The Electric-Vehicle Road Test

This is a very good, long video on the Wall Street Journal web site.

My local library is closed so I signed up for 2 months online access to the WSJ website for $1.00.

It looks like it can be accessed at:

https://www.wsj.com/video/series/shifting-to-electric/the-electric-vehicle-road-test/E390D3C3-5437-4E64-B2F9-8AD8598DEE5A

Thanks for the link, worked great and the video was nicely done and clear video
To me a video like this only pointed to how a PHEV is really a better choice for lots of people, instead of trying to produce ever-increasing sizes of battery packs. A PHEV even with an EV range of the original Leaf(60-70ish miles) would be perfect, basically all local trips on all battery yet the ability to go indefinitely on gas. I'm pretty sure our next vehicle will be a PHEV, I really wish they had a larger battery, 10-30+ mile EV range just isn't enough to make it across town on EV and I'd also like a more efficient gas engine for longer trips but it seems to be a give and take. Something like a Prius Prime has great ICE mileage but limited EV range(25ish miles), most PHEVs have sub 40 or even sub 30 MPG which kind of rules it out for me. I also feel more PHEVs should have a heat pump heater to extend the already limited EV range in the mild winter but unfortunately, it's a very rare feature.

The Voltec drivetrain was just about perfect for the above needs - they just stuffed it into a poorly designed body. They still have the drivetrain, and I think that next year (or, given the pandemic, the year after) it will be showing up in GM vehicles like small SUVs, CUVs, maybe even a small or midsize pickup.

Reminds me of the Verge's botched computer build (youtu.be/M-2Scfj4FZk); both have super high production quality, but the people on camera are either clueless or very poor planners. Hate to see it.

Nora Naughton's segment with the Bolt seemed especially staged - she was driving through Michigan, where there are plenty of L3 chargers, but she ultimately spent 11 hours driving and 19 hours charging on a mere ~600 mile road trip. That puts her average charge speed at about 8 kW, barely more than L2. It would have been less than 3 full charges if she did it right. :| The scene with her daughter freezing while charging on 120V is going to scare a lot of people away from EVs.

The rest of the issues the drivers and commenters had were 100% user error. Burning up 160 miles of range in 80 miles by going too fast? Hitting turtle too often? Missing your kid's Halloween trick-or-treat because you didn't use a real map to find a charger? Not the car's fault.

If you imagine that ICE drivers are used to a car with a preposterously large battery, everything begins to make more sense. A 13-20 gallon gas tank and a 33% efficient motor adds up to about 140-220 kWh of available energy per fill-up. Why wouldn't you cruise at 85 mph, drive on fumes constantly, and only refill every couple weeks if your car had a 200 kWh battery in it that cost $40 to recharge?

Tesla did the right thing ignoring WSJ's requests for comment on this one

LeftieBiker said:

The Voltec drivetrain was just about perfect for the above needs - they just stuffed it into a poorly designed body. They still have the drivetrain, and I think that next year (or, given the pandemic, the year after) it will be showing up in GM vehicles like small SUVs, CUVs, maybe even a small or midsize pickup.

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+1
IMO it's kind of like they wanted it to fail......that or the execs at GM were totally clueless on the type of vehicle people actually wanted!
A decade after the Volt and still no one(including GM) has come out with a vehicle design people actually want with that decade-old drivetrain.

I think it went something like this: the original Volt show car was a Camaro show car with a golf cart drivetrain. GM never planned to build it - heck, no one wanted an electric Camaro then! But the public clamored for them to build it, and they somehow decided that the 'stomped on by Godzilla' roof line of the Camaro was part of the car's appeal. So they tweaked it a bit to make it look more like a typical GM mid-sized sedan, but they left in just enough of the Camaro's looks to ensure that it would be cramped inside. Maybe it was sabotage, but I think it was Good Old American Stupidity.

Too bad they didn't include "total cost to charge".

LeftieBiker said:

So they tweaked it a bit to make it look more like a typical GM mid-sized sedan, but they left in just enough of the Camaro's looks to ensure that it would be cramped inside. Maybe it was sabotage, but I think it was Good Old American Stupidity.

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There is a market for cars that are what you call "cramped" inside. I call it cozy. I miss driving cars like that - you just can't find many anymore let alone an EV.

GetOffYourGas said:

LeftieBiker said:

So they tweaked it a bit to make it look more like a typical GM mid-sized sedan, but they left in just enough of the Camaro's looks to ensure that it would be cramped inside. Maybe it was sabotage, but I think it was Good Old American Stupidity.

Click to expand...

There is a market for cars that are what you call "cramped" inside. I call it cozy. I miss driving cars like that - you just can't find many anymore let alone an EV.

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I understand, but most people looking for an EV are looking for a decent family car, not a sporty sedan. The Model 3 tries to be both. The Volt was a sporty looking car with PHEV performance, at least in hybrid mode...

jlv said:

Capture.jpg
Too bad they didn't include "total cost to charge".

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Thanks for posting that graphic, I paused it when playing the video as it went by so fast.
Those numbers make NO sense, how could Katherine charge for only 25h on 120v while Nora had to charge for 115h on 240v and both drove about the same miles :? Valerie also charged at 120v but had to charge 162h for even less miles......something is squirrely.

jjeff said:

......something is squirrely.

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The source is Murdock's paper. Expect lies.