Chevy Volt Engineer Introduces "Range Anxiety," "Limp Home" and Other Terms
By Scott Doggett October 31, 2008
Richard S. Chang, a blogger for The New York Times
who attended the press walk-around of the Chevrolet Volt this week in Manhattan, notes
that the hybrid sedan is inspiring a new language.
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Frank Weber, chief engineer of the Volt.
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"Frank Weber, chief engineer on the project, mentioned something he called 'range anxiety,' " Chang wrote for the newspaper's "Wheels" blog.
Range anxiety, as he described, is the nagging worry that the electric vehicle you are driving is running out of battery charge.
The Volt, which has a range of 40 miles -- when all power equipment has been turned off, including air-conditioner, stereo and headlights -- is an "extended-range electric vehicle," Weber said, and is equipped with a gasoline engine to create electricity when the lithium-ion battery is empty.
A few moments later, Weber explained what most people in the room already knew: battery development is the biggest challenge to the Volt's development. "We call the battery 'the Diva,' because of the way it has to be treated," he said. In other words, the battery was, um, in charge.
Range anxiety, extended-range electric vehicle, diva: these concepts reinforce the idea that as we enter the age of alternative-energy vehicles, we are faced with a new set of parameters and lingo, Chang wrote.
For companies such as GM, they'll have to acquaint customers on how to compare vehicles, using kilowatts instead of horsepower, kilowatt hours instead of miles a gallon.
At the presentation, there was a display with the amount of electricity the Volt, which will not go on sale until late 2010 (at the earliest), would consume annually on a list of common household appliances.
The Volt's position (2,520 kilowatt hours a year) was between a water heater (2,557 kWh) and a clothes dryer (1,079 kWh). Whether that's good or bad is up to the customer.
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"The Volt's position (2,520 kilowatt hours a year) was between a water heater (2,557 kWh) and a clothes dryer (1,079 kWh). "
Meaningless anecdote: Both my water heater and cloths dryer run on gas (not the liquid kind, but the gas kind). Interestingly, they are both more energy efficient than the electric kind.
RE: "The Volt's position (2,520 kilowatt hours a year) was between a water heater (2,557 kWh) and a clothes dryer (1,079 kWh). "
Using an average of $.10 per kilowatt hour that is "$252 per year" for "pluging in" for electricity??? Would like to know how many miles per year they assumed. Seems to good to be true!!
$0.10 per kilwatt hour is wildly optimistic in certain markets. Any additional electricity on my bill would be charged at either $0.25 or $0.36 per kilowatt hour, since the number of kilowatt hours I have available at my baseline rate of $0.12 per kilowatt hour isn't enough to run my house more than 4 months out of the year. And for reference, every single bulb in my house is a tube fluorescent or a CFL, all major appliances are energy star certiifed, and we use a whole-house fan and a programmable thermostat to minimize heating and cooling costs.
More fun math - at $0.30 per kilowatt hour (assuming a mix of the two rates given, and praying it doesn't go to the $0.41 maximum rate), 2,520 kilowatt hours per year equates to $756 electricity cost. Fuel cost for my existing 2003 Honda Civic (which is paid for) is $1,406, assuming 15,000 miles/year and $3.00/gallon gasoline. Given the price premium one would presumably be paying for a Volt, it won't pencil out vs. an econobox anytime soon.
For the record, I think that the concept behind the Volt is a good one. I also think there won't be a wholesale shift to these kind of vehicles until the economics become more favorable.
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