Chevy Volt: 8 year warranty on the battery
Chevy announced today an 8 year warranty on the Lithium-ion battery in the volt. It is 8 years or 100,000 miles. This is in contract to the warranty on their regular car engines, which is 5 years or 100,000 miles.
We think this is good news for Volt buyers. Toyota also gives an 8 year warranty, but in California and certain other states you get a 10 year/150,000 warranty on their batteries in the Prius. We are eager to see what they do for a warranty once they release vehicles with larger batteries in a plugin vehicle.
The Chevy Volt is expected to cost around $35,000, and possibly less with incentives.
GM expects the batteries to last longer than 8 years. It will be very interesting to see how long they last, and hopefully all such batteries will be recycled, since they are large and have toxic components.
Chevy Volt Free Charger Offer!
GM has announced that the first 4,400 buyers of the Chevy Volt will get a free home charger for the car. This is a 240V charger. GM is doing this program using some federal subsidy money.
PreOrder your Volt today!
New Prius Models?
The Prius is in its 3rd generation now, but has always had the same basic look. There are rumors that the Prius will evolve into some new models, perhaps as early as 2012.
These rumors include:
- A small minivan type of car, in a five or seven seat version
- Five Door hatchback, for the European market
- Couple version of the current Prius
There is also a better battery coming for the Prius.
We would like to see a small pickup version of the Prius, and Plugin versions in every market category. Will Toyota be the only car company to deliver these cars?
Toyota Prius Plugin Hybrid is Coming!
Toyota, which has led the automotive industry for years now with its Prius Hybrid car, will be selling a Plugin Prius in 2012. The Plugin Prius is undergoing extensive testing and will be a milestone in the history of automobiles.
A plugin hybrid can get 100 MPG or more. You just have to remember to plug it in each night before you go to bed. The cost of such a nighttime ‘fillup’ is less than $1/gallon. But a plugin car also has the amazing distinction of potentially getting CLEANER as it gets older; because, power plants will (hopefully) be getting cleaner. No other kind of car can make this claim.
If cannot plugin the car then it can run just fine on its gas motor. So its great for long trips too. And if you lose power in your house, you can use a plugin car to power your house! It can act like a generator.
Plugin Hybrids cost more up front to buy, but they cost less to operate, and they save on carbon emissions too; they are greener than almost any other car. Part of the attraction of a Plugin Hybrid is that the electricity they use for charging is 98% produced by US sources; if you drive a gas only car, most of your energy comes from foreign oil.
So if its important to you to support American, then buy a Plugin Hybrid car as soon as you can!
First Plugin Hybrid?
There are a number of plugin hybrid cars on the road now, mostly conversions of the Toyota Prius, by engineers such as those in Silicon Valley. These engineers are driving around, every day, in their plugin Prius. It seems clear that the technology works.
Toyota plans to introduce a plugin Prius soon; hopefully, this will appear by 2010. A plugin hybrid is plugged in to the AC outlet your wall, usually at night, to charge up the batteries before you drive. A lot of people are waiting, and hoping. And once this car is introduced, the hobbyist can make modifications to have larger and longer-lasting batteries, and more range.
General Motors has talked for years about the Chevy Volt. We are very interested to see one; they are not yet in the showrooms. Most likely GM will price the Volt too high, so that few people will buy it. Also, it seems likely that GM will not offer battery options. We would like to see different battery sizes, so that some consumers who have a shorter daily commute, can choose a smaller battery, and thus save money on their purchase of the car. However it does not seem like GM will be offering battery options.
Hybrid technology was invented in the US, at a college called UC Davis. But GM, Ford, and other American auto makers did not care. Only Toyota saw the real potential, and we thank Toyota for the Prius. I would love to see American car companies make more effort, but only time will tell. While there are American hybrids now, it still feels like American companies are only doing this to promote an image; it does not yet feel like there is a commitment to these new technologies across the whole corporation.
Welcome to PluginHybrids.net
Welcome to our blog, PluginHybrids.net. We will be talking about hybrids, plugin hybrids, and other kinds of electric car technologies. We believe that plugin hybrids are one of the main pieces solving the dependency our world has on oil. Plugin hybrids are the only way, right now, for an electric motor to travel significant distances.
We will be doing reviews of hybrids, plugin hybrids, and will report on new developments as well.
We are big fans of the Toyota Prius!
Loading ...
