| Author | Message | ||
     Court |
No sooner does Duke Power tell folks not to charge their Volt than the feds come along with news that the VOLT can go "boom" . . . ala' the Pinto. What a pleasure to see these folks so busy getting the horse before the cart . . . . . GM is offering free loaners to folks who are scared to drive their VOLT. The good news is that they have hardly sold any . . they are about 20% of target sales figures. The better news is that electric cars, owing to the $7,500 kick back (face it, that's what it is) are selling better in the USA than anyplace in the world. Ya gotta love it when folks talk about the "modern" electric car. The VOLT goes 40 miles on a charge . . . so did the Roberts Electric Car I'm convinced Obama is an actor and any minute Alan Funt is going to leap from behind the Washington Monument. I just wish . . . now the the Soviets have let us know "we can't trust you" and are targeting arms and U.S. interests . . . . then the loonies go and week after week do some of the dumbest shit imaginable in Pakistan . . . yeah, the one with the 12 nuke weapons sites that are about to go up for auction. This is the most entertainment we've had since the carpet was soiled ! | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Cue Froggy in 3.....2.....1..... | ||
| Froggy |
Hmmm... there is a possibility that a vehicle involved in an accident can catch fire! Who knew. They should stop production of all gasoline vehicles too, because those can also catch fire due to crash damage. I'm sure Diesel is flammable, also LPG. The investigations are still ongoing, there is nothing to suggest that there actually is an issue yet. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Damn I'm good.  | ||
| Court |
You're thinking GM is offering "free loaners" for fun? :-) Look...... I hope they get it sorted out ..... But the Volt is way short of half- baked on it's best day. I'd not be surprised to find my Focus is much "greener". | ||
| Davegess |
I have to disagree, for the vast majority of us it would be an ideal commuter car. In my case I would buy gas about twice a year, the gas motor would probably fail because i would almost never use it. I think it is a great idea. AND Obama had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was Bob Lutz's baby from day one. | ||
| Court |
I agree. When it gets developed. As it is ....... It's simply half baked. I'm seeing some around town. But dealers are calling them electric paper weights. The idea is great .... The execution sucks. Thousands of gear heads here on Badweb.......... How many of you "known early adopters" own Volts? | ||
| Court |
By the way ....... I agree about Obama. Hard as her tries to take credit ..... No matter how his avowed commie van jones pushed it. ..... No matter how many trips he makes to GM to endorse it ....... No one is buying his line of bullshit .....no the soviets, the pakistanis or the American consumer. | ||
| Froggy |
It is a PR move. Since the fire only happened weeks after being improperly stored after a wreck, I don't see it being an issue. I sure hope the loaners run on something that has no risk of post accident fire, like umm, water.
I need a pickup, thats the only reason I don't have it. It also has no towing capacity, so I couldn't do the small trailer thing either. Volt Ute with a 6 foot bed and I'm sold. Hell I'd settle for a Pontiac G8 Ute with the 2 Mode Hybrid system they have in the full size SUVs. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
For my uses, the VOLT (or Leaf) are completely useless. | ||
| Two_seasons |
DaveG, If you're only buying gas twice a year, may I suggest pedal power  By the way, GE bought 20,000 Volts. Oh the love when you're in with the BO crowd. | ||
| Kenm123t |
The EPA killed this car in the early 70s Briggs had a hybrid engine package They would not support a hybrid only Electric. Wouk tried for years only to have EPA kill it. 40 years later its just repackaged nothing new The Escape and Prius share the same battery pack one made out of hundreds of D cells yep flash light batteries when one fails its very small and opens the circuit. When a a large format battery fails its much more dramatic. Diesel electric subs killed more of thier crews with battery explosions than were lost to depth charges. Volt batteries fail weeks after the crash which means your car could kill your bodyshop guy! I ve thrown serveral mac power books out of Cessnas due to battery melt downs. Flying Tigers air lines lost 4 or so planes to NICAD battery fires before they accidentally found out about the fires melting the control linkage running over the battery deck! Energy density and the Ecological costs of the metals disposal of the batteys will kill the electric car. Exotic metals are not easily recycled. Lead acid batterys are nearly all recycled products now. Diesels and direct injected gasoline and or CNG Engines will kill the electrics. If electrics are so great they would sell like Ipod Ipads etc. In so fla electrica have limited uses if you want one go for it but for general usage a hobby car Try evauating a CAT 5 in a Nissan Leaf! A E350 w/ a 7.3 liter @ 16700lbs is more fuel efficent than a Camary hybrid @ 3400lbs | ||
| Danger_dave |
Isn't Diesel only flammable under pressure? | ||
| Danger_dave |
