Volt Pic Post.........High VOLTage or Low? Post pictures and stories/experiences of your Volt or someone's you know or have driven.

[Ross1013]

I just thought I'd post (perhaps a repost) of a test of the car from back aways. Looks like it can do reasonably well when driven hard. Not spectacular results, but it doesn't seem to fall on it's face either

**I don't remember the steering seeming vague on the one I drove, but then I wasn't 10/10ths at the track with the car either

and others have talked about skidpad figures up into the 8 range. Car and Driver got an 8.3 on the skidpad

The chassis is fantastic. Steering is a little too light...the 'less is more' steering input comment definitely hits home w/me.

Figure I might as well do a little self-promo here.

[Lightnin']

Now that Tesla is going solar power for their "SuperCharger", I'd like to see more installations on homes using solar charging.

Anyone have a Volt out there or know of one that is using the sun for backup?

Here is a bit of info of things happening in Texas:

http://"SunEdison developing home so...acquire Volts.

SunEdison developing home solar charging systems for Chevrolet Volt
2 October 2011
SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., has joined the Pecan Street Inc. smart grid project. As part of its role, SunEdison will be leading development of the advanced home solar photovoltaic (PV) charging systems for the Chevrolet Volt.

Pecan Street Inc. is creating a consumer-focused smart-grid demonstration project in Austin, Texas, built around home applications, and consumer electronics. SunEdison joins other participating companies—Best Buy, Check-It, Chevrolet, Freescale, Intel, Landis+Gyr, Sony and Whirlpool—in deploying products and dedicating researchers to the project who will collaborate with Pecan Street Inc. and University of Texas researchers.

Deployments by member companies include one of the nation’s most highly concentrated residential installations of EVs, home services systems, smart appliances and charging of cars from home solar panels.

A number of the SunEdison-led home solar vehicle charging systems will also have in-home batteries, and all systems will integrate into the home services systems provided by other companies in the Pecan Street Inc. project including Best Buy/Check-It, Intel, Sony and Whirlpool. More than 150 participating residents will have rooftop solar PV, including nearly all of the residents who acquire Volts.

[jeff james]

I'll just add this to the mix:

[kowabonga]

So you'll need a fair amount of roof space. Nothing spectacular as far as size though.

At current efficiencies it takes around 15 200w panels worth for a one day charge. That's about 192 sq feet.

[Barefoot_]

Speaking of solar charging, if you are an Oregon resident you may want to check out the Solarize programs.

An example: Solarize Eugene

http://solarizeeugene.info/faq/

http://solarizeeugene.info/storage/S...ionWebsite.pdf

[TopDown_]

The Electric Utility, state and federal incentives are certainly in your favor for the Volt in Oregon.

[uncleho]

The Electric Utility, state and federal incentives are certainly in your favor for the Volt in Oregon.

[lil' thumper]

Frank Calciano (the original Volt owner on page one) has just installed the solar panels for his house and calculated that with the incentives and programs available in Eugene that he'll have paid off his system in 6 years and can then be running the Volt off the sun each day for the first 35 miles or so. He still charges at the office (real estate appraiser) so he's paying for the boost if he needs it off the grid. Even so he's well on his way to making things work nicely.

I'll update his installation shortly

[lil' thumper]

Frank Calciano went with 12 panels and chose an inverter for each panel. That way if one goes down the rest of the system stays up. He paid a bit of a premium to get black panels to blend a bit more into the roof

He's hooked in to the local utility EWEB and the installation was done by Pacific Solar and Energy.

Total cost was under $15K

Oregon tax credit: 6000
Fed tax credit: 2500
EWEB paid cash to the installers as part of a green energy initiative in Oregon: 4500

Looks like his out of pocket cost was less then $2,000


Frank calculates he'll have paid the whole thing off in 6 years. He gets 300-350 a year selling his solar electric power back into the web. Pretty nice deal.

All made in America.
Inverters are California made
Everything else is made in Oregon for Oregon jobs.

[uncleho]

I am sooooo jealous. $2000 out of pocket??? Daaaaaaaaamn!

