Two days with the Chevy Volt #voltKlout
Last week I was able to redeem one of my perks on Klout.com to test drive the Chevrolet Volt (#voltklout) for a few days. I get it, why wouldn’t they want a sustainably-minded blogger writing about the car they are billing as a highly fuel efficient machine?
However, I have to look at the Volt from two perspectives – the one where I am genuinely interested in it as a car (I like cars, a lot) and one where I am looking at it as a environmental blogger. One perspective fares slightly better than the other.
As a car, the Volt is fine. The electric engine picks up when you need it to and the car does really well for turning and handling. Lots of climate control features, XM radio, a DVD player and all the bells and whistles that seem to come with a mid-range sedan nowadays. Backseats fold down to provide a pretty expansive storage area – big enough for two carefully-stacked bikes.
Drawbacks for this car? It feels like one enormous blind spot. Maybe this comes from a lifetime of driving cars that are slightly longer (trucks, mostly) and maybe there isn’t a fear that my mirrors aren’t showing all there is to see. But every lane change and turn required a stretch of my neck just to make sure I wasn’t going to have to buy this car.
Plastic hoods over the engine, abandon hope all ye who enter here.
The other drawback I noticed is how stupidly reliant this car is on its own technology. For example – there is no spare tire. Looking under the hood, there also isn’t much in terms of access to any of the guts of the car (I looked, even though the Chevy rep told me not to). Any and all vehicular emergencies are received by the push of the On-Star button.
Call me old-fashioned, but I think this is a pretty terrible way to approach a broken car.
This display tells you where the energy is coming from/going to
As an environmentally-minded writer and a man who is interested in anything that would relive us of the petrochemical shackle? I don’t think the Volt is a step in the right direction.
Clearly the Volt was designed around the idea that most trips from the house are about 30 miles, round trip. That’s exactly how long the battery-power lasted on the Volt before it dripped to zero. After that the fuel engine kicked in and for the reminder of my time with the Volt, I was essentially driving a gasoline powered car. During that time, however, the almost-to-helpful computer of the car gave me subtle hints on how I could improve my driving habits to be a more fuel efficient driver – giving me clues about the traffic ahead and a whole on-screen tutorial about not being a jackrabbit accelerator.
Why didn’t I plug it in? Great question. Until I had this car at my disposal I was never aware of how infrequently I parked near a power outlet. The Volt can charge off a 120 volt outlet (like any of the ones in your house). But since I have no garage and park on the street, that wasn’t an option. During the day while I was at work, my parking options were also limited. Furthermore, to get a worthwhile charge, my car needed to be parked near an outlet for about 7-8 hours. I did have the option of parking near an electric car charging port (there were a few in Boulder), I still had to keep it parked for more than a few hours, and just about every kiosk I drove by asked me to keep my parking time to under an hour.
It was not in the cards for me to plug in this car. This car was clearly not meant for me; maybe for the folks who live out in the burbs with a garage at their disposal.
The Volt doesn’t tell you how much fuel you have left in the car (like a classic gas gauge would). Instead, it gives you an approximation of how much farther you can go before you either have to charge or fill up with gasoline. I had to do a little digging to find out that the Volt has a 9 gallon fuel tank. Honestly, for being able to get 350-370 miles on a 9 gallon tank – I’m sort of impressed. However, the reliance on the outlet (and the fossilized fuels that are burned to power that outlet) the Volt is actually a major turn off. Although, while I was never near an outlet, I was able to add some power back to the battery through the car’s Regenerative Power Recovery system – energy reclaimed through coasting and braking. The energy reclaimed on a downhill coast was quickly applied to assist the engine through the next gas-guzzling uphill climb. Smart.
Regen Power Recovery
Other discussions I could be having about this car, but won’t (for the moment) – The resale value of an electric car after 5 years. The immense amount of toxicity that is in an electric car’s battery. How well this silly car probably won’t do in the Colorado winters.
What experiences have you had with driving or owning electric and hybrid cars? Thoughts go into the comments below!
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You say “Hippie Talk” like it’s a bad thing
Chevrolet has this commercial running right now to sell their new eco-friendly Malibu.
“That’s hippie talk” the senile father says.
Is this what we can expect from the older generation? Any hint of a progressive technology is automatically shut down just because it isn’t what they are used to? Frankly, I’m not sure why Chevrolet isn’t embracing this older generation. Or why most of us leave them to be the “senile old folks that will be dead soon anyway.”
While their impending demise may be true, they are still voting. In some cases, they are the only ones still voting both at the polls and at the cash register.
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The Fuel Film – justified arguments for biofuels
I’m actually kind of ashamed I let this one float around in my “to watch” list for so long. It was, in so many words, powerful.