>>This is the most entertainment we've had since the carpet was soiled !<< That rug really tied the room together. | ||
| Court |
Odd to see the NTSB open a defect investigation for a baseless claim of battery failure. And I see, in today's New York Times that the same Obama who had nothing to do with it claims credit for the standards "enacted by the Obama administration" I see why he's confused. Here's a view from the far left ...... http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/business/gm-decl ares-chevy-volt-safe.html | ||
| Kenm123t |
Dave or heated and vaporized as in fire starting burn piles we toss in soda bottles full of diesel and motor oil. Use gasoline to heat up the diesel and motor oil they get the wet wood burning. | ||
| Zenbiker |
Ken, well stated! Although I would love an all electric car, we just are not there yet. | ||
| Court |
Eager to learn more ...... Looks lie GE is talking about buying 25,000 electric cars. But ....... Looking past the obvious conflict with Jeff Immelt chairing obamas jobs commission (while moving hundreds of thousands of GE jobs overseas), the firm paying no taxes and the fact that they makes th chargers ..... Well it's tough to put much cred in their "we'll save money" claim...... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487038 48204575608323321329514.html Oh ....... And those chargers ....... Yep...... Got their Own own little bugs. Chevy Volt Burns Down House, Duke Energy Urges Home Charging Ban Posted for fair use and discussion. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...-car-charge rs/ Chevy Volt Burns Down House, Duke Energy Urges Home Charging Ban After N.C. Fire, Duke Energy Advises Customers to Suspend Use of Electric Car Chargers Duke Energy, the southeastern utility, has advised 125 customers with electric or hybrid cars to avoid using their home charging stations during the investigation of a fire in Mooresville, N.C., that apparently started near a charging station the company installed. One hundred of its customers in Indiana and 25 in the Carolinas have the same Siemens charging station found in the garage by firefighters responding to the Oct. 30 fire, according to Paige Layne, a Duke Energy spokeswoman. “Because the early report said the fire started somewhere in the vicinity of the charging station, we suggested they may not want to use them out of an abundance of caution,” Layne said. There was no reason then to believe it was caused by the charger, she said, adding, “We still don’t think there is.” Firefighters said a General Motors car was connected to a charger in the home’s garage when they responded to the fire, which did an estimated $800,000 worth of damage to the home, according to ABC affiliate WSOC. Iredell County Chief Deputy Fire Marshal Garland Cloer investigated the garage this morning with representatives of GM, Siemens, Duke Energy and the U.S. Department of Transportation to ascertain how the fire started. Firefighters said other electric appliances were plugged in in the garage when they responded to the fire, the report said. It could take several days to take everything out of the garage, Cloer said, according to WSOC. “From the electrical wiring to the house, to the vehicles, to anything in the garage, it could have even spontaneously combusted,” Cloer was quoted as saying. “We won’t know until we sift through it and find all the evidence that we can find.” WSOC said the charger was a 240-volt unit built by Siemens for use with GM cars. The car is most likely the hybrid-electric Chevrolet Volt, GM’s most prominent hybrid car model. Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers has been a prominent proponent of electric vehicles (EVs), WSOC noted, adding that he has said he wanted to see more EVs and charging stations in Charlotte for the Democratic National Convention, which will be held there next year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued the following statement: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is aware of the fire that was reported in Mooresville, N.C., this past weekend and will be conducting a post-incident analysis. No conclusions have yet been reached regarding the cause of the fire. We are continuing to monitor the situation. NHTSA researchers began studying earlier this year whether lithium ion batteries – the type of battery in the GM Volt – pose a fire hazard, AutoWeek.com reported. “We don’t want anyone to burn down their house when they’re charging their car,” said Kevin Vincent, the agency’s chief counsel, according to the report. GM has assisted the study, giving researchers a tour of the battery lab that produces Volt batteries, the report said. GM did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Department Energy did not respond to inquiries. | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
Id rather crash in a Volt than on my Buell... Just sayin | ||
| Mrpeanut |
"Mary Barra, GM's senior vice president of product development, said both fires reported by NHTSA occurred seven days to three weeks after the crash tests, and could have been prevented if the battery charge had been drained as GM has called for in its post-crash procedures." ... "The fire came three weeks after a side-impact crash test and was severe enough to cause several other vehicles parked nearby to catch fire as well." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/28/chevy-vol t-fire-investigation_n_1117673.html If the only issue is that a battery damaged from an accident can become dangerous a week later due to neglect, their problem is primarily one of PR, not some monumental engineering task. | ||
