GM's Chevrolet Volt to Get 230 MPG

OK hold the phone....

GM the one we all know as being bankrupted is coming out with this?
Where was this technology before the Stuff hit the fan? Why does it always take a crises before they release the better technology? You know how long it takes to engineer stuff like this? So this means they have been sitting on it for years/decades and just milked us for all we were worth over gas guzzling SUVs and gas guzzling 30+ miles per gallon cars.

Just in time to. Now that they are closing US factories and GMs Chinese production is going through the roof.


GM's Chevrolet Volt to Get 230 MPG

DETROIT--General Motors Co. said its new Chevrolet Volt electric car is expected to get 230 miles per gallon in city driving as the auto maker outlined a raft of product introductions.

The Volt is at the forefront of GM's efforts to reinvigorate a line-up that has lost market share in the U.S., with 25 new vehicles due to be launched by 2011. At that rating, the Volt would dwarf any offering from a mass-market brand, including Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius. It also could deliver a major boost to GM efforts to cultivate a green image, a key element of the company's restructuring efforts.

The Volt is scheduled for domestic launch in 2010, and the mileage and range guidance reflects new guidelines for electric cars set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

[edit on 11-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

The reality of claimed MPG is pretty much exagerated. That no doubt is the max theoretical mpg that that car could get and im betting that it is leaving out the amount of electricity used to charge its batteries to full capacity and with the card driving at a constant 25 mph, with the windows rolled up, no radio or other drains and no airconditioning. Nobody drives that way.

I have a Civic Hybrid and we drive it like a normal care. For 25000 miles we have averaged 36 mpg, in mainly city driving. If I baby it, I might get up to 41.

A friend has plug in Prius that can get 100 mpg, for short periods of time but again its with that unrealistic driving pattern.

They are doing it for marketing alone and I would be shocked if anybody every sees 230 mpg.

Holy crap.. I'd love one, provided it's safe and decently fast.

230 miles will get me everywhere I need to go in one or two weeks, whereas any other car would be constant fill-ups!

Too bad they kept it in the dark, though.

[edit on 11-8-2009 by Blade_Rain]

I read that article. It states that it will retail for around $40,000! LOL WOW

For a Chevy VOLT!

not concidering it is,
$40,000 i'll with my clunker.

New technology, price starts high. Look at the Hi Def TVs or DVD players. If it catches on, the price will drop as the manufacturing capacity ramps up and technology improves.

I agree, I can buy a whole lot of gas for 40k. I probably spend $800 a year in gas for commuting to and from work. In the meantime, my old beater will do just fine.

I just dont get GM...

I mean they were the industry giant then they let it slip away. They mismanaged everything. They had some of the best innovations and now look at them they have to pan handle for bail outs then they close US factories and open others world wide. I wonder if they would be in this mess had they gone ahead with the EV-1?

Yeah the Heart beat of America

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1e4e1db8e5c6.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1a1a82ed0261.jpg[/atsimg]
EV-1 Aka GM/Chevy Impact

The GM EV1 was an electric car produced and leased by the General Motors Corporation from 1996 to 1999.[1] It was the first mass-produced electric vehicle of the modern era from a major automaker. It was the first GM car designed to be an electric vehicle from the outset. Born as the GM Impact concept car of 1990, a production version came about as a result of a California Air Resources Board mandate that made the production and sale of zero-emission vehicles a requirement for the U.S.'s seven major automakers to sell cars in that state. The EV1 was initially available in the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, California and Phoenix and Tucson, in Arizona, under a limited lease-only agreement

[edit on 11-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

Have any of you seen " who killed the electric car?" .

I highly recommend you watch it. I can see part 2 soon enough!

www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com...

www.youtube.com...

Necessity is the mother of invention. We all know how involved the car industry and the oil industry are. They coexisted in what was a win-win situation, car manufacturers selling cars built on the cheapest technology to manufacture and the oil company fuels the cheap technology. It was profitable (understatement). It comes as no surprise that they would be sitting on better technology, though to be fair in has only been in recent years where the manufacturing of that technology is viable to produce on a mass scale.

So though I'd say yeah, they've been sitting on it a while, a while isn't that long in this case, certainly not long enough to have make any real difference. It is also perhaps still not as profitable, at least not under normal circumstances, though we are by no in normal circumstances.

This appears to be the beginning of a parting of the ways between the automotive and oil industries. The car industry has the means to be completely independent from the oil industry, though maybe at an initial loss. The oil industry would find it difficult to operate without the automotive industry, and has spend many monies over the years patenting technology that might enable the car industry independence from the oil industry (which has meant slower inovation within the car industry). Now however the car industry is beginning to see the writing on the wall. The oil industry is in collapse and the car industry knows it has the ability to exist without them, to just let it collapse. The car industry then pulls the ace out of its sleave, it shows massive profits from selling new vehicles when no one can get gasoline for their old one. I would imagine there is alot of backstabbing and bridge burning going on between the two. Which is quite comical (in a sadistic way) when you think about it.

General Motors EV1:
en.wikipedia.org...