[drkreign]

Really coming around to the Volt, I wish my commute wasnt ~160 miles round trip or more or this would be in my drive way

Also REALLY liking the solar panel idea, I wonder if most power companies in the US are going to be as generous as Oregon is (didn't read all 27 pages so I may have missed something).

[lil' thumper]

One of the things that is interesting is the enphase network of installations on homes spread across the country. (Frank Calciano is one of these installations) They are all accessible on the web from a macro perspective all the way down to each residence and it's output.

https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/public_systems

you can access certain homes without a login. Those are underlined and you can just look at what they are producing each day.

example:

https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/...tems/TNXC77217

[ValveCoverGasket]

Really coming around to the Volt, I wish my commute wasnt ~160 miles round trip or more or this would be in my drive way

160 miles?! dear god... move!!

[Barefoot_]

Really coming around to the Volt, I wish my commute wasnt ~160 miles round trip or more or this would be in my drive way

Also REALLY liking the solar panel idea, I wonder if most power companies in the US are going to be as generous as Oregon is (didn't read all 27 pages so I may have missed something).

Hard to say. I thought I had a link to an overview of different state incentives. I'll see what I can come up with

[OOOO-A3]

Our new News Director at work owns a Volt. Drove it cross country from Florida. Been meaning to ask him how the trip went. Will post my findings here.

Any more on this?

[jeff james]

160 miles?! dear god... move!!

heh... I think he's holding out till he can get the Tesla S

[Jesarray]

Really coming around to the Volt, I wish my commute wasnt ~160 miles round trip or more or this would be in my drive way

Also REALLY liking the solar panel idea, I wonder if most power companies in the US are going to be as generous as Oregon is (didn't read all 27 pages so I may have missed something).

Try this for starters

http://www.dsireusa.org/

[audifans]

Eugene power rates are 4.56 cents per kwh
From what I understand
Mckenzie river dam
Wind Farms on the gorge
Bulk of energy is from bonneville and selling excess to California

[BumpSteer]

Seems Frank is paying close to 5 cents thru the eweb solar program
Eugene residential rates are very good
5.09 cents for 1700 kwh in summer
Then more over that but still below 8 cents/kwh

[leaftye]

160 miles?! dear god... move!!

He has. The problem is he does it every day.

[lil' thumper]

Frank is paying from 65 to 95 cents per charge (11.7 kwh)

That takes him approx. 35 miles.

36 kwh will take the Volt 100 miles

His August OnStar readout had him at 88% on electric

September readout was at 77% on electric.

15,000 total miles since he got the car about a year ago.

[BumpSteer]

He has. The problem is he does it every day.

Zing!

Hilarious.

[Terandyne]

I'm thinking I'm liking the white pearl color a lot.

Just saw this taxi yesterday. More about the unique operation later. Only pair of Volts in the country licensed as taxicabs.

Kelso, Washington

Electric rates are 6.6 cents/kwh

[Terandyne]

Yep... it's a cab

[Lightnin']

In September 2012, General Motors sold 2,851 examples of the Chevrolet Volt to set a new monthly sales record for both itself and the electric vehicle segment in the US. The Volt beat its previous best sales month of August 2012 by just 20 units but in September 2012 GM sold more than 294% more Volts than they did for the same month in 2011 when they sold just 723 Volt electric vehicles. This new record best is more than a thousand units higher than any month in Volt sales with the exception of August and February 2012. In short, September 2012 was a very good month for the Volt.


On the year, General Motors has sold 16,348 copies of the Chevrolet Volt which accounts for a stunning increase of 320% over the number of Volts sold during the first 9 months of 2011. More importantly, with September being the 8th straight month where the Chevrolet Volt has badly beaten the Nissan Leaf in sales, the electric Chevy has sold more than three times as many units as Nissan has sold the electric Leaf – allowing the Volt to amass a lead of 11,136 units on the year. The Volt’s average monthly sales of 2,396 units has the GM’s revolutionary EV on route to sell just shy of 22,000 vehicles this year provided that we don’t see a sudden dip in EV sales.

The Nissan Leaf had its best month of 2012 in September, delivering 984 units to American buyers but that was still roughly 5% worse than the delivery figures recorded in September 2011. For the 2012 calendar year, Nissan has delivered 5,212 units in the US due to production constraints in Japan. GM has sold more Volts than that in the last two months.

