FORTUNE MAGAZINE's article for the VOLT appears to be a sales ad for Honda and Toyota.
At billions of tax payer dollars this 'Jokes on us'.
NEW YORK (Fortune) - Just what is GM is trying to achieve with the Volt, and how much value does it provide the customer?
Lots of questions remain, as I discovered when few a words about the Volt at the end of my last column drew a number of heated responses.
For one thing, the 40-mile range depends on ambient temperatures of 60 degrees to 65 degrees. When the temperature drops below 60, the batteries become less efficient. And if it gets hotter than 65, the air conditioner can impose an additional load on the Volt's batteries. Either way, the range diminishes.
Nor does the 40-mile range accommodate aggressive driving or sustained uphill climbs -- you don't have to be a budding drag racer or hill-climb contestant to get less than the full range on electricity.
For instance, compare the Volt to the best selling gasoline-electric hybrid, the Toyota Prius. The goal of the Prius is to use less gasoline. Therefore, it carries 230 lbs of batteries that give an assist to the 1.8 liter gasoline engine to improve the car's fuel economy. The Prius has an all-electric range of only about a mile, but it gets 50 miles per gallon of gasoline.
And oh yes, the Prius starting price is $23,750.
The Volt, in contrast, wants to almost entirely do away with gasoline. Therefore, it carries a hefty 400 pounds of batteries that can propel the car up to 40 miles under ideal conditions. But once the batteries have been depleted, the Volt is powered by a conventional 1.4-liter gasoline engine that gets conventional fuel economy.
And the price for the Volt hasn't been set yet, but it will likely be a tad under $40,000, minus a $7,500 government rebate -- a good bit higher than the Prius.
Read full at Fortune