Who Killed The Electric Car part 1 of 10


Slayer69 Beat me to it... Star for you Slayer...

[edit on 11-8-2009 by Paroxysm]

Hum, is going to cost 40 thousand, then you have to plug it in every 300 miles, so the car is not for the long distance travelers, but for urban drivers with less than 25 miles a day.

Now where the plugs are going to be located?

If GM or any other car company really wanted to make a difference on their environmental impact on the planet then they would charge very high prices for the older style vehicles and bring the price down of these new greener cars.

Im sorry but yes new tech does cost a lot more when it first comes out, like dvd, blue ray etc BUT cars are slightly different. Their tech doesn't change exponentially every year like the consumer electronics tech does. The car manufacturers have had this tech for years but sat on it.... why? because its the oil companies that make the rules around the world and the last thing they want when oil is at a premium around the world is a car that uses less gas.

Even the Civic Hybrids haven't come down much in price at all, and they have been around for years now.

If a company was to come out with a car that runs on water, the tech would be bought up by the major oil companies and hidden away, never to be seen again. Look at the work Tesla was doing for example. Free energy.......but too many people would have lost a huge $$ making market if it came out so it was quashed.

The Volt is still out of a lot of peoples price range so that only the well off can afford one while the lower income families are stuck with gas guzzling wrecks. Even 10 years from now the only way those families are going to be able to afford one is to buy a 10 year old used one. Heck, thats a down payment for a home.

In all, I don't feel that this new type of vehicle is going to be the saving grace for these car companies.

They've had 200+ mpg cars since the early last century. Just they were not allowed to be made. Like the death of electric/water etc powered cars previously.

www.newmediaexplorer.org...

THis link outlines the 200mpg ford v8. I had a better link previously but cannot find it.. but it will give you the gist of the big joke that is 'car tech'.

Are vehicles based on a finite resource, using rubber wheels or aerofoils to move, the best technology we have after over 100 years of development? Look at computers and how far they have come... It's all a big circus.

edit: tomorrow i'll get some extra info together about a new zealand invented engine which could pretty much take over the engine world. NZ govt very interested in it and are currently looking into funding and where to go from here with it. Same output as a v8 of 5x the capacity with less emissions, heat, noise, moving parts, vibration, easier service and repair. Can easily be configured to generate considerable electricity amounts as part of nomal operation.
And yes it works..... a 200cc (pretty sure that's correct, it was definately under 400cc anyway) combustion chambered engine could spin up the biggest dyno in the country for tractors and trucks, which requires a minium of 110hp to actually turn. This is the dyno in question. www.goughscat.co.nz...

To put it in perspective, my old 250cc, 4 cylinder 18,000rpm plus screamer race bike (91 kwaka zxr250) put out approx 36hp to the rear wheel in all its tuned screaming glory. This new engine is producing approx 3x as much power with less combustion chamber and is not even balanced or set up/tweaked properly yet. Also keep in mind sportbikes have racing engines with up to 170bhp a litre NA stock, so different output efficiency levels compared to most sportscars.

This is the engine, although they don't give much info online for obvious reasons, my neighbor has the info though.
www.shepherdengine.com...

[edit on 11/8/09 by GhostR1der]

reply to post by SLAYER69


If this is true I am turning into a hippy and buying a Volt!
I'll even get a lime green one!

reply to post by gormly




Painting flowers with a peace sign would finish you off.

Originally posted by QBSneak000
If a company was to come out with a car that runs on water, the tech would be bought up by the major oil companies and hidden away, never to be seen again.

Already happened:

www.waterpoweredcar.com...

reply to post by Paroxysm


Thanks for the link. This just proves what everybody has been saying for years. Greed and corruption is ramped in the industry. They just released this becuase they are now grasping at straws after they saw the writing on the wall.

Pathetic.



Edit for spelling.
Note to self more coffee.




[edit on 11-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

desperate times call for desperate measures?

GM is obviously going to piss off their petrol-corporate counter parts with this but all the same good for them.

as, i think fredt, said i question the reality of the 230mgp claim but we will have to wait to see.

40k is huge but if this is a successful design i could see that dropping quite a bit in coming years.

and as slayer pointed out too bad gm didn't bother rolling this out while they were still a us based company. one more shot in the butt of the us people.

thanks for the post slayer.

Yeah well now they are parading it all over the news.
UPDATE 2-GM claims unprecedented mileage rating for Volt

* Volt to get 230 mpg based on draft EPA standard

* GM says working on second and third-generation Volt (Adds detail from webcast, financial forecasts, background on GM ownership, byline)

By Kevin Krolicki and Soyoung Kim

DETROIT, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The Chevrolet Volt -- the electric vehicle General Motors Co [GM.UL] is counting on to recharge its image with consumers -- is on track to hit an unprecedented fuel economy rating of 230 miles per gallon in city driving, the automaker said on Tuesday.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
* GM says working on second and third-generation Volt (Adds detail from webcast, financial forecasts, background on GM ownership, byline)

Bikey mind in me reads this way: 'so they've already hobbled the first one' >_