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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Lithium driving...sweet!

HA, stick it on with double tape on the rear glass. How's that for install info? :)
 
BTW gm-volt.com is the Volt RedUser, I hang out a lot in on that site.
 
Over 5,000 electric miles. what a car. LOVE IT. saved $1200 in gas....and spent approx $150 in electric for miles driven.
 
Obin Olson said:
Over 5,000 electric miles. what a car. LOVE IT. saved $1200 in gas....and spent approx $150 in electric for miles driven.
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But the car cost 10,000 more than a petrol car of equal build quality..
Will you spend save 10,000 in fuel over how many years to re-coop the extra cost. and how much are new batteries for it each year or two years...

Just curious.

I am a fan buy of electric cars by the way. But the Govt has to stick you up the arse some way to get there tax paid. Hence the extra cost of the car, over the average you now don't spend on fuel.
There is know escape.
 
Mark Toia said:
But the car cost 10,000 more than a petrol car of equal build quality..
Will you spend save 10,000 in fuel over how many years to re-coop the extra cost. and how much are new batteries for it each year or two years...
Click to expand...

Luckily this is a question math can easily solve.

~$1,000 saved per 5,000 miles.

$10,000/$1,000 = 10x units of driving.

5,000 miles x 10 = 50,000 miles.

Approximately 10,000 miles of driving a year for Obin. That means

50,000 miles / 10,000 miles per year = 5 years.

And that assumes a static price of fuel. Most likely that payback will be shorter as gas prices increase as they have over the last 12 months.

Prius battery packs are lasting more than 200,000 miles on average. So that means he'll need to drive 20 years before needing a replacement and by that time saved $30k. In 20 years replacement battery packs will be nearly free. Even today a prius battery costs $3k. So over 200,000 miles that costs about $150 a year for battery replacement. Gas taxes are about 2c a mile. So that would be an additional $200 a year. So really that 5 years is closer to 6 years @ 10,000 miles per year.
 
I look at it like this, this car drives FAR better then any car I have ever driven, BMW, AUdi etc...it's nothing like a standard car, truly car 2.0 here guys. (Side note, BMW paid mega bucks to hire away Volt designer and said behind closed doors: "If we let the Americans run with this we will be dead, this is far superior to anything we currently produce")

And Yes, at this point in time the pack will last about 200k and costs $3,000 for a new one, I am saving a ton, for me it's offsetting driving a brand new car that nobody else has wrecked (a real bonus) and not going to nasty gas stations? priceless.

Also, I am about to install a 2.5kw solar system, cost approx 8k, minus 60% gov rebates and 2.5k in electric company rebates.....approx 80% cost of solar system paid for by not having to pay income tax for buying solar. pretty good deal, and a life long dream coming true. I love it

And Ill never need a brake job, the regen takes care of 99% of slowing down for me, capturing 20% or more of the energy and putting it back in the pack.
 
It cost me 50cents a gallon of "energy" used to drive the same distance in a petrol car. I've done the math.
 
Jeremy Neish said:
wait until peak oil hits (actually it already hit in 2007).
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This is literally impossible to say with any certainty. We won't actually know when peak oil occurred for several more decades. Right now we can only try and model it and make policy based on those projections. You actually do a disservice to the cause by saying things that aren't actually confirmed as though they are fact.
 
I love this car. It's amazing how fast the tech has come, so long as the auto industry decides they should invest in it. Instead of Hummers all those years ago, we could've had this Volt or more, earlier. But quite honestly as a shooter of high end motorsports such as Formula and ALMS, there is no way I can go quiet and replace the sound of my high strung M3 as it hits 8200rpms. I haven't turned on the radio in over two years, nothing like the sound of a finely tuned machine, even if it isn't an uber-exotic Italian V12.

But eventually we will all have to change over, and hopefully someone will have audio mapped the cars to sound like anything ever created, be it a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or god forbid a formula 1 car as you drive the whole foods lot. Haha
 
Jorge Cayon Jr. said:
But eventually we will all have to change over, and hopefully someone will have audio mapped the cars to sound like anything ever created, be it a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or god forbid a formula 1 car as you drive the whole foods lot. Haha
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Isn't it BMW that's already doing that in the new M3?
 