| Ohsoslow |
Isn't Diesel only flammable under pressure? Diesel is flammable not combustible, gasoline is combustible. } | ||
| Maxbuell |
Ohsoslow u got it backwards, diesel is a combustible, gasoline is a flammable. Under 100 degree's ignition point is flamable over 100 is a combustible. We have been doing some training on the volt at work (FD). In some of there manuals that show us fireman where to cut where not to cut. which wires can be cut which ones cannot. They stated that there was no way the batteries could catch fire. So we are watching this close. | ||
| Benm2 |
The Volt does not seem to be a well-engineered piece. Much like the first few generations of the Toyota Prius, it just doesn't give the appearance of being ready for prime time. Also - given that it was engineered when GM had other things on their mind - it isn't really a surprise. For the "really short" commuters - those who might never use the engine at all - the Nissan Leaf is probably a better choice as it saves money by only having one powertrain. For regular drivers, there are a wide variety of more useful hybrids out now from Hyundai, Ford and Toyota. I know there are others, but those three companies seem to be making the cars that best combine hybrid with real. I think I've seen one Volt so far in the Philly northern suburbs. Within 1/4 mile of my house, there are a dozen Prius. | ||
| Crackhead |
"Duke Energy, the southeastern utility, has advised 125 customers with electric or hybrid cars to avoid using their home charging stations during the investigation of a fire in Mooresville, N.C., that apparently started near a charging station the company installed." I think this is Duke covering their ___ for bad installations. Otherwise, other companies would be issuing the same warning. I don't understand why anyone would have a power company install/ touch anything inside your house. Shit, it is like asking the cable company to install cable inside your house. | ||
| Mrpeanut |
As I see it the problem with all electric vehicles is over coming the question in the head of consumers as to what they would do for long trips, or if they forgot to charge the car last night. Its hard to imagine people voluntarily going from a vehicle that can be "recharged" inside a few minutes to one which may take an hour. The Volt-style powerplant mitigates that problem, which may be mostly again another issue of perception but its one that electric cars will have to over come somehow. Diesel and gasoline are both combustible, otherwise you couldn't use it as fuel for ICE, gasoline (vapor) is combustible at room temperature (the low flash point is indicative of this I believe), diesel fuel requires heating (or compression) to higher then room temperature. | ||
| Ducxl |
I know plenty of 1125 owners who wish they had VOLTS 
I remember when they opened a defect investigation over our early XBr headlights catching fire! We were told here it was an anomaly and baseless too. Funny how we got /strike{recall} goodwill kits to rectify the problem. Ask dear Erik about early production defects. There are energy(fossil) issues people are trying to solve and all some can do is cast stones  ..too bad. | ||
| Greatnorthrider |
I would love to be an early adopter of an electric car! I have gathered mileage data for the past three years and I average 49.5 miles per day. Well within the range of most electric cars sold today. Why don't I get one? 1) My Dad told me to never buy the first year of anything. Let someone else work the bugs out of it. 2) Not enough data on how EV's do in cold and snowy environments. Northern Michigan has both of those in spades! 3)I have done the math and I would save only about $700 per year to drive electric over gas. (I only drive my car about 7k miles per year. Other miles are on the bikes. )So it is just now worth it to trade in my paid for car on an EV...At this time. What I would rather do is buy a Zero DS for the ride into work in the morning. Way more fun and I could get away with charging it at work!   | ||
| Court |
>>>>I know plenty of 1125 owners who wish they had VOLTS 1) Name one. 2) Explain why they don't. Therein lies your answer. | ||
| Ducxl |
What are you in denial or something? Calling me a liar? Insulting. THere are over 4500 posts in the sub sub 1125r forum dedicated to stators/rotors/voltage regulators. Not to mention the noid/denoid,boiling gas,leaking gas,got the latest corrective flash,clutch slaves pi$$ing fluid repeatedly..etc. You need ONLY to look there. One guy gave up and went SCOOTER! Talk about unadulterated passion  1>>>here ya go [quote]I will believe we are good when I get through a riding season on one stator. Just replaced the second one under warranty. [/quote] (Message edited by ducxl on November 29, 2011) (Message edited by ducxl on November 29, 2011) | ||
| Two_seasons |
GE, from what I've heard, is going to equip the Field Engineers with these vehicles! Back in the 80's, GE gave their FE's the Ford Aerostar, affectionately known as the "Deathstar" once in the fleet. Brakes were the issue, IIRC. Like I say often, history does indeed repeat itself! |
