GM VOLT shown to be a lie

If GM wanted to bring out what is essentially a 40-mile-range EV with a genset "range extender," it could have done so years ago.

It's technology that GM's Oldsmobile Division showcased in 1969, which GM exhibited in 1999 with the EV1.

If GM wanted to bring out an EV, it could have simply left the 1150 GM EV1 in the hands of what was, then, fanatically loyal GM customers. GM, by confiscating and crushing the EV1, lost that demographic.

The EV1 had 140 miles EPA range (I still have the tag) but often got as much as 160. With better Toyota batteries, such as the PEVE EV-95 batteries used in the Toyota RAV4-EV, it would have a 200 mile range.

A small genset would have made it an instant VOLT, with up to 200 miles all-electric range.

Add a genset to the 100-mile-range RAV4-EV, and it's an instant VOLT with a range GM claims can't be done.

GM is only shooting for a 40 mile range, and will likely settle for much less.

Bypassing existing successful batteries is symptomatic of GM Vice Chairman and "Guru" Bob Lutz' ignorance; he continues to misrepresent the EV1, Electric cars in general, and the batteries. Lutz personally and professionally is not the role-model for eco-awareness or even successful business practice. Lutz' business failures are legendary, his successes moot, and his personal proclivities wasteful and bizarre, including owning and flying military jets for fun.

Bottom line: GM has excluded VOLT from MPG ("cafe") standards prior to 2015, at least, because any VOLT would only be produced, if at all, in tiny quantities. This is a legal statement, made to regulators to declare GM's actual intentions.

What LUTZ blathers to his groupies and the gullible machs nicht, means nothing, will be lost in the mists of memory.

If GM were really "struggling" to meet MPG standards, why would it exclude VOLT?

The only credible reason is that it allows them to cancel the VOLT.

If VOLT were used in MPG (cafe) standards, GM would actually be forced to build it. GM would not be able to kill it.

Of course, the faithful can assume that it's just one dirty branch of GM arguing out of the other side of its mouth so that GM doesn't have to meet MPG standards. But when it comes to what GM has legally committed to, it's not the VOLT; it's that it can't produce enough of the VOLT to help it, even in tiny ways, to meet the 4.5% proposed 2011-2015 annual increases in MPG standards.

So you could, if you felt GM were worthy of your extended faith, assume that GM just didn't want to be BOUND by being FORCED to produce the VOLT, and it will produce it even if not forced.

But on what basis would your faith be extended to GM? This is the company that, just 3 years ago, arrested Alexandra and Colette for "blocking the sidewalk" while trying to purchase one of the EV1 that GM had produced and was in the process of crushing.

Even now, GM lies about the EV1, makes false statements that it knows to be false, showing that any such faith has no basis in reality. GM refuses to allow restored museum versions of the EV1 to be driven and shown to the public, even though it's at no cost to GM.

Here's a great exposition of the PROBLEM:

"...GM...has asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to lower the 4.5 percent annual increases in the CAFE standards projected between 2011 and 2015...GM stated they won't have enough Volts and Vue plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) on the road by 2015 to meet the more stringent standards...a low-volume application.'.."

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/volt-birth-watch-64-nhtsa-calls-gms-bluff/comment-page-2/

And here's how they do it. The VOLT supposedly will COST GM $40,000 to produce; GM uses very wide margins, meaning that the equivalent retail price would be at least $90,000. Lutz "speculated" that the price could be $48,000:

http://wot.motortrend.com/6240642/according-to-lutz/lutz-speculates-volt-could-cost-as-much-as-48k/index.html

But even the dumb "dual mode" SUV are priced at $52,000 (and GM loses about $10K on each one).

Now who would willingly buy a 40-mile-range EV for $40,000 (assuming there's government subsidies of about $25,000 per VOLT to soak up GM's alleged excess)?

The "40-mile" all-electric range will be chiselled down to 32 or even 30 miles, and the power train will probably be altered so that the engine comes on even in the first 30 miles in the case of excessive power draw (acceleration or hill-climbing).

This makes it much less satisfying to drive, and eliminates the "oil free" part of the drive.

Moreover, the big thing, GM can retain control of the expensive Lithium batteries, so that you won't be able to take them out and replace them with, say, 12 kWh of lead-acid golf cart batteries, good for 48 miles range.

A lease or conditional-purchase agreement on the batteries would keep GM's hand on your throttle, which is how they've always stopped the Electric car in the past.