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Read the rest of this articleChevy Volt BUYERS BEWARE. Concerns about the 8-year warranty
In an otherwise inspiring and exciting announcement, the new 8-year battery warranty offered by the Chevy Volt may have been overshadowed by one very peculiar statement.
Early adopters of the Chevy Volt will undoubtedly take a chance on a vehicle, and for that matter, a technology, that is not all that proven on the roads today. Sure, it's undergone fairly extensive road tests such as the Flooded Road Test and months of "mule" testing, but with a car as revolutionary as the Volt, it is difficult to say how it will withstand years of the daily grind and wear and tear of driving.
Not to mention, Chevy Volt adopters will also have to take a chance on charging stations. Obama has plans to deploy about 20,000 charging stations throughout the nation by 2012, but more than likely, consumers will have to depend on their own home charging stations to keep their cars moving, especially considering the Volt gets 40 miles on a single charge.
Chevy, however, is trying to do everything it can to put the consumer's mind at ease. The 8-year battery life warranty is just one way of saying that the Chevy Volt's battery can be trusted for an extended period of time, even as a new, mainstream technology. Considering the battery is the most expensive component in the car (early reports indicate the price at about $10,000), that is a very good thing.
So what about today's announcement should Chevy Volt buyers be concerned about?
Although it may have come across as somewhat meaningless and insignificant, GM's vice chairman of product planning, Tom Stephen's statement, not about the 8-year warranty, but about the hopes of Chevy for a longer warranty, ought to raise the eye brows of future Chevy Volt buyers.
He said, "Originally when we were looking at this, we wanted to make sure that the batteries were good for more like 10 years."
Now, maybe I am being a bit skeptical and reading into the statement too much, but for a battery technology, lithium-ion, that has been known over the past decade to wear in power in such devices as laptops and cell phones over time, decreasing the life of the warranty ought to be a bit concerning.
According to a report by Left Lane News, Chevy Volt engineers developed an algorithm to test the durability of the battery that can measure up to 10 years of use, in just about 2 years. The tests are being done right now, 24 hours a day in both Germany and Detroit.
Warranties are a very mathematically equated certificate of piece-of-mind, much like insurance, that are a low liability for manufacturers during that time period and a guarantee or assurance for consumers that want to feel the product will last.
Therefore, when a chairman comes out and says Chevy was trying to get 10 years, but can only guarantee 8 years, consumer's ought to understand what might happen after those 8 years.
Stephens proposed that the used batteries be sent back to be rebuilt or disposed of when it wears down. What will that cost? It certainly wont be covered after the mathematically equated 8 years.
As an electric car buyer that is most likely going to need to invest at least $30,000 into the Volt, depending on the tax breaks, adding a necessary charging station and potentially large replacement fee for a new battery 8-10 years down the road is a bit troubling.
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Comments
This is Rob Peterson from Chevrolet Communicatins
It appears that you do not fully understand the Chevrolet Volt as there is no dependency on the 20,000 charging stations you reference. The Volt is an electric vehicle with extended-range. Fully charged, the Volt operates on electricity stored in it's battery for up to 40 miles. Once the Volt's battery is depleted, a small gas-powered engine is engaged to generate electicity and power the vehicle for over 300 additional miles. This is a significant difference compared to a pure battery electric vehicle (BEV)which is HIGHLY dependent on the development of a charging infrastructure (once the battery of a BEV is depleted energy your only hope IS public charging).
We recently demonstrated the potential of the Volt by driving it from Austin, Texas to New York City in roughly three days (total of 1,776 miles). Obviously, there isn't a charging infrastructure in place along this route - nor was one necessary for the Volt to make this trip. This being the case, the premise that the Volt is a questionable purchase decision due to lack of charging infrastructure is irrelevant.
also you do not need to install a charging station, as you can use the included 120v power cord and charge overnight in your driveway or garage. Also cell phones and laptops don't manage their batteries very well, they get run down to nothing constantly, while the Volt only uses 50-70% of its battery pack and is thermally managed to keep it near optimum temperature. There is some risk in early adoption, but I think it's overstated in this article.
Agreed. This is a poorly written article. Electric charging infrastructure is totally irrelevant. That is the beauty of the Volt - green technology without any inconvenience to the driver. It seems that the author of this article did not do their homework.
Thank you Aaron and Rob for your comments.
It seems I need to clarify a few of my statements. Yes, it is true that the Chevy Volt can use a 120 V power cord, but even the Volt web site claims "You can also install a 240V outlet, which can charge Volt in as little as four hours." Either way, chances are, as I mentioned in the article, consumers are going to have to depend on home charging units/stations. Not to mention, the key selling point of the Volt is its ability to use electricity to power the engine. Driving from Austin to New York is great gas mileage, but it is no more than a hybrid if consumers can't charge their vehicles and utilize their 40 mile electric range, after 40 miles.
As for the batteries, the Lithium-Ion batteries that the Volt uses are obviously better than a standard laptop, after all, they cost, according to recent reports, more than $9,000 more. I am not saying the technology is inadequate. I am saying we need to beware that it is still Lithium-Ion and Lithium-Ion loses its power over time.
Finally, the main purpose of the article was not to discuss the charging station or the technology behind the lithium-ion battery. The purpose was to acknowledge that Chevy, if smart, calculated a safe period that the battery would last and although they had hoped for 10 years, they could only guarantee 8 years. If I am buying a Volt, I will want to know that I am most likely going to need to sink a large chunk of change to replace a battery of an 8-year-old used car.
Rob, I would love to hear your thoughts, as a Chevy spokesperson, on the true point of this article: the decreased time period of the warranty.
Thank you for checking out Tainted Green.
There has been a lot of discussions and debates on the Chevy Volt, I'm sure there was even a volt dance but I read somewhere that we'll be seeing only a limited edition of the Volt. The Volt is the dream car of many people but it is very expensive, more expensive then the Nissan Leaf. Need to save a lot to get into one of those volt but the battery discussion is something new I'm hearing, 2 years is a lot of difference.