TRONZ said:So would a Volt be the perfect second car for a Spark owner??? How many Volt owners have a second gas car as well???
For a 2-commuter household, I think the Volt is a perfect 2nd car for either a Spark owner or a Leaf owner, if one doesn't have to frequently haul around some massive number of people or gear. There a handful of Volt+Leaf combo owners who participate in both forums, and it seems to be working out well for them from their comments. I don't get the bashing either. FWIW I see an order of magnitude less bashing of the Leaf on the Volt forum, than I see of the Volt here. Volt owners are pro-EV, just pure BEV doesn't meet our criteria at this moment in time, we see EREV/PHEV as a bridge technology until batteries improve such that range/cost/charging times make pure BEV more practical for our needs. I don't at all buy TRONZ's argument that its mere existence hampers pure BEV development, it hasn't stopped all the other manufacturers from announcing pure BEVs, and even GM here is looking at pure BEV.
I'm single, and didn't want a second car, which is why I chose the Volt over a Leaf. For my driving patterns, a Volt ends up using less gasoline than getting a Leaf and keeping my old gas car would have. Local driving = no gas = no difference. Long trips - electric miles cover some portion of them, the Volt gets better mileage than my previous Honda Civic in gas mode, and after I reach my destination, in many cases I can charge up again to do EV local driving around my destination and a portion of the return journey. The Leaf combo would only use less gas if I was frequently making trips in the ~45-85 mile range, which I don't.
I suppose Prius owners might consider the Volt's hybrid-mode mileage "unacceptable", but that kind of boggles my mind also. It depends on how many miles you drive I suppose. If you are say driving 2k gas miles a year out of 7k, that's only 10 gallons more a year. vs. the 100 gallons not used from the electric miles. If coming from most other cars, 40 mpg highway (hybrid = long distance driving = mostly highway) looks pretty good.