having grown up around cars which had carburetors, distributors (with points) and spark plugs which were good for at most 30,000 miles, I find the “maintenance” argument unconvincing. I mean, here’s the maintenance guide for the Volt.
EVs can stand on their own merits without trying to paint ICE cars as the same non-durable, finicky things from the '60s.
Something that I don’t understand: I thought “hybrid” cars are the ones with a small gas motor used to supplement/charge the electric motor (like the Toyota Prius).
What makes an “all electric” or “plug in” car a hybrid?
An “all electric” would not be a hybrid. But the Volt, for example, is a plug in. It goes on “all electric” mode for 35 to 50 miles and then acts like a more traditional hybrid (not exactly, but that’s another topic)
The charger (I went with a Siemens, but the Bosch is popular) was about $480 if i recall. You may also need to hire an electrician to install the 220V (with the proper amperage). That cost me another $100.
“Hybrid” can mean different things. A non plug-in Prius has an ICE that can drive the wheels and charge the battery. It alternates between using the engine or battery to drive the wheels depending on which is more efficient at the time. A plug-in hybrid like the Prius Plug-In or new Prius Prime is like the non plug-in in that the ICE can drive the wheels, but it also allows you to charge the battery externally so you don’t need the ICE at all for short trips.
On the Chevy Volt, the engine can only charge the battery; it can’t drive the wheels directly. I guess depending on how you use the terms, you could consider it a hybrid because it does have a gas engine, or all-electric because the vehicle is driven strictly by the battery. I personally wouldn’t call it all-electric, though.
Clarification: the Prius actually has 2 engines/motors: the gas one and the electric (motor). Either engine/motor can power the drive train. And it switches between the two depending on the “need”.
The gas engine does not “charge” the electric motor (but it does charge the batteries).
The Fusion hybrid, the Honda civic hybrid and others use this same design.
The Chevy Volt is different in that it has an electric motor, and this is the only motor that powers the drive train. There is also a gas “generator” that charges the battery. But this gas generator does not directly power the drive train. So the Volt is considered an “electric” vehicle, and not a (traditional) “hybrid”.
a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) has a larger battery and can be charged by plugging in to provide some amount of electric-only propulsion. when the extra battery capacity is used up, the vehicle then functions like a regular hybrid (HEV) until the next time the owner plugs it in. An HEV has a small-ish battery which cannot be externally charged, and simply acts as a “power buffer” and can only go short distances (~ 1 mile tops) on EV power.
an electric vehicle (EV) has no gas engine or generator at all.
nitpick
The gas motor is connected to the wheels via a planetary gearset that’s too complicated for me to understand, but when the car came out in 2010 the engineering team admitted that the gas engine can indeed drive the wheels. Many were outrage that the marketing had said this wouldn’t happen, but converting a spinning gas engine to electricity only to convert the electricity back to spinning makes so little sense that it’s a good thing they didn’t do it.
From the wiki on driving modes:
Basically, the gas engine doesn’t make enough torque to do anything other than keep the car moving at a steady speed, but when it’s doing that it’s much more efficient than if they were driving the generator with it. I believe the new Accord has a similar system, and I found this video easy to follow.
While the Volt primarily uses the electric motors (there are 2) it is capable of driving off the ICE as a last resort. Here’san explanation of the Volt’s Generation 2 setup which has a second planetary gear that the first generation Volt didn’t have.
The Malibu hybrid uses a similar system and gets 47 mpg.
the Bolt should have been available already but their sending their first production units to California and Oregon. You might not see them in other states until Spring of 2017.
I have no clue when the Model 3 will hit the market but it carries with it the advantage of Tesla charging stations which is about the only way to drive any distance beyond the full charge range. this is an advantage over all the other EV’s and it would be worth the wait for anyone seriously thinking of driving beyond the range of their car.
The Model 3 will have a slightly shorter range than the Bolt but it will be slightly quicker and sportier looking. I would think of it as the Miata of EV’s. I suspect Musk is trying to cram as many electronic options as possible into it as he can. I’d like to see him get the thing on the road as soon as possible but it’s not my company.
I love my Fusion Energi. Like the C-Max, you only get full range above freezing without using the climate control, but I can coax it into staying all electric on my 16 mile commute in Michigan’s freezing weather. I get free charging at work which gets me home (although it seems everyone had the same idea, and the chargers are getting saturated).
On gasoline it gets between 35 and 40 mpg depending on my speed.
It’s larger than the C-Max, but probably has less storage in the trunk than the C-Max. This is actually kind of nice; it fits paper grocery bags perfectly without needing to use a net or cargo organizer.
And of course the Fusion is much more beautiful than the C-Max! 
I only charge on 110 VAC, but if I had a 240 VAC charger it would precondition the cabin for me in the morning (it only kinda, almost preconditions on 110 VAC).
