The VOLT is a HOAX.
If GM were serious, it would first admit that past Electric cars, such as the EV1, RAV4-EV and HondaEV, were successful and worked well, were beloved by their drivers, and didn't have any problem with "RANGE" or "RECHARGE".
In fact, there were no problems with the EV1 or any other Electric car except the fact that the Alliance of Auto Makers (AAM) members were unwilling to sell them to willing buyers. Unique to auto sales, the AAM just would not let go of EVs, insisting on keeping their mitts into the panties of EV buyers, controlling the EV, keeping it and refusing to alienate it by selling it.
If GM were honest, it would admit that the EV1 didn't have a range problem, wasn't turned in because it took too long to charge, and there weren't drivers sitting on tenterhooks afraid of running out of juice. All those "reasons" were just plain false, and, if repeated by GM, just plain lies.
Secondly, IF GM were serious and the VOLT were not a HOAX, GM would look to past experience: instead of waiting for the perfect battery, past SUCCESSFUL EVs were started with the batteries that existed, and later upgraded to better batteries.
GM carefully defines the VOLT as a 40-mile-range Electric car with a range-extending genset, what Alan Cocconi used to call a "Long Ranger" which he had mounted in a trailer for hooking onto the T-zero (successor to the EV1) for long trips. This trailer was so sophisticated, it just plugged into the EV and had automatic backing software built into the system.
GM supposedly can't produce a 40-mile-range Electric car without using $20,000 Lithium batteries that don't yet exist.
RAV4-EV and HondaEV: the first versions had lead-acid batteries, later upgraded to NiMH.
S10E: This Chevy electric truck first came out using lead, then was upgraded to NiMH.
RangerEV: Ford's electric pickup came out using lead, then upgraded to NiMH.
If the VOLT were not a HOAX, GM would issue it with LEAD batteries, which is all you need for 100 miles all-electric range, and which are very cheap (as proven by the 1997 and 1999 lead-version EV1, which got over 100 miles range on the PSB EV-EC 1260 lead-acid battery).
But the VOLT, is a HOAX, for these exact reasons. GM is supposedly waiting for a battery that does not exist; they are just delaying until the price of gas comes down.
Now let's see if 8 kWh of golf-cart batteries would run the VOLT for 15-miles of all-electric range. These batteries RETAIL for $1600 for the entire 8 kWh, and last over 50,000 miles. They recycle. Each kWh yields 3 to 6 miles, so if you only use half of the 8 kWh, you have at least 12 and possibly 24 all-electric miles; if you use all, you have over 20 to perhaps 40 miles all-electric range.
Now let's look at the weight; the 20 to 40-mile range lead pack weighs 480 lbs (60 lbs. per battery, with racks); the supposed VOLT $20,000 16 kWh Lithium battery (8 kWh useable) weighs (in GM's imagination) over 400 lbs. and doesn't yet exist.
So with the same weight, low cost, and the imperative of getting them on the road, you can see why successful EV makers in the past started with cheap lead batteries as proof-of-concept and to run them (some S10E and RangerEV are still using lead-acid to this day).
Hence, GM is not serious, or is ignorant, or arrogantly denies the facts and the truth.
Thus, the VOLT...is a HOAX.GM is postponing producing a plug-in car until 2011 or later; but it doesn't have a battery that's proven to work.
The Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) like the VOLT, a serial hybrid, only needs a 40 mile range.
If GM were no on a hoax, it would, like all successful EVs, sell it with lead-acid batteries first, and then later upgrade to Nickel or Lithium.
But the evidence is that GM is just waiting, hoping for the price of gas to come down and the whole Electric car thing will be dropped.
