The Chevrolet Volt has been getting a lot of praise and criticism since its launch late last year. But the most current complaint comes from an EV fan by the name of Andrew Angellotti —Â a big fan of electric vehicles who has even built a 1988 Mazda B2200 pickup truck to run on just batteries.
Angellotti says the Volt is a “beautiful piece of engineering” and expresses his enthusiasm for how well GM’s engineers combined the electric and gas systems. However, Angellotti does have a complaint — and it has to do with the Volt matching the behavior of existing vehicles.
“They’ve taken a technology that has been developed specifically to not be a gas-powered car, and tweaked it and twisted it until it’s as close they can possibly get to, you guessed it, a gas-powered car. This is not how transportation technology improves. If it were, we’d all be riding really fast horses (hat tip to Henry Ford),” said Angelotti.
A very interesting point, indeed. But what do you think? Is the Volt really just a fancy gas car? Or do you see it as something much more?
Source: Spin Garage
Comments
I agree. I love my volt but here are some of my complaints. Regenerative braking is designed to simulate engine braking should be adjustable to user preference. Same for steering boost. Car pulls forward when stopped like and auto transmission. It’s completely logical and possible to have the car hold position when stopped. Center stack was developed by someone who has never designed a UI. Should be completely configurable including look, button actions and defaults. I don’t pay for the weather info from XM, I should be able to do something else with the button. All technical information on the cars status should be available eg. current draw, actual battery capacity, battery temperature, engine hours, this should be configurable using a PC or web app. Clock should automatically set from GPS, onstar, radio time code. By the way, did I say that I love me Volt because I do, it’s a great car, it just needs some tweaks.
Ummmm, people, if you want a strictly electric vehicle, then buy one!!! Stop complaining about GM creating a car that allows an extended range. If you want strictly electric, go visit your local Nissan dealer. What? There are only two electric vehicles on the market!!!! Pick your poison and stop complaining!!!!
First of all his post was incredibly poorly written, hard to follow. As someone responded he was way off on price in regards inflation, which at that point I stopped reading…
Stop complaining go buy your Leaf and I will pick you up when your car is stranded on the side of the road…
Exactly! It took this due 6 paragraphs to get to the “crux” of the article. I wonder what that crap he was talking about has to do with the Volt anyway. And another thing. This guy may have been able to trade punches with his CGT lecturer, but his economics lecturer was probably wiping the floor with him.
Guys, I think the Alex Luft hit it on the head with an earlier post about Dan Akerson saying there will be pure EVs from GM in the future. Electrification should be about choice. The Volt doesn’t offer choice – it’s too expensive.
I want a pure electric car. I don’t want the Leaf. I want a GM. “Go buy a Leaf” is one of the most arrogant answers I’ve ever heard to my need.
I guess I’ll have to get the Focus EV when it comes out later this year. So much for “competitive advantage”…
Ok wait a minute “Go buy a Leaf” means I don’t think the leaf really offers any advantage in the market, the range is pathetic…
But Silent electrician brings up a good point: if he/she doesn’t want the Leaf and doesn’t want the Volt… what’s he/she to buy and still stay in the GM family?
At this point, a pure electric Cruze would be nice to compete with the Leaf.
The Volt is an amazing invention in automotive history. The problem is is that it is limited by the technology of its time, like Iron Man 2 :). Give it time and it will go farther than the Leaf on electricity alone and still have it gas powered engine so you don’t get stuck like you would in the Leaf. In the future, I bet it will be one of the greatest cars on the road, if it isn’t already, and all other companies will be wanting to make their own version of this car.
Alex, that’s cool if its range is more than 100 miles, I relize for some that’s fine but 4 most not so much. Tecnology should empower people not limit them that is why most of us are still drving petrol vehicles.
Angellotti appears to offer no examples of how an electric car should drive differently than a “normal” car. Levitation? Invisibility cloak?
I think GM was spot on in making the Volt as close to a “normal” car as possible. People have a hard enough time understanding how the car works without throwing in some novel changes. When they did (the high tech touch sensitive dash controls) people took them to task on it. Can’t win.
Bobolink nailed it, any user experince/human factors person would tell you this…
Our friend needs to go back to Purdue and get schooled on how to write a counter paper, let’s pray he didn’t study engineering. Although I don’t think Purdue is what it used to be…
I am yet to understand what it is that these journalists and these wagonists want from the Volt. It’s GM’s first dedicated hybrid (semantics taken out of the argument). The engine is not as efficient as it could be and the batteries aren’t being taken full advantage of. But there’s a reason for this. Taking their time to do things right, and like VW does with their cars, they leave room for a long line of improvements as the model years tick by. I’m sure a better-performing VVT/DI engine will be coming up shortly and I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point the Volt gets a diesel engine to push mileage up even further.