Speaking of electrics.
Have you seen this?
ZELECTRIC MOTORS

My employer pays for my phone. That's 'free'.

My employer pays for my transponder. Also free.

My employer provides ea charging station for electric cars. Free.

I will thank the shareholders at the next meeting, they foot the bill in the end.

Yep - it is a benefit for those of us with electric cars, sort of like those who use the racquet ball court or the gym. The company pays to heat/cool and light those areas, pays property taxes on that square footage, and buys the equipment.

Some see it as a similar incentive to hire and keep good people.

dan88911 - what a great idea - I love those electric bugs - seems like a perfect fit!!!!

The cost per unit of energy out of the wall is considerably less than from an in car IC engine is much less.

There is an economy of scale to producing electricity at a power plant with regeneration and high efficency complex thermal cycles.

Its a bit of a specious argument to say going from gas to electric is just moving the cost and pollution source to the grid. Both of those are significantly reduced for electric only driving.

I thought the gen 2 volt was supposed to have huge improvements over the gen 1?

Aschen is electric car curious, but they don't make a lot of sense for Houston commuting

Thank you tcar - and all of you with mortgage write-offs can thank those of us who don't have a mortgage write-off.

You take it where you can... ;)

Gen 2 is supposed to have better battery management that give a few more miles per charge, and the interior has been redesigned. Some of the buck Rogers cartoon features have been replaced with actual knobs and switches.

He's not a hater, and you know it.

You're just trying to squelch the voices of those who disagree.

Much like the goobers who yell "racist" at anyone who disagrees with what's-his-name's policies and overreaches.

A point was being made about corporate welfare... otherwise known as the unseemly, cozy relationship between the government and private industry that benefits some at the expense of others.

Many of these same electric car buyers will be the loudest protesters when other corporate/government policies benefit those with whom they disagree. Hypocrites.

Get over yourself.

Sure, next feel free to point out how many pennies this particular Volt purchase cost the person who pointed out the foul.

Irrelevant.

Guy buys car. Guy tells his online Porsche buddies in excitement! Guy has thread hijcked with political crap.

The internet is a crazy place...

nice car!!!

Another squelch attempt. :cool:

Shameful

2014.5 volt has an improved battery pack, so you get some of the benefits of the gen2.
I have one, love it for commuting. Quiet, torquey, efficient. The AC doesn't take that much off range, maybe 10 percent. But since you have the gas engine backup, you never need to fret the range, like with pure electric cars.

Btw, the best way to drive a Volt is sport mode, and L on the transmission. This gives you instant torque, and hard regenerative braking as soon as you lift off the throttle. You basically drive it like a golf cart with one foot, hardly ever need to touch the brake pedal.

^^
I've been playing around with sport mode and L on the stick. Just the seat of my pants says they are bad for battery range. Sport makes the go pedal more responsive, which encourages faster starts and increases energy drain. The L setting increases the amount of regeneration, but there is essentially no coast period, so you are on power until you want to stop, then doing heavy regen to bring the speed down. In drive you anticipate a turn and coast up to it, saving energy.

I agree, sport and L are fun. They make the car feel like a sports car. I haven't tested it but I think for the first few feet the Volt will out accelerate my 911.

It doesn't quite work way for me. I am my employer, so I have to pay for the phone and the charge. They are business expenses, so they are paid with pre-tax money, but it technically comes off the company bottom line. I say technically because a few hundred dollars is barely noticeable in a $5million budget. It's costing me about 8.9 cents per KWH vs 14 cents if paying with after tax money. But it's such a tiny line item it will never be noticed.

Patrick, congrats - that's a screaming deal. What is the back seat leg room like for an adult? Would it work for a road trip with 4?

I've seen a lot of good things about the Volt. I'm not sure I could live with a modern GM product, but series hybrid is certainly the right path for the time being.

Does anyone know more about the Tesla Model 3? That's something I might seriously consider in the future.

Nice comment FP, "you take where you can" . Sounds like a protester in a Baltimore CVS or any democack in politics.

So 50 mile range, 0-60 in 8.6 seconds for the next generation Volt.

The Bolt is supposed to have a 200 mile range.

I've got a little Volt Envy going on, I must admit. But I don't have a pro-Volt commute situation right now, anyway. Wasn't the Volt getting slammed on this forum a couple of years ago???

I'll wait for the Porsche hybrid to come down to $50K or so. Maybe more realistic to wait for a Bullitt Mustang hybrid!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k9KDNqPTeCo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

It would depend on the front seat passengers. With the front seats all the way back there isn't much legroom in the rear. I'm 6'2" and I keep the front seat all the way back. There is room behind me for an adult on a short trip, but I wouldn't ask anyone to spend hours back there.

So, you couldn't get me on the employer benefit angle - so this? Really? This isn't PARF.... I bet you, or people you love have taken the mortgage interest credit - no different than the EV vehicle credit. For those of us who pay cash for our houses, we are subsidizing all of you who can't come up with the money up front. That is the 'take it where you can' statement comes from.

The Volt is a choice - works good for me, I like it, and if the fed and the state are going to give me a rebate - well, I will take it, it would be beyond stupid not to, just like people who pay mortgage interest every month - it would be silly for them not to take the write-off. I don't care they get that write off and I don't, it doesn't matter to me, they should 'take it where they can'.

