Chevy Volt

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

If you have to have a small car you might as well have a big boxy small car

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

The local Kia dealer called and they are doing a Soul swap, so he should have one for me to look at tomorrow
It looks like a Grimp car to me.
Bright silver like this one. It won't be too earth friendly until I cut the holes in the floor for me to push it like the Flinstones

[[JiF]Mike]

I had to put gas in my Volt yesterday. It was the first time, and I had 800 miles on the odometer.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Impressive. How much does the tank hold? If you find a charging station do you have to pay to use it?

[[JiF]Mike]

The tank is 9.5 gallons. I put 8 gallons in it. I've taken a couple of long trips this week, so been using some gas. No long trips planned now though, so I hope it's a while before I put anymore in!

I signed up for Charge Point which sells charging stations to businesses. There's quite a few in MA but not too many in NH yet. The owner of a station sets the charging price, but the Chili's I stopped at this past weekend was free if you were a customer. There's an app that lists all their stations, so it's pretty easy to find one.

I'm looking into getting one for the Inn. There aren't any in Waterville Valley yet, and we'd like to be the first.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Cool, I guess battery swapping is not an option at 400lbs Is the battery like the whole bottom of the car?

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Now that's a battery

[[JiF]KellysHero]

I just read an article about the Ford Focus EV and the battery for it runs anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000! A coworker of mine has an older Honda Insight, it is a gas/electric hybrid that is about 10 years old. The battery did come with a 10 year warranty and it has about a 10 year life span. He 'lucked' out in that it started having some issues and was able to get the battery replaced under warranty. If it wasn't under warranty, he'd have had to pay about $10,000 to get it fixed!!! I'm curious what is going to happen when the first round of Prius' and such start hitting the life span of their batteries and replacements are needed.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

I was looking into a used Prius and people say be careful to make sure the battery is good because they are expensive, but I though they said they were around 1500 to 2000 dollars. Not sure. I am thinking the GM battery cost more than the Soul I am looking at.
15K car and 20K battery Someday maybe they will get more reasonable.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

I wonder if Mike can run his house on that car when the power goes out

[[JiF]Mike]

Cool, I guess battery swapping is not an option at 400lbs Is the battery like the whole bottom of the car?

It runs down the middle of the car in that "T" shape. The top of the T is behind the rear seats. This balances the batteries weight evenly. It's the same configuration used in the very popular EV1. If you like documentaries, check out "Who Killed The Electric Car?" It's rather eye opening.

(entire video available on Vimeo!)
[video]http://vimeo.com/19863733[/video]

I wonder if Mike can run his house on that car when the power goes out

I've actually been looking into that. There is a rumor about incorporating some kind of "plug" in future versions to get electricity out of the car for home use in emergencies. It would be really nice if the charging port could be two way! Right now the recommendation from other owners is to pickup an inverter and connect it to the rear battery terminals. It's not 100 amps or anything but I guess you can get 1500 watts pretty easily, and that's off the battery. Turn the car on and the main battery will be used. When the battery drains the engine will turn on. If the car is not turned on, then those terminals are from the typical engine battery. Yes it has one of those too.

A recent study conducted found that 33 Volt batteries rendered unfit for vehicle use could power 50 homes for up to four hours.

[[JiF]corn]

Don't worry Grimp,you aren't alone.
I told my wife about one i saw and really liked and she thought i was going through men"O"pause.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

I think I remember the EV1 being in the news. Seems to me it was made to look or was impractical.


My wife is warming a little towards the Soul, if not only to make me happy. She is at least looking and agrees the size would be better for me than a Yaris.

[[JiF]ilw]

i TALKED to a cadillac dealership today to find out if they would beat supplier pricing. He said they would sell me the six cylinder coupe cts for invoice with no added fee's such as dealer documention. Anyone get pricing better than that please do tell. congrats on the volt, they rock.

-- Fri Apr 20, 2012 1:57 am --

also anyone who is sure that they are going to buy a gm vehicle should get a gm card.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Gonna get a Caddy? Nice.