Obin Olson said:
Looking at going all solar with a 10kw system for the car, I never run more then about 10kw a day of juice. That would be about 12 175w panels I think to cover it.
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Obin,

If I'm understanding you correctly...

To get a 10kw watt system made with 175w panels.....Divide 10,000 by 175. I have a 5kw system on my roof made using (22) 230w panels. Which produces 5060w aka a 5kw system.

To build a 10kw system from 175w panels... You will need approx. 57 panels. That's a lot of roof space. You may want to go with higher watt panels.

Unless you mean...you are only trying to make at least 10kw in a day....which is very possible.

Cool car congrats!

Chris
 
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My guess would be that he's missing a unit in there and means "10kw*Hour-per-day* system".

In which case if he had a 2.5kw system but it ran 4 hours of daylight per day he would get the 10kwh of power needed to charge his car.
 
Sorry, 10kwh a day! 2.5kwh setup. 10 235w units
 
I've got the Turbo Diesel version, Cruze.
 
When the LMP batteries (Lithium-metal-polymer) finally hit the market then we'll see a significant increase in how far electric cars can go on one charge. There's a car coming out very soon with a range of around 155 mile that use these batteries. What's cool is that as batteries get better and better then you just swap them out. No doubt that electric cars are the future. We just need to be better at harvesting the natural energy that surrounds us.
 
Jorge Cayon Jr. said:
But quite honestly as a shooter of high end motorsports such as Formula and ALMS, there is no way I can go quiet and replace the sound of my high strung M3 as it hits 8200rpms. I haven't turned on the radio in over two years, nothing like the sound of a finely tuned machine, even if it isn't an uber-exotic Italian V12.
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I am sure Graeme will make you the car radio plug-in that will sound like your car or any car of your choice.

This thread hooked me up on Volt.
Ordering one......
 
Their are supposed to be silicon nano wire battery technology out by now. It has ten times the capacity, that would be revolutionary enough to replace the need for hybrids. I wish there was a small hybrid diesel version with 100 mile day battery, in the shape of an oversized Jazz, based on the civic or accord. I think this is A future. My friend used to be a engineer at a GM company when this was doing the rounds I think.

A thought, all we need for a car, is two metal pipes, a seat as a cross member (probably with extra pipe), three special wheels that act like limited suspension on the corners, floor, battery, electric motor, charger, computer and display and steering mechanism. We can call it the Red Atimos. Maybe we can design a car, I know Obin knows a bit about cars. Could make a demo as a special go kart racer, or as a motorised bike.
 
Obin Olson said:
It was a factory demo car, I did not apply the stickers. I will take them off at some point. It's like having your own mag lev train. That is what a friend says after riding around in it. LOL. Such a different feel then a traditional gas engine/transmission.
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Man, Obin you make me feel like ditching my Cruze for a Volt ;) My cruze has issues, I figure that it should at least get liter better per 100 than they claim, and that is maybe another liter a hundred then it actually gets with good driving. Certain things seem to be set up to waste economy. I have had this thing chunging along at maxinum fuel economy at mid 2L per 100km for periodes over level roads then it pushes it up again (late 2's or 3' and higher), and am thinking it could be made to go into the 1L range. Apart from that, just hard to see around parking, reversing, and whole cars hide behind the pillars at round abouts, and reversing.

BTW: Just figured out how to produce a retail 8k camera for $500 ;)


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David W. Jones said:
Yes, but there is just something about the ride and sound of a 35 year old Ferrari with 12 cylinders and webber carbs as a daily driver that beats the hell out of smooth and quiet for me.

Enjoy your new ride!

Dave
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Obin, knows about that too (or was that Porsche).


Johnny Friday said:
the day i can drive out to my ranch (that's 110miles each way) and through the mud and mountains......AND pull a trailer behind.....will be the day i go electric. Funny, why is fuel so expensive in the states and Europe? i was just in Ecuador where gasoline was 1.06usd per gallon. I think it's 50c/gal in Venezuela.....don't answer w/ that's supply and demand...
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Maybe also supply and demand (apart from taxes, subsidies etc). We have more money and demand supply, they have supply and demand more money, to make more profit. You will find many think this is right, just to take advantage of people and make more profit, but in poorer countries there is less ability to take advantage.

Peter Strietmann said:
The average American drives under 30 miles per day.
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Peter, does that exclude the days they don't drive, and those that don't drive?
 
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