It’s otherwise a conventional, fairly loaded Fusion, which is a nice mid-sized, non-econobox car in its own right.
A nitpick to your nitpick. The second generation Volt uses 2 electric motors, an ICE engine and an additional planetary gear set over the first generation’s single planetary gear transmission. The first generation Volt did sometimes operate in serial mode where the ICE engine fed the motors. Both generations discussed here.
The Volt has a 100 hp ICE engine which is more than enough to drive the car and is used as such in one of it’s multiple driving modes.
Plenty of good Q&A so far, so time for a joke:
I’d hold out for the Molt. Just like the early 90s Chevy’s the clearcoat will start peeling and flaking after two years with the whole paintjob being utterly sun-burnt in five.
Just to nitpick, Musk claimed >215 mi range for the base model 3 (compared to the Bolt’s 238 mi) . Final specs haven’t been released (probably around March 2017), but I wouldn’t be surprised they end up throwing a few cells into the pack just to target 239 miles for the base model. And i think there isn’t going to be a doubt that a larger battery pack option will be offered. But until final specs are released, who knows.
While that may be true he’s probably committed to space availability at this point. I predict he will sneak in some software goodies to sweeten the pot. That way he is utilizing assets that can be spread out over the other models.
Owner of a Tesla S85 here. I am tremendously happy with my car. Although the initial investment was really big (and will force me to tighten my belt for about 5 years), I made numbers and found out that, spread across 10 years (average life for a car) I actually will spend less money than with a “normal” car. Energy costs are about half than if I were using gasoline (this is in the Netherlands, FWIW).
I reload at public charging poles (there are quite a few around my home); leave the car plugged overnight and next morning it is there with a full battery. There are also fast loaders (both Tesla and ChadeMo, the latter with an adapter freely available for Tesla) not far from where I live.
The range is really good, and so far, if I drive with a modicum of care, it is basically as advertised. on average I reload my car once per week or thereabouts.
All in all, in my experience, a really nice car. As I said, I am very happy with it.
This weekend I started looking at cars somewhat more seriously. I think a plug in hybrid is a better option for us than an all-electric, mostly for reasons of marital harmony (which, honestly, has been somewhat lacking recently). The first time there’s a minor transportation crunch because one car is plugged in to the wall, well, I’d prefer to avoid that conversation. But, the missus is on board with a PHEV.
So I test drove a Volt this weekend. I expected the rear seats to be cramped, and as I mentioned upthread, I know we’re going to have child seats back there for several more years anyway. Still, those are some cramped rear seats. The over-the-shoulder visibility is not great. When I turn my head over my left shoulder to check the lane, I see a lot of B and C pillar. And the door and hatch sounded a little cheap when I closed them. Especially the hatch. Instead of the nice, muted thump I get with the Prius, it was more of a clang.
My final verdict is:
WANT!!
I just drove it around the dealership, on some side streets and some 35 or 45 mph five-lane roads. But, it was so quiet and smooth, and when you hit the pedal, giddyup! Sure, it’s not a Vette, but coming from a 98 Corolla, the Volt is positively a sports car.
The interior was nice. I liked the more traditional gear selector, as compared to the dash shifter on the Prius. I liked the center touch screen console. Maybe I just didn’t see it, but I wish the climate control had the ability to just set a temp and forget it, like our Prius. The Volt I drove looked like you had to manually set the fan speed and air temp. Not a big deal, but seemed a little low end for the car.
But, golly, it drove nice. I spent some time tonight reading about range loss, and from what I was seeing online, the Volt has not had much issue with the batteries getting tired. Chemistry will win eventually, but so far it sounds like Volt owners haven’t experienced much range degradation. One owner reported driving his Volt 300K miles and still getting the advertised battery-only range. GM says they have yet to replace a Volt battery pack.
So, all good signs I think. I plan to test drive a few other vehicles in the coming weeks. But, dayummm! That Volt was cool.
We just turned in our BMW i3 (end of lease) and got a Volt. We’ve only had it for a week or so, but so far the spouse is very happy with it (especially with the extended range compared to the all-electric i3).
Automatic climate control is available on higher-end versions.
I’ve had a BMW i3 for about 2 months now and really like it. My reason for going electric is because I drive very little. I work from home and only drive once or twice a week to get groceries or run errands. My previous car was a BMW 120d which was very nice but doing only occasional short journeys wasn’t good for it as it wouldn’t get properly warmed up.
The i3 has pretty much the same HP as the 120d (about 170) and it’s instantly available. The regen braking was weird at first but I’ve now made it a game to see much of the trip I can make without touching the brake pedal at all. So far I’m making due with the home charger which fills the battery at about 10% per hour. The UK government offers a £500 grant towards the cost of a fast charger so I’ll probably get one eventually.