At the end of the month, a low-emission variant of the 2012 Chevrolet Volt will begin selling in California, qualifying buyers for a $1,500 state rebate, and the privelidge to drive in the state’s High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) carpool lanes, which were also made available to other cars such as the Nissan LEAF and Toyota Prius. The Volt’s Low Emissions Package will be standard for California. Because it’s special.
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GM has confirmed that these California enhAT-PZEV Volts have the better, longer warranty, as required by the HOV access regulations.
This being the case, does that mean the 150,000 mile California battery warranty will cover Volts sold in the other 49 states? If not, this would be incredibly unfair.
I would buy the clean( er ) air version if it came with the warranty, would you? It’s important because there is some speculation re: the car’s value at certain points of it’s battery life depletion – the big unknown, and to me, the biggest barrier for mainstream acceptance to EVs ( other than initial buy-in cost ).
I understand Calfornia is the largest car market, and it also represents the largest green car customer base, but these changes to the Cali Volts do not insure those buyers the HOV lane pass when they purchase. What it does is allows the Cali Volt buyer to fill out an application for one of 40,000 HOV passes that will be handed out!
Hopefully this will boost Volt sales significantly. It can also make prospective Volt buyers nationwide balk that their car would not have the longer warranty. With gas prices rising about 20 cents per gallon per week in my area and with the announcement that the government will standardize the use of 15% ethanol gas by summer, I think it’s “game on!” for EV, hybrid and PHEV vehicles which will be in short supply. This’ll make Volt’s asking price more palatable for thousands who have been sitting on the fence thus far.
Also – can ’11 – ’12 Volts purchased before the upgrade be modified to then be eligible? I feel for the poor folks in their Volts as identical Volts zip by them in the HOV just because the bought them months later.
I am wondering what the difference between the low emissions cars and the standard cars is, is there a loss of power ? Exactly what are the changes made?