message is key, people.

In my book I don't see how it really matters

Yeah, that's how I see it too. If it delivers the goods, I'm not especially bothered about the details.

Yeah, basically it's still amazing tech and a car that should see amazing MPG ratings for commuters. Unfortunately the way this is being handled is going to be spun into a very bad light by competitors and the folks that think global warming is a myth and that alternate fuel sources are a waste of time.

Unfortunately the way this is being handled is going to be spun into a very bad light by competitors and the folks that think global warming is a myth and that alternate fuel sources are a waste of time.

I wish more things re: marketing had changed post-bankruptcy. The new CEO is emphasizing playing offense and this is going to be all defense.

I've driven the VOLT a handful of times, and it's fun. The iPhone app is way cool, and the cockpit electronics are heavily influenced by Apple. It performs as expected, IF one realizes that it's primarily an electric vehicle. Driving behavior does need to be modified. It handles well, and runs more smoothly than I anticipated. It has a sport mode that slightly decreases efficiency, but ups the torque. I managed to get about 35 miles on a charge, and averaged about 83 mpg in DC traffic.

Will someone have something negative to say about it? Yes,it's not a car for everybody. The technology that's behind it, though, is pretty amazing.