Tag Archives: Volt

What a difference 3 years can make.

One of the great things about the web is it’s really easy to find media reports from years gone by. That is unless it was you doing something in the past you want to forget about or worse want to deny so you can get elected to public office.

In this case I’m talking about a couple of episodes of AutolineNetwork (Click here to watch it) on youtube. This one from 2012 is trying to explain why the Chevy Volt is such a big disappointment. One guy is from the Wall Street Journal, another from a Conservative Think Tank and another who was an engineer on the EV-1 project now turned auto journalist.

Two of the guys are totally dissing the Volt. The other two have driven it and say how much they love it. Their only real issue they have with it is the price.

The WSJ guy and the Think Tank Guy have nothing good to say because all they see are political reasons to not like it. They don’t believe that the government has any business giving rebates and subsidies to help it along. They don’t believe it would exist without CAFE rules or CARB regulations. And while I might agree with the latter the former is reasons are just plain selective amnesia.

How many things do we have today because the Government took an interest in something. The internet didn’t just pop up in the mind of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. The Interstate Highway System wasn’t the brain child of Ford or GM. The Cellular Network and even the TV Broadcasting Networks were only built because the Government gave certain Companies assurances of exclusive license to build those networks.

We have seat belts and more crashworthy cars because of Government intervention or that hated word regulation. Something that all of the guest somehow like. Maybe it’s not popular anymore to say your against saving lives. Yet they still rail against CAFE standards and CARB rules. It’s not popular to tell people they should drive cars that get good gas milage. Why?

There is another episode with Csaba Csere, the former Editor-in-Chief of Car & Driver magazine and Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics. In this episode they once again talk about how great the Volt is and the Tesla. When you boil it down their only objection is price. Yet by listening to them you would think GM and Tesla had adopted a Marxist Ideology doomed to fail only to fall to the one true economy. The really high horsepower ICE engine that gets 20MPG instead of 12MPG.

Now fast forward to just a couple of months ago. On this episode they have on one of the main engineers of the Gen 2 Chevy Volt. They don’t have a single bad thing to say about the car. You would think GM hit a home run. It has yet to sell but now the car guys are coming around. I have no doubts if they invite back the WSJ guy his only dislike will be the $7500 tax credit.

I have said it once before. The EV is going to follow the path of the cellphone. And oddly enough the company that invented the EV-1 only to scrap it back when we as a Country also scrapped solar panels (bad move) will be the company that actually made the car that starts mass adoption of Electric powered vehicles. Not Nissan or Tesla. Especially not Ford.

While Nissan has sold the most EV’s of any car maker it is still a niche player. You really have to accept some major limitations to drive a Leaf. Think Apple Watch Sport.

Tesla proved that if you spend enough money and make something nice enough you can find enough buyers to spark interest. Think Apple Watch Edition.

The Gen 2 Volt on the other hand can get 50 miles on a charge. That covers 90% of most suburban Americans. The car gan go 400 miles on a tank of regular gas. That cover the other 10%. The only obstacle is the car is a Chevy. One body style. One company with a past of making bad decisions. The Volt is not one of them.

Ford may get caught sleeping on this one. While they have several Hybrids and a couple of plugins they don’t really seem to be taking the market that seriously.

Even if you don’t buy an EV or a Range Extended Hybrid like the Volt there is something you can do to reduce our dependence on oil.

It’s something else that has been around since the 1970’s but the auto press and automakers  has taken this long to finally accept the reality and benefits. Synthetic Motor Oil. Go back over the years and you will find hundreds or articles on why synthetic oil was a waste or even detrimental to your cars health. Today with automakers having to get better gas milage and people owning cars longer and expecting more reliability from their cars those same automakers are putting synthetics in their higher priced cars at the factory.

They have finally been dragged into accepting reality. When you use synthetic motor oil your car gets better fuel economy, runs cooler, last longer and is actually cheaper since you can run it for up to a year in most cars.

Amsoil Signature Series Motor oil can be run for 25,000 miles or one year in many cars. To learn more about extended drain intervals and Amsoil click here.

Volt Drivers! and some Tesla drivers.

While more Volt sales will be good for the environment it’s not really that good for the EV only population.

My workplace just opened a bank of 6 charge spots. They made the mistake of putting the cord where it can only reach 1 spot at a time. Not 2 or 4.

