News: GM Lied: Chevy Volt is Not a True EV

narf said:
Remember, they do want to sell the Volt/Ampera in Europe. If its top speed is 80mph all Germans and foreign Europeans sometimes going into/through Germany will go from "meh, maybe want when cheaper" to "NO WAI".
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They could make the Euro version with a more powerful electric motor or something like that down the line. Doesn't most European diesel compact cars have better fuel economy anyways?
 
On an Autobahn blast Euro diesel wins, yes. In the city, no.
No need to restrict that to compacts, a 6cyl 3l BMW 5-Series diesel should be more efficient at reasonable speeds.

Someone doing lots of long distances should choose a diesel. Someone doing mostly city driving may be better off with a Volt... but those may be turned off by making the Volt impossible for occasional Autobahn use.
The trouble is not a lack of power on the electric motors. The trouble is the main motor becoming inefficient at high revs. While the battery is filled the generator helps out through some planetary gear magic, when the battery is dead the generator linked to the ICE helps out. Removing that ICE help would kill efficiency at 60/70+mph with dead batteries.
 
Why haven't we seen any electric cars with any sort of transmission? Sounds like even just adding in a higher gear for very high speeds would help. Not worth the drivetrain losses?
 
The Tesla 1.0 had two speeds. Now it has one. There is some reason for it. But thanks to Cobol my brain has fried itself, so I can't give you the reason for this.
 
thevictor390 said:
Why haven't we seen any electric cars with any sort of transmission? Sounds like even just adding in a higher gear for very high speeds would help. Not worth the drivetrain losses?
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This has got a planetary CVT. Mechanically very simple, but hard to fathom in motion.
Basically you have three cogs connected together. Cog 1 drives the wheels. Cog 2 is driven by the electric motor. Cog 3 may be driven by either the generator or the generator+ICE or may be locked.
As long as cog 3 is locked the motor drives the wheels on a fixed ratio. As soon as cog 3 starts turning it effectively changes the ratio between the motor and the wheels and combines the power from both.
In essence you have a first gear with cog 3 locked, an infinite number of gears inbetween when the generator increases its speed, and top gear when the generator is spinning at its maximum rpm.

The principle is a bit similar to a differential. Imagine you turn the two wheels by hand and see how fast the prop shaft spins. If you lock down one wheel and spin the other the prop shaft will spin at half its speed. If you then start spinning the locked wheel in the same direction while keeping the first wheel spinning at the same speed you will observe the prop shaft spinning faster, drawing power from both wheels.
 
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thevictor390 said:
Why haven't we seen any electric cars with any sort of transmission? Sounds like even just adding in a higher gear for very high speeds would help. Not worth the drivetrain losses?
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argatoga said:
The Tesla 1.0 had two speeds. Now it has one. There is some reason for it. But thanks to Cobol my brain has fried itself, so I can't give you the reason for this.
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They tried a two-speed transmission, but AFAIK it was similar to a transmission that you would find on a normal ICE car so it kept breaking under the immense torque of the electric motor.
 
^ :nod:

The first batch of Teslas was shipped with the two-speed auto box locked in second, later to be replaced on warranty with the single speed box.
 
inb4 Spectre :p
 
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So he knows it's a great car just by sitting down and hearing the (crappy) door closing sound? He must be a driving god.
Some say new Stig is a bit blacker than the old one? :lmao:
 
narf said:
So he knows it's a great car just by sitting down and hearing the (crappy) door closing sound? He must be a driving god.
Some say new Stig is a bit blacker than the old one? :lmao:
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And that conservatives react to hearing his name like demons that have just been splashed with holy water.
All we know is, he's Barack Ostig!
 
BlaRo said:
He owns the company, he's gotta inspect his product.
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Yes and for this reason I don't think if he didn't like it he would say so on camera. :lol:
 
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