Volt Vs Colt

Alternative Subsidy 40 Comments

In its obsessive desire to promote the virtues of electric cars, the BBC proudly showed us last week how its reporter Brian Milligan was able to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).
What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time…

Speaking of 10 hour recharges, have you ever had to wait in line at the pumps? Yup. Me too.
h/t Robert B.

40 Replies to “Volt Vs Colt”

  1. It’s no doubt that the envirowackos wish to catapult us back into the stone age. The question I’d like to pose to the women of the envirowacko movement is: what do you picture the role of women being in your environmental utopia?
    Can you say laundry wash boards anyone?

  2. “What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time…”.
    This is the whole point…taking us back to pre-chariot times.

  4. Your title calls out the Volt, but this issue is precisely why that car was designed as an extended-range EV which has an ICE on-board to generate electricity when the battery is depleted. In range-extended mode the Volt gets >30 MPG – and can travel for 350 miles between 3-minute refills.
    Listen, I understand ad agree with you that the car is economically unviable, but let’s get the facts right.

  5. Many many times, I have asked many many prominent Canadian journalists if the Volt has a heater. Seems they never bothered to ask that question. Why not?
    If it does have a heater, where does the heat come from? When ever the heater is turned on will the gasoline engine have to be running? I would think an electric heater would quickly drain the battery.

  7. There’s a reason EV’s are positioned as city & commuter vehicles. The BBC’s exercise seems ill conceived, and the Telegraph’s inferences seem dissembling.

  10. Ron: The heat is usually generated by the ICE.
    Kate: I see. Thanks for setting me straight.
    In general I would say I’m less negative about the long-term prospects of EVs than most people here. However, it’s clear to me that *energy density* is the name of the game, and in the short-term battery technology is a full order of magnitude away from gasoline and other fossil fuels in terms of ED (both volumetric and gravimetric). The past has taught us that improvements in this area will probably come very slowly.

  11. While the Volt may be worthy of the term prototype, it is ludicrous to market it as a viable alternative to gas. When technology gets up to speed (so to speak) and a viable alternative can be found and without government subsidies and hand outs, then and only then will it make sense to switch or incorporate it with existing systems.
    I remember one of those left coast hippie towns making a big deal about having free plug-ins for electric cars near silly hall. Great idea if only one or two use it but what if the number of electrics is greater than the plug-in spots, what then? Plug & pay? And you thought paying the parking meter was expensive.
    Silly question but do the city residents actually think that power is free? Do electric car proponents realize that their power bill will rise a whole bunch and it isn’t the Spanish solar power plants that will be feeding their car’s thurst overnight.

  13. Oh, FFS. I drove a Swift for ten years ($8000 used, locally manufactured, less than 45k on it) and it routinely got 30+ MPG and any time I had to have one of those stupid emissions tests it barely registered. I think I put maybe a couple hundred a year into it in maintenance, tops. When the electric car loons can produce something that good for the same price, they’ll have a product.

  14. For ron:
    You need to understand that the people BUYING the Volt generate enough hot air that they will NEVER need a heater. Now air conditioning (EVEN IN CANADA), on the other hand, will be an absolute necessity!

  15. The BBC used to be a well respected news and entertainment source, it now is nothing less than a propaganda machine for the left.

  16. To make electric vehicles “practical”, Maurice Strong came up with the name ‘Hybrid’. (Remember, to greenies, it’s in the name not the mechanics)
    Sooo, they ended up installing both gas and electric motors. Now, when after a few miles and the battery is dead, you continue on with gasoline. Saves the embarrassment of hitching a ride (hyppies are good at that!) in a fossil fueler.
    But! a hybrid is much heavier than it’s straight gasoline cousin and so the hybrid has a fuel mileage penalty while operating on gasoline. Defeats the whole idea, doesn’t it!?
    Camry 3260 lbs
    Camry Hybrid 3680 lbs

  17. Electric cars have been around since the 1800’s. And windmills long before that. Yet both are heralded as new technology by the left, despite being abandoned and replaced by improved technologies.

  19. The distance between London and Edinburgh is 534 km. That’s a five hour drive; six if you stop and stare.
    What I don’t get is that the energy required to power the car comes from fossil fuels. Therefore, all you are doing with this car is setting up a secondary use of fossil fuels. It’s still using that fuel.
    I don’t think the answer to our energy is in secondary systems; that’s an expensive diversion; it’s finding another source of energy.
    We began, as a species, using human energy. Then, on to animal energy. Then, on to wind and water. Then, fossil fuels via steam from coal and then oil and gas. The focus should be on what matter replaces these as a source of energy. Hydrogen, helium – what?

