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Read the rest of this articleGM: 83% of people would choose Chevy Volt over EVs like Nissan LEAF
Call them crazy, but drivers have an innate dislike of running out of gas . . . or perhaps energy is a better word now. GM found that out the hard way when it was pushing electric cars, namely its EV1, in the late 1990s. That’s why on this round, the company has invested heavily to pull in some of the benefits of electric vehicles while also building a bridge to the existing gasoline infrastructure. And according to some research GM just completed, people are resonating with that decision.
Drivers they polled responded overwhelmingly—83% of them—that they’d prefer a vehicle with extended range that uses gasoline rather than a purely electric vehicle. GM Vice Chairman says (according to GM-VOlt.com):
We asked people to pick from three concepts. Once is an electric vehicle of about 40 miles range but with a gasoline powered generator that would permit when necessary another 250 to 300 miles of range. Choice B is an electric vehicle with quick charging of a range of a hundred miles, and Choice C an electric vehicle with swappable batteries, with a range of 100 miles and you find a battery swapping station and you swap out.
Nissan can’t be happy about these sorts of results because the LEAF presents a 100 mile range with electric only then has to be plugged into an electrical outlet. It can’t come as a complete surprise though, and parts of the United States will certainly still benefit from that sort of vehicle.
Big cities with sprawling, slow-moving traffic would be good candidates. Lutz contends that the Voltec technology that powers the Chevy Volt represents a big leap frog over pure electric vehicles. It allows GM to swiftly react to demand and take out the dual power source capability if drivers demand it.
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Leaf can certainly take comfort in this survey if it was asked of a sample of all prospective car buyers. If it was asked only of prospective electric car buyers, that is a different story. If this survey was commisioned by GM, then there's your reason for no disclosure of the survey sample.
another thing is if the survey had people to make tradeoffs, most notably the higher price..if you had to pay extra $75,000 to choose over optioin B, would you still make that choice ?
sorry i meant to say $7,500, not $75,000...
Option A: 21k, Electric Plug In, 100 mile range, December 2010.
Option B: No known price but probably 35k, No known delivery date, 40 mile range/electric, Vaporware so far.
This is a pretty easy poll. :)
And the question isn't what people prefer now when there are NO charge stations, the question is which they'll prefer in a couple of years. Initially, it's all about people like me who just want to buy one as soon as I can (Leaf).
Jerry, I had raise the point about the 7.5K price differential earlier - which would make the case a bit stronger for the Leaf but in all fairness your post has several critical factual inaccuracies. The Leaf's officially announced price (before tax credit) is $32,500 and The Volt's price (before tax credit) is unknown but it is widely expected be a slightly below $40,000. If you live in Califronia, you'd be eligible for a combined tax credit of $12,500( $7,500 federal + $5,000 state) but that would apply to both cars. So assuming California residency, conservative estimates would put Option A at 20K v. Option B 27.5K (not 35K).
Also GM has been consistently saying the launch would be no later than Dec 2010 and recent reports indicate it may be sooner like October. It's clearly not vaporware in that hundreds of pre production Volts are road testing as we speak and they have already rolled out a few cars (pre-production but awfully close to the production one) off their main assembly lines that will be used to manufactuere productin versions. The Leaf will be made overseas and not a lot of test cars are in the U.S. now.
Try this instead:
Option A: 25K after rebate, 100 mile range at 20 mph (LA-4 "city" mode), 65 mile range at 70 mph, December 2010.
Option B: 32.5K after rebate, 40 mile range at 70 mph purely electric, 350 mile range electric+gas, November 2010.
Bingo..
Yes, the price difference of 7,5 K is important, but, still, Volt is the most practical EV today.
The main advatage for people is that there is no psychological barrier of "no fuel" and "low range".
Not very close to correct on the "combined tax credit" in California.
- First, the $7500 is a credit and available to both. In general that means you get it until the year after you buy the car, but Nissan is offering a lease that deducts its value, reducing the monthly payment. No word yet on GM plans for that.
- Second, California is a rebate, not a tax credit. That means you can get it sooner (except possibly lease case) but I suspect it also means it could count as income if you run into AMT.
- Third, the $5000 applies only to pure electrics, like the Leaf. The GM Volt can only get $3000.
- Fourth, current funding for the Cal rebate is minimal, probably not much more than 1000 cars. More funds are "supposed" to be added, but given California's ongoing budget woes I wouldn't count on it.
p.s. I should have added to my last point that GM says they plan to sell only 10K cars nationwide in the first year, while Nissan claims they will sell 50K. That means (if both companies hold to plan) that the Leaf will be rolled out faster. The real significance of that is that the first 1000 Leafs are going to the San Diego area, so if you life anywhere else in California you won't get any $5000 or $3000 rebate unless the state can come up with more money.
Unfortunately, we still don't have even ONE maker who's producing Nickel plug-in cars, let alone Nickel EVs; which sets up the entire "EV revival" for a big disaster, if, as we should expect, Li batteries fail after 50K miles.
1. Nickel is the only proven EV battery; after 100K or 200K miles old batteries can be remelted down into new batteries without new mining.
2. Solar power and plug-in cars is the only sustainable way to power individual autos.
3. Running an EV 1000 miles per month takes only 250 kilo-Watt-hours (kWh) of electric, about $25; about what two old refrigerators cost and about a third of the average home usage.
4. It would take only a tenth of the average home roof -- 6 square yards -- to make 250 kWh per month, enough electric energy to run a plug-in car 1000 miles.
5. Because solar power and plug-in cars such as the Nickel RAV-EV would cut oil profits, Big Oil has used its financial power to strangle and delay use of this obviously simple and working alternative to oil and coal.
6. No matter how many nuke or coal plants you build, it won't replace one drop of oil unless there are plug-in cars to use the electric; and if we had plug-in cars, we wouldn't need new power plants. The money saved NOT buying gas would pay for rooftop solar systems.
7. Refining each barrel of oil requires 12% of its energy; that much electric takes a plug-in car about the same distance as the rest of the barrel takes an oil-fired car.