If you wondered why I talk about how many Volts General Motors “sold” while I reference how many Leaf EVs Nissan “delivered”, that is because Nissan isnt actually selling the Leaf right now. During the 2010 calendar year, Nissan took a new and interesting approach to selling a vehicle – taking reservations that required just a small yet refundable deposit. Before Nissan could react, they had received 20,000 preorders for the Leaf and since then they have been working to deliver on all of those preorders. Because of that, the new Nissan Leaf EVs being delivered each month are not new orders but rather, these newly sold units are based on orders that were placed more than two years ago. Nissan plans to fix this problem by beginning production of the Leaf in the US later this year but that increased production capacity will come way too late to make any difference in the 2012 electric vehicle sales race.

This could be one of the key reasons that the Chevrolet Volt has so badly outsold the Nissan Leaf in almost every month in 2012 shy of January. Right now, a consumer who wants a new Chevrolet Volt can walk into almost any Chevrolet dealership in the country and if they cannot drive one off of the lot – they can place an order for a car that is soon to be built and delivered. On the other hand, a consumer who wants a Nissan Leaf can only go to a local dealership and put their name on a list to be contacted when ordering has started back up. Nissan plans to begin taking new orders soon but those consumers will still have to wait until the 2010 preorders are all filled.

[deziking]

so wait, are these vehicles 3g equipped? Like tesla they have 3g equipped internet, I want to know how are they able to use that 3g with out monthly pay???

[rbloedow]

so wait, are these vehicles 3g equipped? Like tesla they have 3g equipped internet, I want to know how are they able to use that 3g with out monthly pay???

What is giving you the impression that they are 3g equipped?

[sn0w3n]

I just want to take a moment and say -

**** YOU TOYOTA.


**** YOU.


Seriously. Thank you ****ing god damn much for making the first gen Prius in that god damn shape so now every hydrive/eco car will have to resemble that because people are stupid.



This is what the car of tomorrow should have looked like.



not a updated god damn previa.

The prius has a coefficient of drag of .25 . Its not a matter of looks, it's a matter of engineering. Please go to www.ecomodder.com for lots good information aerodynamic efficiency

[deziking]

Well according to the rep at tesla show local here IL they are 3g equipped sattelliete internet.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[Brendan@bwalkauto]

so wait, are these vehicles 3g equipped? Like tesla they have 3g equipped internet, I want to know how are they able to use that 3g with out monthly pay???

My LEAF has telematics through Carwings, and it uses 3G. Can't surf the net on mine, but it will read me my RSS feeds, and interface with car with my iPhone.

[Rory Calhoun]

Well according to the rep at tesla show local here IL they are 3g equipped sattelliete internet.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

uh.. the TESLA is 3g equipped radio. This is a Volt thread

Technology: Tesla
I'll just preface by saying cars need hard-button/tactile controls.

Both use 'touch' input controls. The Tesla with its large 17" portrait screen is essentially a big tablet integrated into the car. The layout is intuitive, fluid, customizable and feels "Apple" inspired. Most actions and controls can be ‘moved’ to the Driver display and worked with the Steering wheel controls. It’s equipped with a 3G radio. Voice recognition was not working; so I wasn’t unable to test it.

Volt navigation is ‘adequate’ and on par with technology in most sedans (circa 2008). OnStar integration/service is superb. The ‘touch console’ on the Volt is a gimmick in my opinion. The layout is not intuitive and requires too much ‘focus’.

Tesla also shines here as they promise upgrades to the software. GM doesn't seem to have much regard for its early adopters… with the Volt, you are stuck with what you bought.

If I were to make an analogy in technology, design and usability:

GM Volt = “2008 NetBook running Windows XP”
Tesla S = “Apple iPad2”

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....rison&p=197275

There is XM Satellite radio... but I'm pretty sure you'll be paying a monthly on that.

My test Volt included a Bose sound system and a USB jack to connect an iPod or iPhone, which allowed me complete control over my driving soundtrack via a 7-inch touch screen LCD screen on the center console. There's also the usual AM/FM radio along with XM satellite radio.

