Jay Leno drives a Volt mule, likes what he sees
Jay Leno's free comedy show for Detroit was, by all accounts, a big success. 15,000 people, many of whom were unemployed auto workers, packed The Palace of Auburn Hills Monday night. The popular late night comic is a self-confessed car nut, so it's not surprising to hear that he made a stop to check in on General Motors while in the Motor City.
When asked about the possibility of GM entering bankruptcy, Leno, who has shown a large interest in electric and alternative vehicles, said, "GM's not bankrupt yet! I was there today actually, I saw a lot of good product." Of course, one of those promising vehicles is the Chevy Volt, which Leno was reportedly allowed to drive with design chief Ed Welburn in the passenger seat.
Prior to his appearance in Detroit, Leno was quoted as saying the following about Chevy's upcoming green car: "I think it will be great. I think you'll find that the Volt will be a superior package to the Prius." Unsurprisingly, according to reports in the Detroit News, Leno's brief stint behind the wheel did nothing to change his early impression.
[Source: Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
downtoearth 8:17PM (4/08/2009)
Leno does not differentiate between a plug-in hybrid with a range extender and a parallel hybrid. Anyway, the more hybridization, the better since this is currently the most efficient technology available, beating diesels to death.
See my previous comment for reference:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/04/08/new-york-2009-mercedes-e250-bluetec-concept-would-get-28-39-cit/#comments
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Tohe 8:41PM (4/08/2009)
Well he is targeting the "Prius crowd" not the Prius per se.
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Mike!!ekiM 9:32PM (4/08/2009)
Well the Volt is a better car, with a price point of $40,000.
I hope there are sufficient early adaptors to drive the price point lower.
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contact 2:12AM (4/09/2009)
Explain to me how a Volt is better than a Tesla S in ANY category other than price (which is subjective)
twinj 9:32AM (4/09/2009)
First of all, the Volt has an assembly plant. 2nd, the Volt is in production implementation - not concept vehicle trying to raise capital to build a manufacturing facility.
paulwesterberg 9:25PM (4/08/2009)
A car that costs twice as much and will be released 2 years from now will be better than prius, no way!
The question is:
Will it be as better than 2 2012 priuses?
Will it be better than tesla model S?
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ziv 12:10PM (4/09/2009)
Paul, the Prius has an MSRP of $22,000 to $24,500 and no tax credit. The Volt is going to sell for 'mid 30's to high 30's' with a $7,500 tax credit, so with that extra $600plus in my pocket every month for a year, the Volt will be the equivalent of a $27,000 to $32,000 car. So it will cost me $5,000 to $8,000 more than a Prius, and it will be primarily electric and will only need about $4 of electricity per week judging by my cars tax log. Even a Prius would need 4 or 5 gallons of primarily imported oil each week for 200 miles, what is 5 gallons of gasoline going to cost in 2011? Plus my car looks cooler and may be a bit quicker off the line and merging into freeway traffic.
But most importantly, to repeat the point of the Volt, my car will be an electric car 90% of the time, and an ER-EV on road trip days, so I have the best of both worlds, if GM survives long enough to build the Volt. I hope Toyota builds millions of Priusi, anything to wean the US off of foreign oil, and reduce our carbon footprint at the same time. But if the Volt is built, it will be huge at the starting price point, and as the economies of scale kick in and the price comes down, it will sell like hot cakes. Until the tax credit expires...
But the crux of the matter is, no plug, no sale.
GoodCheer 10:39AM (4/09/2009)
ziv: I'm a little confused about your math. Where did that $600/mo come from.
If you consume 5 gal/week in a Prius, and a gallon costs $4, then you're spending about $20/week. In the Volt, 250 miles @ 200Wh/mile means you'll need 50kWh. The average price of electricity today is ~$0.12, so neglecting that that price will rise too, that's $6/week. So you save about $14/week or ~$60/month or ~$730/year. That'll still take quite a while to pay off a purchase price difference of $10,000.
If you factor in a discount rate of 5%, then at $4/gal (if electricity prices don't rise) you'd break even in 20 years. At $6/gal you'd break even in 9 years. At $8/gal, 6 years.
Now I'm a big fan of driving on domestic electricity (preferably from rooftop solar), but it's important to know the numbers and to know why you're doing it. Saving money is really not one of those reasons in this scenario.
paulwesterberg 12:35PM (4/09/2009)
Honda is leasing the FCX in cali for 600/month.
s 9:59PM (4/08/2009)
Anyone seen the Tesla??
