Chevrolet Volt in 2010

If everyone could build a dream car/truck/whatever that would get high gas mileage and run like a regular car (i:e- fast), what would it be?
 
BradB08 said:
If everyone could build a dream car/truck/whatever that would get high gas mileage and run like a regular car (i:e- fast), what would it be?
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I'd like to have me a pick-up Toyota or Land Rover Defender if both has high gas mileage. but until then....... I'm still sticking with my crummy ugly old Saab that's hanging on with duct tape :cool2:
 
Id like a Subaru Impreza WRX STI that could get at least 40 mpg but runs like a regular STI. :)
 
I still think that we need to focus on alternative energy sources for cars. With all the crap in the Eastern Bloc and Middle East, I don't know if it's worth all of the political turmoil just to secure oil that technically isn't ours.
 
BradB08 said:
I still think that we need to focus on alternative energy sources for cars. With all the crap in the Eastern Bloc and Middle East, I don't know if it's worth all of the political turmoil just to secure oil that technically isn't ours.
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too bad that Arabs own our major businesses in here. Our car companies are owned by Dubai shareholders. :|
 
Hey, did u remmy the experimental electric cars of the 90's??? GM's Chevrolet Impact and Ford's Whiplash??? I thought it is very funny that GM and Ford called their electric car in a funny name and put it together "Impact" "Whiplash". :rofl:

I would love to drive electric car just to drive to and from work. My guzzl'n Durango would become a spider's home.

Catty
 
purplecatty said:
Hey, did u remmy the experimental electric cars of the 90's??? GM's Chevrolet Impact and Ford's Whiplash??? I thought it is very funny that GM and Ford called their electric car in a funny name and put it together "Impact" "Whiplash". :rofl:

I would love to drive electric car just to drive to and from work. My guzzl'n Durango would become a spider's home.

Catty
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I don't remember those experimental cars, lol.

yeah, it would be neat to drive an electric car around town. :)
 
It was in the Popular Mechanic magazine and also newspaper.

I remmy GM (not chevrolet sorry) Impact is very responsive that can accelerate from 0-60mph in 6 or 7 seconds and can go up to 70mph and have 120 miles range on one charge. (Author drove this car and he said the car let out whine at 70mph which is typical of electric motor at high speed) and have 8 packs of inline battery (typical 12v lead acid) under the car where drivetrain used to be transmission, driveshaft, and axle. It have a drawer on back of car that pull out banks of batteries for maintenace..

Ford Whiplash have different battery configuration. All batteries stacks on top of it are in trunk which is a drawback cuz you'll have to take out each batteries to reach batteries below it. It was sluggish from start but can go up to 65 to 70mph.

Here's the info:

GM Impact prototype

GM Impact: The public relations success of Sunraycer led to GM creating an electric vehicle prototype, once again with the help of AeroVironment. The vehicle, named the GM Impact, was introduced at the 1990 Los Angeles Auto Show. It was kind of a fun play-time project built in the tailwinds of the Sunraycer’s PR success. Little did GM know, ironically, that they were wetting the appetites for regulatory agencies to demand production of this type of vehicle.

The GM called Impact as "EV-1". I tried to find Ford "Whiplash and there are no information about it. Johnny Carson joked about what's next: Ford Whiplash? I am not suprised that Ford don't provide info about the experimental Whiplash electric car. I did read it's configuration. I think Ford was embarrassed cuz GM's Impact (EV-1) can go fast from start and have longer mile range on one charge. They had 2,000 EV-1 on production in 90's but studdenly stopped because customer isn't buying and also oil co's pressure. I think the story is really a big Bull!!! GM didn't do enough to educate and advertise enuf to attract customers. My guess is that many customers prefer car that have powerful motor and go fast. Remmy that back in early 1990, all highways used to be 55mph across the nation. Then in 1995 or 1996, they changed to 70mph. So back then GM's EV-1 can easily pass other cars on highway at 70mph. Today's electric car is much better and more powerful that can go up to 120mph due to new design on motor and electronic inverter ect.. Look at Hybrid right now, they're still part electric car with gasoline engine to run generator.

Soon enough that it will be all electric car cuz of new battery developments. I saw Green Tech (on SCI channel) that Japanese man found a chemical (I wish I can record a show and find out what name of chemical starting with "O....") and it is derive from dirt everywhere. It can charge rather quickly and provide steady high amp an hour. It is extremely lightweight, lighter than Lithuim batteries and can be in small size with equal voltage and last long time. It is very environmentally friendly. He said that he use the batteries he created for his kid's toys like R/C cars ect. He said that electric motor runs faster than on typical Akline batteries. So It would be soon be everywhere from H/A batteries to Electric forklift batteries.

Catty
 
The GM called Impact as "EV-1". I tried to find Ford "Whiplash and there are no information about it. Johnny Carson joked about what's next: Ford Whiplash? I am not suprised that Ford don't provide info about the experimental Whiplash electric car. I did read it's configuration. I think Ford was embarrassed cuz GM's Impact (EV-1) can go fast from start and have longer mile range on one charge. They had 2,000 EV-1 on production in 90's but studdenly stopped because customer isn't buying and also oil co's pressure. I think the story is really a big Bull!!! GM didn't do enough to educate and advertise enuf to attract customers. My guess is that many customers prefer car that have powerful motor and go fast. Remmy that back in early 1990, all highways used to be 55mph across the nation. Then in 1995 or 1996, they changed to 70mph. So back then GM's EV-1 can easily pass other cars on highway at 70mph. Today's electric car is much better and more powerful that can go up to 120mph due to new design on motor and electronic inverter ect.. Look at Hybrid right now, they're still part electric car with gasoline engine to run generator.
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It's because electric motors are direct drive, possible pinion and gear to reduce the ratio, that's about it.....no 2, 3, 4 or 5 speed transmissions, so that's why it tops out at 70 mph. Many people with home built electric cars (swap engines and add batteries, modify car to handle the weight of the batteries, etc). They are mated to a manual transmission and can go about anywhere between 50 to 130 mile range depending on model of car.