[Gavin Calistros]

OnStar EcoHub app tracks price of electricity used to charge Chevy Volt

The climbing price placards being hung at the neighborhood gas station aren't making too many people happy. Now, drivers of some Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicles are getting their own version of those signs, and it's likely they're actually happy about it, by comparison.

General Motors' OnStar is testing a navigation app that will record how much it costs to charge a Volt at a particular time, and how those costs compare to home energy use. The app, called EcoHub, tracks home energy use and typical costs of energy coming from a particular local utility to provide an estimate on electric "fill-up" costs for the Volt. GM is testing the app at the Pecan Street housing community in Austin, Texas, and hopes to broaden the user base in the future.

The app deployment is an expansion of a relationship between GM and Pecan Street that started in July. The 700-acre housing community had already been working with GM on tracking how the Volts are used and how far they're driven on a regular basis. The community is geared towards sustainable living, as you can read in GM's press release below.

Year-to-date Chevy Volt sales are almost four times higher that they were in 2011, and September marked a new record-high monthly sales total with 2,851 vehicles sold.

[Harvey Hopkins]

The Pecan Street community partnership with GM

Part of a 700-acre development in Austin, Texas, known as the Muller community, Pecan Street inhabitants are volunteers who offered to be part of a sustainable residential project, living in houses designed to be the last word in efficiency, sporting features such as rooftop mounted solar collectors.

Last year, Chevrolet provided 100 residents of Pecan Street with assistance in acquiring Chevrolet Volts to drive, while other companies, such as Intel, Oncor, Sony and Whirlpool are also providing smart grid and clean energy appliances and equipment for the homes involved in the experiment.
As for the Volts, the Pecan Street program Q&A page says, “For residents who purchase a Chevrolet Volt, Pecan Street will provide a rebate of $7,500,” and, “For residents who lease a Chevrolet Volt for three years or more, Pecan Street will provide a rebate of $3,000.”
The Volts represent the largest concentration of EVs in a single location in the U.S., and researchers are therefore eager to see how the families operating these cars interact with the smart grid and other sustainable technologies within their homes on a daily basis.

By partnering with each other on the project, GM and OnStar will enable on-site researchers from the automaker and others from the Environmental Defense Fund, National Renewal Energy Laboratory and University of Texas to study the impact the Volts have on home energy consumption as well as monitoring the habits of vehicle usage and charging among residents of Pecan Street.
“We hope Pecan Street’s research will speed up the innovation cycle around smart grid and consumer electronic technology,” said Pecan Street Inc. Executive Director Brewster McCracken. “Electric vehicles represent a significant addition to home’s energy profile and understanding that impact and how consumers use and charge their vehicles is critically important.”
According to Nick Pudar; OnStar’s vice president of Strategy and Business Development, the partnership with GM “provides us with a unique opportunity to observe charging details with many real customers in a concentrated setting,” as well as discovering “the direct impact the Volt has on the grid and how to get drivers the lowest-possible charging rates.” He also said “[this] project will also help us develop future capabilities of the Volt and other plug-in electric vehicles.”

[Dawg Dee-Lux]

Ampera holds true - got more than 38miles on one charge doing 65-70mph on the highway.

A bit surprised though how incredibly cheap the gear selector felt, and the amount of road noise coming from the back.

Still, impressive piece of kit - even some guys test driving a Panamera Turbo slowed down and had a good look as they passed.


Nikon D800 50mm 1.8G by emmkayfive, on Flickr


Nikon D800 50mm 1.8G by emmkayfive, on Flickr


Nikon D800 50mm 1.8G by emmkayfive, on Flickr


Nikon D800 50mm 1.8G by emmkayfive, on Flickr


Nikon D800 50mm 1.8G by emmkayfive, on Flickr


Nikon D800 50mm 1.8G by emmkayfive, on Flickr

Notice the posted speed sign recognition - pretty cool.

[Barefoot_]

If you were in New Jersey and had power and a Volt you wouldn't be dealing with crazy gas lines (300 cars in some areas) and all that crap.

Time for GM to run a commercial about the benefits of a dual fuel car.