Where Do I Sign Up for a "Chevy Volt"

Got a real chuckle out of this story sent to me by a friend.............


As a "joke", my Chevv dealer gave me a Volt as a loaner while my full-size


pick-up was getting some attention. He thought it was funny to give his


energy company CEO this thing here on Vancouver Island!

I live 30 kms outside of Victoria near Sidney.


The battery was dead - later he admitted they almost never charged


it. While the car was "ok", on gasoline, it was pretty anemic.


So for the extra money, even taking into account Chev rebates


and Provincial incentives, you get an under-powered, heavy car


that felt "too small" for its actual size (battery has to go somewhere).


Now the kicker: At a neighborhood bbq, I was talking to a


Neighbour, a BC Hydro executive. I asked him how that


renewable thing was doing. He laughed, then got serious. If


you really intend to adopt electric vehicles, he pointed out,


you had to face certain realities. For example, a home


charging system for a Tesla requires a 75 amp service.


The average house is equipped with a 100 amp service on our small


street (approx 25 homes), the electrical infrastructure would


be unable to carry more than 3 houses with a single Volt/Tesla,


each. For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the


system would be wildly over-loaded.


This is the elephant in the room with electric vehicles ... Our


residential infrastructure cannot bear the load. So as our


genius elected officials ram this nonsense down our collective


throats, not only are we being coerced to buy the damm things


and replace our reliable, cheap generating systems with


expensive, new windmills and solar cells, but we will also


have to renovate our entire delivery system! This latter


"investment" will not be revealed until we're so far down this


dead end road that it will be presented with an oops and a


shrug.


If you want to argue with a “green” person over cars that are


eco-friendly, just read the below:


Note however, if you ARE the green person, read it anyway.


Enlightening.

Eric



Eric test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General


Motors, and he writes:..For four days in a row, the fully


charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched


to the reserve gasoline engine.


Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So,


the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately


270 miles.


It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then


add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip


time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed


(including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According



to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of


electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained


battery. The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is


never mentioned so I looked up what I pay for electricity. I


pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons)


$1.16 per kwh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the


battery.


$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per


mile to operate the Volt using the battery. Compare this to a


similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg.


$3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile.


The gasoline powered car costs about $15,000 while the Volt costs


$46,000..........So the Government wants proud and loyal


Canadians not to do the math, but simply pay 3 times as much


for a car, that costs more than 7 times as much to run, and


takes 3 times longer to drive across the country......


Where do I sign ?

 

Yikes! I'll stick with my Duramax.

 

Some of the math numbers are a little wonky, but it gets the point across.
Our son is considering a Tesla at some point, and told us the charger requires a 90 amp setup. I have no idea how long it takes to charge.

 

They were discussing the electric grid situation on the radio the other day-- how we are turning off windmills on windy days and solar panels on very sunny days because the grid can't hand the power surge and we have no way to store excess energy.

 

Here in NY green energy is failing. It cost more to maintain than it is making or saving.
But the government(taxpayer) will subsidise it!
The governor is adding surcharge and tax to people and providers to cover losses.

 

Since wind mills and solar suck anyways...why not just burn the gas/oil/coal thats used to make green energy products in your current vehicle...and save all the wasted tax payer dollars...especially since the taxes are collected from me while driving to work

 

I wouldn't say that wind mills suck just because the current grid can't handle what they can produce. Here in Iowa 1/3 of our electricity was produced by windmill last year. That number could be higher but the infastructure is lagging behind, as infastructures tend to do.

 

Exactly why the Good Lord gave us fuel sources that can be throttled and used as needed...called gas and coal
(and the brains to figure that out...but many people aren't so good at usin theirs anymore...#lemmings)

 

Actually we do, Google Ludington pumped storage. It may not be efficient but it seems some of the windmill farms could do something like this when they have excess capacity.
I went on a tour of a windmill farm in Kansas last year and I kind of threw them off guard when I asked them what would happen when we ran out of foreign wind!

Gary

 

Apache oil company just discovered a field in west Texas that is projected to hold the entire volume + that has already been pumped out of the Permian Basin over the last 90 years. BOOM !
The Volt feels good with a bank of solar and a green weenie!

 

Everything has to start somewhere and usually leads to other inventions .
I'm sure the electric car will improve over time with tech advances.
Nat gas cars intrigue me.
We have at least 2 nat gas filling stations in my county.
I think there's an old saying along the lines of necessity is the mother of invention.

 

After reading this, it seems to me that owning and driving a Volt is sort of like being on welfare. First you get all those Kickbacks (incentives). Then you use the road, but don't pay for the upkeep by paying taxes on the gas being collected to do the roads and bridges. Looks like that "earned income" thing that folks get back but don't pay into. Now if that government program was really successful. You would see new methods for collecting taxes. Like charging for the miles you drive. Government really needs to stay out of industry. Every time they try to "help" what ever they are helping seems to start smelling like a fish left out in the sun.

 

One might be better off building or getting something like this to get around in. And you know, since it's wood powered, it's right up our alley.

 

This video is better, mostly pickup trucks and a tractor. All run on farwood, or in this case WoodGass!

 

Elon Musk's take on this is interesting. He proposes that power could be stored locally in batteries, eliminating (mostly) the need for a grid overhaul. This idea is better supported by small local power generation i.e. solar, wind, tidal instead of centralized large generators like we have now. This idea would also eliminate much of the power loss that the current grid has due to long transmission.

One of the things that was holding back his plans for an everyday electric car was the batteries, not only their technology but the sheer number production of them. He invested huge dollars into battery technology and then built his own battery production facility, which is completely solar powered. The battery production of only his facility is greater than all of the other facilities combined.

 

Looking at a first gen dodge Cummins, I'll burn the two gallons of used motor oil from it as fuel.