That and the new interior are why the 2015s are being sold off so cheaply. GM seems to try an incentive for a month, wait a month, and then try again. May had smoking deals due to GM incentives, June - not so much. July might be a time to start looking.

"The car will do 0-100 km/h in 8.6 seconds and the on-board gasoline engine – the range extender – will continue to use regular fuel." This is puzzling. The 2015 requires premium fuel. One of the reasons they give is that there are more life-extending additives in premium. Either that reason is BS or they are expecting Volt owners to use more gas. There are guys on the Volt forums who have year-old gas in their cars. I plan to empty the tank every 3 months.

I think of it as me getting my little piece of government assistance. Sort of like a tiny, mini bank bailout or an oil depletion allowance.

That is weird - mine uses premium as well. I was told the car forces you to run the engine occasionally - so the gas doesn't get old. Mine probably gets run at least every couple of weeks or so, so I haven't noticed any 'mandatory' engine running.

I just got the 'change oil' notification too - it is weird not changing the oil every few months. I think it 'cues' you on that every year as well, no matter the mileage on the gas engine.

FP.......Some of us give & some of us take. My G.I. home loan, that I paid a big price to get, has been "paid off" years ago. Nobody gave me anything that would displace any of you.

FP there is a mandatory maintenance run for the IC engine that is determined by the car. I don't know if anyone knows what the algorithm is. Some say if the ICE isn't used for 45 days the car will start it and run it for 3 to 10 minutes. It's not enough to burn out old gas, so it must have some purpose other than ensuring that gas doesn't get old.
I've found it interesting that the only way I can tell whether it is running off the battery or off the ICE is the dashboard indicators. The car's behavior is identical and the sound is nearly the same.

So your kids or others you know don't use the mortgage interest write-off, it is one of the most popular write offs we have.

Doesn't the ICE mostly just recharge the batteries when it is running - I am not sure but I think the ICE rarely powers the wheels directly.

Have you surprised anyone yet? Many times at the grocery store someone is standing by the car and believe it is off - they are quite surprised as it starts to move - most see the badge on the side and give me a thumbs up.

Yes, I've surprised some people. You really have to watch out for them.

The ICE powers the generator when it's running. It won't recharge the batteries, the power goes straight to the traction motor.

The ICE actually does power the wheels more or less directly under extreme circumstances.
The car has four power modes:
battery to traction motor
ICE to traction motor
battery to generator/motor+traction motor
ICE to generator/motor+traction motor.
The first two are used 90+ percent of the time. In mountains or speeds over 70 MPH the generator/motor begins acting like a motor and assists the main traction motor in turning the wheels. Since the ICE is connected directly to the generator/motor, when the battery is depleted and the ICE comes on, it too is connected to the wheels.

imagine how civil the streets would be if everone used a Volt/Volt variant for commuting by automobile.
no noise. no stink. it would be surreal.
Germany being perhaps the first country to approach this "ideal"?

The deaf/blind are going to have a few more obstacles to overcome.

I don't about other Volt/EV owners, but I have discovered something interesting. The Volt is constantly showing you if you are driving 'smart', smooth accelerations, long braking, basically, taking it easy. So, you sort of end up driving 'smart', and 'calmer'. I am not an aggressive driver on the commute, but I think the Volt has even added to that. Traffic Jams - who cares, I'll get home. Stupid driver cuts me off - glad I am not dumb like him.

Maybe we would be more civil... who knows.

Nah. i dont' use that display mode. I just use the (A) summary mode. Sometimes I put the energy flow display on the center screen.

And I don't want to be civil. It's fun to drag race all the 3-series drivers who appear to be personally affronted by the presence of the Volt. My other car provokes the 6-series drivers. I think BMW drivers generally just have chips on their shoulders.

I do 100+ mile trips all the time, so my overall (lifetime) mileage varies from 122 to 126. The funny part is that two other Porsche hobbyists went out and got identical white Volts, so from time to time, the places we go look like dealerships.

Very happy with the choice of the Volt after 21K miles and 27 months of ownership. Or, leasership. It's just a bonus that our enemies in the ME are deprived of some money for ammo.

I've been thinking about a Volt for a couple years but the cost reductions make it a no brainer. Going to look at this new '14 tomorrow.



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1435281131.jpg

Mmmm Black. That was my first color choice. Good luck!

I dont think so!

I assume they don't randomly catch fire anymore.

I tend to hold cars a long time, GM makes me uneasy.

I make the case that my '74 makes less pollution than the majority of modern cars on the road today. My car isn't a daily driver - more like weekly, and only during a very short summer - and so it only gets driven 3,000 to 5,000 miles per year (5,000 to 8,000 kms). With this limited usage, which is even lower this year, I don't put as much garbage into the air as my 'clean' modern car that gets driven 40k per year. I don't have the specific numbers to support this argument, but in any case the pollution is minimal, in perspective.

After all, there is an environmental cost for generating the electricity going into the super clean electric car, it's just out of sight and out of mind. This helps to clean up the cities, but not the general environment to the extent that most of the public imagines.

I bet GM had to hire the specialized engineers to do the Volt so maybe it is not standard GM

Ever had a BMW? Now that's an uneasy feeling.