$50,000
Way better than any Volt.
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ronEbear 12:36PM (4/09/2009)
+2
Swede 5:02AM (4/09/2009)
Don't worry Leno, GM will be bankrupt.
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ljbad4life 8:31AM (4/09/2009)
the volt has to be better than a prius for 20k more! (double the price of a prius). But by 2011, who knows what will make it to market. the plug in fleet of prius, and escapes are already under testing. I'm sure toyota will not pull any punches and release a plug in prius. One thing I would like to know is what the fuel effiency of the volt's gas engine once the electric range runs out? will it be 30mpg? if so a 200 mile trip will probably net the prius higher in its current form than a volt.
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alex 9:20AM (4/09/2009)
it's supposed to get about 50 mpg with the battery empty. not sure if that's hwy, city or combined though
Chris 10:18AM (4/09/2009)
If, in fact, the Volt will be able to manage 50MPG on an empty battery, why not just dump the battery altogether (at least for a low cost, entry model). 50MPG would still be leaps and bounds ahead of any of GM's other vehicles (including their hybrids up to this point).
For those that consistently drive further than the Volt's expected EV range and/or don't have a readily accessible charging option between trips, maybe the Volt isn't the right vehicle for you and you may be better off looking into a Prius, Insight or other similar option. It's not the right vehicle for people that constantly drive beyond it's EV only limit. You wouldn't buy a compact car if you regularly need to haul wood, sure you can strap it to the top or run it out the window for a once in a while thing, but it's outside the primary intent of the vehicle. I see the previous example just the same as the argument against the Volt in long range MPG comparison.
GM is betting that there is a (large?) market out there that is willing to get average MPG on long trips but near infinite MPG on their short daily commutes. Besides, if you're taking a long trip (or hauling wood) it's probably better to rent a vehicle more suited to that task and save the wear/mileage on your personal vehicle.
Luke 11:37AM (4/09/2009)
Twinj,
That's great, except that I drove a 2004 Prius with 100k-miles on it to work this morning. I've never seen a Volt in-person.
(Don't get me wrong! I read http://gm-volt.com every day, and I'm hoping that millions of Volts (and Voltec-based vehicles) are sold to happy customers all over the world... But that's just hope. Until the vapor condenses into a real product, it's overreaching to claim that the Volt is better than a car that serves my household's needs every day.)
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Luke 12:23PM (4/09/2009)
Chris,
The battery has to be there so that the motor can run at a more-or-less constant speed. It can generate the energy you'll need to accelerate while you sit at a stoplight.
That's not to say that the battery couldn't be smaller. Except that making a smaller battery (in kilowatt-hours, physical size, and dollars) while still being able to deliver the same number of watts (when the driver mashes the pedal) is probably tricker than it sounds. Analogy: putting an AA cell into a flashlight that requires a D cell is going to cause the AA to get hot, in addition to running down more quickly -- now scale this up 10,000 times.
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ziv 12:18PM (4/09/2009)
Hi Goodcheer, the $600 a month is the money you will get in the form
of a $7500 tax credit, hence my rather inane paraphrase of $600 a month for a year. Sorry, I should have just said that the fed will save you $7500 or something. And you are right, if you are doing a dollar cost study with gas under $4 a
gallon, the Volt doesn't make sense yet. But when we come out of this
recession there is going to be less oil produced daily due to the
Hubbert Peak in oil production and China and India are going to
continue to purchase more oil every year. If gas goes to $6 or more,
suddenly the Volt looks better, and the resale on a Volt will be
outstanding as well. I like the Prius, but I would love to be nearly
independent of oil, while avoiding range limitation irritations in
the BEV's that will be produced in the next 5 or 6 years. The plug is
the difference to me. In the long run, I hope the Range Extender
shrinks in size and cost, or even disappears entirely due to true
fast charge capability, but in the mean time, the Volt, if produced
at a decent price, is the best compromise for me. YMMV
And if you factor in rooftop solar on your home or a wind generator,
the electrical equation gets sweet fast, but, again, but the cost of
the solar array or the wind generator have to come down in the next 2
or 3 years to make a dollar cost study work.
For me, domestically produced electricity trumps foreign oil, even
Canadian oil, hands down. We need to be oil independent when the oil
prices skyrocket in the years to come.
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ronEbear 12:38PM (4/09/2009)
The show was obviously just a big Amerigasm and Jay Leno was doing all the tugging. Gladiators were BIG in Rome before it fell. Keep the idiots entertained was the message of this free show.
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