GM said they took back the cars and crushed them and junked them due to the recall I don't know about. It sounds all of a scam to me. I think it was a great electric car, though. The electric motor spun at 10,000 rpm or so maximum, I think.
 
sequoias said:
It's because electric motors are direct drive, possible pinion and gear to reduce the ratio, that's about it.....no 2, 3, 4 or 5 speed transmissions, so that's why it tops out at 70 mph. Many people with home built electric cars (swap engines and add batteries, modify car to handle the weight of the batteries, etc). They are mated to a manual transmission and can go about anywhere between 50 to 130 mile range depending on model of car.

GM said they took back the cars and crushed them and junked them due to the recall I don't know about. It sounds all of a scam to me. I think it was a great electric car, though. The electric motor spun at 10,000 rpm or so maximum, I think.
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Yes, electric motor runs @ 10,000 or over. It all depends on electric motor configuration. A/C volt motor uses inverter in order to have smooth acceleration than DC motor. It's cheaper that way cuz A/C motor wears out brushings slowly than DC motors which wears out one brushing. A/C motor uses thin copper wire to run and it's cheaper than D/C motor that use thick wires.

As for gear. Yes they do use gears to make electric car go fast from start. Since electric motor in cars can be anywhere from 25 hp thru 60 hp depending what kind of voltage and inverter it use. On A/C motors, it uses capacitor for startup.

I agree with u about GM bull story. GM is wrong about killing electric cars. They shuld have press on and keep it that way and let customers realized that electric car are low maintenance than gasoline counterpart. If they mass produce electric cars back in 1990 or before, we wouldn't have to complain about gas price and environment would have been clean now. San Francisco would have seen mountains clearly for the first time. I wish Automakers shuld have done that back in 1970's after oil crisis. I do know that oil companies bribes automakers to stop experimenting electric cars and make excuses. Electric vehicle had been around since 1900's (they used to have electric delivery truck with belt shaft that twists and knots (just like rubberband powered airplane while winding the prop) while spinning and turns the axle to go smoothly. I"m sure it breaks fequently :lol: ).

I'm sure this time they're serious about electric cars. But to me, why wait till now!! It would have been cheaper if they started producing long time ago. I remmy Sears used to sell Diehard electric Ford car for around $10,000 back in early 1980's. I saw it in Sears catalog.

Catty
 
purplecatty said:
Yes, electric motor runs @ 10,000 or over. It all depends on electric motor configuration. A/C volt motor uses inverter in order to have smooth acceleration than DC motor. It's cheaper that way cuz A/C motor wears out brushings slowly than DC motors which wears out one brushing. A/C motor uses thin copper wire to run and it's cheaper than D/C motor that use thick wires.

As for gear. Yes they do use gears to make electric car go fast from start. Since electric motor in cars can be anywhere from 25 hp thru 60 hp depending what kind of voltage and inverter it use. On A/C motors, it uses capacitor for startup.

I agree with u about GM bull story. GM is wrong about killing electric cars. They shuld have press on and keep it that way and let customers realized that electric car are low maintenance than gasoline counterpart. If they mass produce electric cars back in 1990 or before, we wouldn't have to complain about gas price and environment would have been clean now. San Francisco would have seen mountains clearly for the first time. I wish Automakers shuld have done that back in 1970's after oil crisis. I do know that oil companies bribes automakers to stop experimenting electric cars and make excuses. Electric vehicle had been around since 1900's (they used to have electric delivery truck with belt shaft that twists and knots (just like rubberband powered airplane while winding the prop) while spinning and turns the axle to go smoothly. I"m sure it breaks fequently :lol: ).

I'm sure this time they're serious about electric cars. But to me, why wait till now!! It would have been cheaper if they started producing long time ago. I remmy Sears used to sell Diehard electric Ford car for around $10,000 back in early 1980's. I saw it in Sears catalog.

Catty
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Some electric motors do not have brushes at all....called brushless motors. Some electric cars have that feature so lot less mantience on the brushes, but there are other disadvantages, I forgot what. The GM EV-1 had a 137 hp electric motor which propelled the car to 60 mph in 7.7 secs.
 
I haven't check to see new configuration on current Hybrid or electric car that uses Planetary gear inside of electric motor similiar to battery powered drill). Rpm may be low output but torque is high. They can use smaller electric motor with planetary gear equavalent to big electric motor without planetary gear.
 
sequoias said:
Some electric motors do not have brushes at all....called brushless motors. Some electric cars have that feature so lot less mantience on the brushes, but there are other disadvantages, I forgot what. The GM EV-1 had a 137 hp electric motor which propelled the car to 60 mph in 7.7 secs.
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137hp electric motor :lol: sound like elevator motor. I haven't been updated on electric motor. Electric motor I assumed that it's coils are individually connected to integrated individual inverters to put out lot of hp in electric motor. Technology changes. I've worked on huge metal baler with 600 hp electric motor on top of it to run hydralic pump (I read stamped card rivited on motor) Yike!!. It's as big as I am. :rofl:

Catty
 
I've seen the pics of the real Chevy Volt (not the show car Volt) and whooa it sure aint that so bad compared to the show Volt.

but then if Booby Lutz says 30k to 40k a pop the planned Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid might eat into the Volt's future sales as if I recall the Prius buy brand new 22K plug in Prius might be 25k

If GM wanna play in the PHEV game against the Prius plug-in, they gotta make the Volt's price as compare to the Prius or GM's gonna lose that much sales to Toyota.
 
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