Volt: Giant Boondoggle

 http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20120917/OPINION01/309140042

Chevy Volt, loses $49,000 per car

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-09-10/news/33742781_1_volt-sales-chevrolet-volt-chevy-volt

On Sat, September 15, 2012 6:23 pm, Dave Mcneely wrote:
> https://www.google.com/search?q=Electric+delivery+vans&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
>
> http://evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=27692
>
> http://www.estar-ev.com/estar
>
> http://inhabitat.com/suzuki%E2%80%99s-electric-%E2%80%9Cevery%E2%80%9D-van-launches-in-japan-for-real-world-testing/
>
> ---- Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA> wrote:
>> �
> For electric cars small and light is definetly the way to go as in Kim's
> example below.
>
> One can then wonder is there any use and potential market niche for an
> electric VW bus?
> Having slept on the question, I remembered how our university has several
> delivery vans for delivering internal mail and packages, carrying the
> tools and material of the university maintenance people etc. Currently
> these are full size domestic vans. The typical use is to drive a few
> hundred yards, leave the van on idle, deliver the package or do whatever
> business in the building for 5 min, then drive a few hundred yards to the
> next building. Our campus is only about 2x1 mile so the distance driven is
> neglible, but I bet the vans go though a full tank of fuel in a day
> anyway.
>
> I'm sure many large and mid size companies, government campuses etc have
> fleets of vans for similar local delivery purposes.
>
>
> Here one could think that a smaller and lighter electic van based on a
> light chassies like the old VW T2 and T3 designs could do the job well.
> The limited range of electric batteries won't be an issue, and there is no
> waste due to idling.
>
> VW T2's are still being produced in Brazil. The electric drivetrain used
> by JD in his conversion (link below) cost I believe about $3000 for the
> batteries and $2000 for motor and electronics. That's more than the gas or
> Diesel engine it would replace, but not extremely much more. With higher
> production numbers cost of the electric drivetrain could probably be
> halved.
>
>
> Martin
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: Kim Brennan <kimbrennan@mac.com>
> To: Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@yahoo.ca>
> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 10:39:27 PM
> Subject: Re: Electric conversions (Chevy Volt)
>
>
> At work, one of the other EV cars, is a self converted Toyota MR2. He says
> he gets about 80 miles on charge currently, and is planning to increase
> the number of batteries he has to increase his range to 120-150 miles. His
> current weight of batteries is about 500 pounds.�
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 14, 2012, at 11:08 PM, Poppie Jagersand wrote:
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>________________________________
>> From: Kim Brennan <kimbrennan@MAC.COM>
>>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 8:23:19 PM
>>Subject: Electric conversions (Chevy Volt)
>>
>>>I recently replaced my main commuter car with a (leased) 2013 Chevy
>>> Volt. I'm addicted to electric only (300+ all electric miles only on it
>>> since I got it.)
>>>I know, in the
>  past, a few folk have done electric conversions (not necessarily members
> of this list). And loaded up the van with lots of (lead acid) batteries
> and got something like 16 miles per charge out the conversions.
>>> But times have changed. There are other battery choices and more
>>> choices in electric motors. Did Otto(? or was it Detmar?) with his
>>> stretch ever get the front wheels running in electric motor?
>>
>>
>>Here is a type 2 conversion to electric with detailed information on all
>> steps.
>>http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=8012&start=150#p580320
>>
>>He has about 80kg of high tech LiFePO4 batteries with 7.7kWh capacity. At
>> 450Wh/mile he gets a range of 17miles per charge. For comparison, smaller
>> lighter cars like the Nissan Leaf uses around 300Wh/mile. The
>> (unfortunately) now defunct
>  high tech Aptera used less than 150Wh/mile. An electric bicycle uses
> 15-20Wh/mile (there are at least 25 million electric bicycles in
>  China)
>>
>>Martin
>>
>
> --
> David McNeely
>
>