  20. London to Edinburgh is about the same as Regina to Lethbridge. I wonder how long the trip would take in the dead of winter.

  21. Only a “urinalist” could herald this as an accomplishment without breaking out laughing, most others are not this stupid. Reminds me of the little twit that reported the nightly globull warming news here in Calgary with the obligatory furrowed brow, chastising everyone about the dangers. Is there a reporter factory somewhere where lobotomys are the first order of business, what fools the msm are.

  22. Nuclear, ET, nuclear.
    First fission.
    Then fusion.
    The fuel availability for the first is about 25,000 years, using uranium only and not using thorium fuel cycles which extends it by about triple. And for the second, essentially it’s infinite, constrained only by the ability to produce tritium and deuterium.

  23. Let me fix that title for you:
    Dolts vs Volts
    You’re welcome!
    Ps Enjoying my new 14/l per 100km enviropig with heated (by volts)leather seats. This global warming we are experiencing sure is driving down the gas mileage, isn’t it folks?

  29. Why would anybody want to get from London to Edinburgh?
    Just kidding, I love to get the wee Scots angry.
    But four days? That is pretty lame, I think it’s about a six hour drive on the motorway, seven if you want to stop for lunch in Sheffield, but then, why would anyone want to …

  30. “But! a hybrid is much heavier than it’s straight gasoline cousin and so the hybrid has a fuel mileage penalty while operating on gasoline. Defeats the whole idea, doesn’t it!?”
    “Camry 3260 lbs
    Camry Hybrid 3680 lbs”
    Short answer, no.
    4 cyl. Camry 22 mpg. city; 32 mpg. highway
    Hybrid Camry 31 mpg. city; 35 mpg. highway
    http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm
    The regenrative braking in city driving more than compensates for the extra weight. Whether it’s worth the extra cost is another matter.

  31. I had the pleasure of driving from Calgary to Edmonton a few weeks back as normal I set the cruise at 115. About Airdrie I was passed by a Prius. A few miles later I passed the Prius. A few miles farther the lead again changed hands. This cycle continued the entire length of the trip except just south of Leduc the Prius slowed again and was unable to catch up by the time we got into Edmonton. I assumed that it passed me while running on battery and I passed it while it was running on gas as the cycles were too regular just to be driver inattention.

  33. @Osumashi Kinyobe
    You think “That I don’t want to get caught up in any of that
    Funky s**t goin’ down in the city”?
    😉

  34. Joe at 5:11
    The Prius (like all Toyota hybrids)are integrated systems and when you put the gas pedal down the power required comes from battery and gas engine as needed. Your game of tag had nothing to do with lack of power since a Prius can easily maintain 115 km/hr and even has cruise control to keep it there but with the instantaneous info displaying fuel economy the driver may have been easing off on the speed to improve on the fuel use. On trips to Saskatoon from Regina my ’07 is using around 5.6 ltr/100km (50mpg)at 115 km/hr. If I back off to 100 km/hr it can get down to 4.8 (58mpg).Of course head winds and hills come into play and the driver may have been “driving the fuel economy readout” and not the speedometer. In any case the Prius is a better city mileage vehicle than cross country due to the regenerative braking aspect. Cheers

  35. The weak point in every battery powered mechanism or device I have ever owned has always been – the battery.
    I wonder if the Mini gets stuck in a pothole ( insufficient torque is a traditional problem of battery powered vehicles )is there a battery powered tow truck to get it out?
    Hybrids are the latest implementation of the long running electrics-are-our-civic-salvation-and-will-end-our-reliance-on-fossil-fuels scam.

  37. I could see electric vehicles becoming legitimate contenders if it became technically and economically feasible to have the power packs field exchangeable for fully charged and compatible replacements at the equivalent of a gas station, sort of like exchanging empty propane cylinders for filled ones. In other words, to borrow the BBC’s example, instead of the driver having to stop 9 times for a period of 10 hours each, have him stop just a few minutes for an exchange.
    But then you are presented with the chicken/egg dilemma. The necessary development and investment for such a logistics network would only come about with a realistic expectation of a large return, and with such vehicles limited to novelty status that expectation simply doesn’t exist.

  38. the best way to get electric cars popular is to shrink and lighten them up.Bamboo frame,canvas skin, backup 1cylinder2stroke. About the size of a go-kart. Make a separate lane for them. And put a retractable sail on top.

  40. Back in the day, the plebes were lucky to travel 60mi/day by stagecoach which would have made the trip to Edinburgh a six-day adventure.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation