GM announces the MPV5 Volt Hybrid SUV

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I don't know what to make of this. Better to have some more EV type vehicles on the road, but if you are going to drive a chunk of SUV like this are you really in the market for a 32 mile EV range? Thanks for posting Rich.
 
sjfotos said:
I don't know what to make of this. Better to have some more EV type vehicles on the road, but if you are going to drive a chunk of SUV like this are you really in the market for a 32 mile EV range? Thanks for posting Rich.
Makes perfect sense to me. Like them or not, those vehicles are hugely popular and make up a sizeable chunk of the gasoline use. Back when people were buying cars, Minivans and Ford Explorer type SUVs were rolling out at well over the 100,000 units/month rate. Raise the fuel economy of those type of vehicles from 16 MPG to 60+ and two things happen, you make a serious dent in US fuel use and you begin to get political leverage to price gasoline appropriately (or at least stop subsidizing it).
 
In terms of oil savings - PHEVs help a lot. We keep talking about how an majority of trips are less than 40 miles a day. So, all those trips will be oil-free. That is why even prius plug-ins 13 mile electric range would be a big help in saving oil.

tripdistribution.png


So, ever 10 mile eletric range you save you progressively save less amount of oil. So, the marginal utility of the battery goes downhill.

10 28%
20 21%
30 13%
40 8%
50 5%
 
I think it would be a "good thing" if it sells well. I just wonder about the general inclination of the SUV driver to go for this. I do hope it succeeds.
 
sjfotos said:
I think it would be a "good thing" if it sells well. I just wonder about the general inclination of the SUV driver to go for this. I do hope it succeeds.

I think a MPV like this or a van would sell well - I'd buy one.

I think in the next 10 years as we wait for life style changes or better batteries, BEV is targetted at multi car families. If a family has two cars, one would be replaced by a BEV like Leaf and the other by a PHEV like this one.
 
It is easy to produce slick pictures of "concept" products (even vehicles) to try to make others think that you are really making progress.

When is the Volt rollout, ... and
performance, cost, distribution, charging stations, a no-oil version (EV)?
These would better indicate "real" progress, I think.

Must we continue to buy "everything" from overseas sources, because not much is actually made here anymore?
 
Back
Top