<VV> Electric Corvairs

[mark at noakes.com]

The latest as of yesterday is that Chevy has announced that they are 
willing to buy all Volts back until a re-release with a new battery 
pack. However, satisfaction level with those that have bought the cars 
is above average at this point, so I can't see that happening. While 
Chevy was lamenting over not having sold their quota, this might be one 
time that that turned out to be a good thing.

My biggest problem with electrics is that the majority of people can't 
afford or have the space for an array of vehicles and so have to buy 
their vehicles for worst case, not for the average or even typical 
day...this appears to get lost in translation of most arguments for 
electrics. The common mode here for most people I know that can only 
have two vehicles appears to be one pickup truck and one minivan, both 
used for commuters. (A fair number of hybrids here but by no means 
typical...most are too small for family travel use.) Electrics really 
ought to be garaged as well to protect the charging equipment from 
vandalism and weather. It appears for now that an electric should be at 
least a third vehicle and not even a second vehicle where typical 
families are concerned.

My daily mile range is from 0 to 120 miles per day with not infrequent > 
350 mile trips where I need to limit transit time to 6 - 8 hours. (The 
variation can best be explained by "He travels fastest who travels 
alone.") Also for our area we need heavy use of AC or heat which kills 
battery range. And then there are the typical weekend tasks that require 
a pickup truck. Relatively cheap appropriate electrics won't be in that 
ballpark for quite a while. And that's why the sales level for all 
varieties is fairly low now.

Mark N

On 12/2/11 6:44 AM, ricknorris at suddenlink.net wrote:
> So,
> Concerning GM's problems with the Chevy Volt and recalls...means they have a revolting development!
>
> Chester A. Riley (look it up)
>
> ---- jvhroberts at aol.com wrote:
>>   It's not so much the same voltage among the cells, it's the issue of overcharging/undercharging any given cell, which is utterly fatal to Li-ion cells. As such, each cell needs to be monitored and charged individually. Look at a laptop battery connector. The number of terminals is the number of cells +1 for that reason.
>>
>> Fortunately, thanks to cheap integrated circuits, there's lots of chips out there that do exactly that function, and lots of times, they're built right into the battery.
>>
>> That way, the battery, at the end of charge, has all the cells fully charged and none overcharged. Also, when the battery is discharged, the battery shuts down when any one cell hits the low voltage threshold.
>>
>>
>>
>> John Roberts
>>
>>