I admit it. I drive a gas guzzler. An "evil" car that gets below average gas mileage.
And I love it to death. It's my "Youth" car that i think everyone deserves to have once in their life. Hey, at least I bought American, right!?!
That said, with the whole Cash for Clunkers thing and gas prices always in question, I have started to think about what I want for my next car. I imagine I will keep the mustang for a few more years, but eventually it'll be time to get something a bit more practical.
On CNN today there is a story about the 2010 Chevy Volt and it's supposed 230 miles per gallon fuel efficiency.
CNN: Chevy Volt to get 230 mpg rating
Not a terrible looking car, I suppose. And 230 miles per gallon is a heck of a deal, I will admit. However, there are a few things that give me pause when talking about the Volt.
The Volt's lithium-ion batteries will hold enough juice to drive the car for about 40 miles, GM has said. Once the car goes beyond that, a small gasoline engine will turn on, generating electricity to power the wheels for longer drives.
When gasoline is providing the power, the Volt might get as much as 50 mpg.
But that mpg figure would not take into account that the car has already gone 40 miles with no gas at all.
So let's say the car is driven 50 miles in a day. For the first 40 miles, no gas is used and during the last 10 miles, 0.2 gallons are used. That's the equivalent of 250 miles per gallon. But, if the driver continues on to 80 miles, total fuel economy would drop to about 100 mpg. And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be a just 62.5 mpg.
So really, you are driving an electric car for 40 miles, and after that, you're just driving a crappy 4-banger that has to say a prayer to get to 60 MPH in 30 minutes. For city driving, that might work out just perfectly, but I drive 25+ milers per day to work, then another 10 to school, then the 35 back to work. Now, I would still be able to do my daily commute on a one day charge, but what happens when I want to drive all the way to San Antonio?
Sure, I can drive the 40 miles on electric, but then the rest of the trip is on gas power. And chances are that I'm not going to be able to bring my charger everywhere with me, so for however long I'm gone, I'm just driving a really slow economy car with a tiny engine. Blech!
Then there's the cost. Obviously you can expect that the volt isn't going to be running around $15-20k like most economy cars. No, it will most likely be somewhere in the low to mid $30's. That's $10-15k more in up-front costs. Not to mention, all that electricity from "charging" overnight has got to come from somewhere. Which means you can expect your home electric bill to jump way up as well, since you'll be sucking a ton of juice to re-charge this baby for the 40 miles it gets sans gasoline.
Last, and certainly not least, is the concern over battery life. I'm sure we've all had iPods and cell phones and laptops, right? Think about them. They are great when you first get them. They stay charged for hours or days at a time with normal use. But as you get more and more charges through them and more and more use, the battery life starts to decline. I've got a 6 yr old iPod that won't turn on anymore unless it's plugged in because the battery has since crapped out. How long until the 40Miles that the Volt claims on electric falls to 38, or 35 or 30, or 20? And how long until the battery goes out for good and it's time to get it replaced with a new one?
I am hopeful that the technology is getting to the point where electric-type cars will make sense for everyone. While I do not subscribe to the belief that Global Warming is real, or that man even affects it as much as they claim, I DO think it couldn't hurt for us to start trying to look out for the environment. That said, I don't think the Chevy Volt is the right solution. I don't think our technology is there yet for something like this in mass production.
I still believe our best end-game is to figure out how to make a car that runs on water. I know the technology can get us there, we just need to get away from this electric craze and shift towards using the most abundant natural resource on the earth for travel. When we figure that out, I'd say we'd be on the right track.
Still, it's kinda cool that scientists are still going around, discovering new species of plants and animals that we previously did not know existed. The world is truly a wondrous place, and while Space is obviously more sexy, there is still much that we do not know about our own planet. I am very interested to see what our scientists discover next.