All of a sudden Volt drivers have found out and changed parking lots because of the free chargers. From closer to work to free charging. Talk about cheap! They are willing to take a train just for a few free miles.

In the other lot the chargers weren’t free, they were Blink.

If I don’t leave for work fully charged, and I often don’t since I usually go to work later in the day, I need to get at least some charge to get home. Volt drivers don’t. And if they had put a faster charger on the car you wouldn’t need all day to do it.

Volt drivers like to tout how many EV miles they get but they forget to tell people that they plugin like cigarette smokers take smoke breaks. Often. Although not as often as Plug-in Prius Drivers. All ten of them.

With the proliferation of Plug-in Hybrids EV’s are finding it harder to get a charge when they really need one.

It is also common to see Tesla’s and Volts using EV Only Spots like handicapped parking spaces. Some even have the nads to not even plugin. Some just put the cord in far enough to just make it look like they are charging.

How many companies do you think are going to keep putting up chargers when they expect some revenue from those chargers. I know your Teslas and Volts tells you when your done charging and if not the Charging Company does. They don’t put them there for the environmentally challenged driver.

Now that EV’s are getting into the mainstream or at least Hybrid EV’s you really need to teach your peeps some etiquette. Charging spots are to charge. Pure BEV’s while we are few really need to charge at these spaces. If you want to see more of these spaces as more cars hit the road the companies who provide the chargers need to see the revenue.

With more of these cars on  the road it will be you who won’t be able to charge. And while that may or may not matter to you since you have a backup engine I’ll bet it will. You will no longer be able to tout what great gas milage you get. Especially you Gen 1 owners. It will be because the charge companies don’t get enough revenue to support a charger. Will they have to resort to putting vending machines next to their chargers?

EV spots should be EV spots, not hybrid spots. While you usually don’t have enough capacity to get all your days charge at home and I do, when I need to charge on the road I’m not doing it because I want to, I’m doing it because I need to. Admittedly not all that often do I need to charge on the road but you need to move when your ten minutes are up.

When the EV becomes ubiquitous will the drives be as annoying as everybody on their smartphones in public?

It doesn’t take a lot of money to make your business or workplace EV Friendly

Maybe you have been told that you need to install expensive charging equipment to charge Plug in Vehicles. You see these charging stations many places now days. They cost about $3000 each plus installation.Blink Chargers in front of a business

Notice that there is only one charge station per space. This is actually a big waste of resources. If you are going to install chargers like this you should place them where they can reach at least two spaces or if it’s not to expensive to run the wiring to place them where they are accessible to up to four spaces at once. Like the picture below.

The best way to install Car Charging Stations.

The best way to install Car Charging Stations.

Some cars may only need 30-minutes to an hour to charge and others may need 2-3 hours. If these were at a mall one driver might be getting coffee while another might be seeing a movie. By putting the charger where more than one vehicle could access it the movie goer might be charged before the movie is over and another driver could unplug and start charging their vehicle.

A portable charger for an electric vehicle.

A portable charger for an electric vehicle.

 

But why install expensive equipment when all many EV’s need is a plug. Many of us have our own portable charging equipment like the picture to the right.

Most if not all Electric Vehicles come with a portable charging cord and adapter. Most if not all work on standard 110v power outlets.  The one you see here has been upgraded to not only use 110v power but 220v as well. So if your business has a standard power outlet or can install a 220v outlet or two near a parking space or two, you are now an EV Friendly workplace or business.

RV Plug Enclosure

RV Plug Enclosure

You can buy an outlet and waterproof enclosure like this at Home Depot for as little as $60 and they can be installed for as little as $100 in many cases.

Save the money on the expensive bling (sorry, Blink) and let your employees or customers charge for free. Let your EV customers know that you have a plug and they will more thank likely spend more time and money at your establishment.

Another thing you can do is if you have 110v outlets scattered around your parking lot, designate the spaces near them as EV Spaces. Just like you see people at the airport plugging in their laptops and cell phones to the nearest outlet, EV cars would be able to do the same thing. And at the speed a 110v outlet charges they will be spending far more than the 25 cents an hour or so in electricity they might be using. Even if you let them charge on a 20-30amp 220volt outlet the most it would cost is about $2.50to fully charge the vehicle.  If you sell high ticket items or even charge $20-30 for an average meal the extra business you would get would be worth the expense of catering to the EV market.

EV driver are also among the top earners. Even hybrid drivers are usually far above median income earners. This is a pretty good customer base for any business.