- The first diesel engine was developed so that farmers could produce their own fuels for them. Ideally – vegetable oil. The very first diesel engine is still around (in a museum) and still runs on biofuels. After inventor Rudolf Diesel died, Standard Oil developed a more crude fuel from petroleum that would run a diesel, called it “diesel fuel” and the rest is history. Just about every diesel engine on the road today can run on bio-diesel without any mechanical conversion.
- The first cars Ford was producing on the production line were meant to run on ethanol (Ford was originally a farmer, so organic fuels made sense to him). Seemingly by coincidence prohibition happened right about this time in America. One of the more noted supporters of prohibition was Standard Oil’s JD Rockefeller. Prohibition wrapped up right about the time Ford gave up and started manufacturing gasoline engines.
- Not all biofuels are derived from food sources. The last blow delivered to the biofuels movement falsely claimed that biodiesel comes from corn and soy (which it can) which would cut into our food supply (most of that corn/soy goes to feed cattle in concentrated animal feed operations, which produces the meat that’s not terribly good for you to eat). The filmmaker goes on to show how a sustainable amount of biodiesel can be derived from algae – algae that can be grown from the waste streams we are already producing.
- - Every day we are spending millions to protect our oil interests in the Middle East. To establish a bio-diesel research and production plant here in the U.S. – it would cost about $25 million over ten years.
An algae powered car
Without a doubt, fossil fuels are running out. We are coming up with more desperate and risky plans to keep the petrochemical fuel plants in operation. Let’s not forget the undeniable climate change that is happening as a result of the extraction and consumption of these fuels either.
I feel the best point this movie hits on is that there is no singular solution to current and future energy problems. Right now, fossil fuels are prime and wind, solar and wave power are being considered “alternative” energy sources. Even when (not if) the fossil fuels are abandoned these will still be considered alternative energy. Wind will be an alternative to solar when the sun isn’t shining. Biodeisel will fuel the power plants when the gusts are low. The survival of our society as we see it now wont be about a monopoly on one resource, but an interdependence on many.
The only problem I see with this is the completely lack of bio-diesel filling stations in Denver. I’ve written before about how I don’t see electric cars making as bit of a presence anytime soon because the infrastructure of charging stations and battery transfers just aren’t there and it doesn’t look like anyone is stepping up to fill that void. There are a few collectives of bio-fuel enthusiasts, but again, there doesn’t seem to be a heavily invested interest looking to fill that void.
Clearly, a mind-shift has to take place here. For most of us, all we have ever known is a fossil-fueled way of life. Only recently have we been turned on to the idea of locally based community, of cycling as a real means of transit, and not relying on the global market to meet our food needs. Can we lose our dependence on oil and toxic living? Absolutely. It’ll take great focus and a commitment by absolutely everyone to get us there.
I’m looking at the possibly of acquiring a diesel truck right now. What are you up to?
The Story of Broke
Season 2 of The Story of Stuff premiers today. The subject? Do we have enough cash to invest in a better future? Survey says. . .No! Where is all of the taxpayer cash going to? Propping up a “dinosaur economy.” In this video, Annie Leonard shows us where a lot of our cash goes to and shares a few ideas about where it could be going.
read moreNovember Preview – Seeds
I have been giving a shot at green technology this month. Not to much success, mind you. I read through the headlines about green energies and technologies and the only thing I can glean from them is the scandals behind them. I have a few more posts about it to round out Ocotober.
However, in thinking about green tech my mind has been wandering to the greenest, most organic technology of them all: seeds. I have done so much reading and research about seeds the past few months I’d be an idiot to not share it with you.
Look for that next month. In the meantime, here’s a quick video about the astonishing culture behind seeds:
Be sure to follow Not Quite Hippie on Twitter or Facebook to get updates about seeds, green stuff, and gardening.
read moreElectric Cars – worth it?
It love you long time!
It is difficult to not get excited about the prospect of electric cars. Largely: no more paying high prices for gasoline! Yay! Who wouldn’t love that?
However, like most things which are sold to us, we only look at how the device affects us directly. For example, I look at the laptop which I am writing this one. It came to me at a pretty good value, has held up over the years, allows me access to the internet and to word processing software which allows me to make a little bit of cash.
But when I think beyond the tangible idea of this 12×14 inch hunk of plastic and metals there is a picture that I’d rather not think about. The mines which the precious metals were taken from, the toxic processes of refining those metals, the processing of petrochemicals to make the plastics. Not to mention the energy consumed in keeping the battery charged, the internet connected, the servers powered.
And that is just my ONE laptop out of the millions (billions?) around the world.
We we buy a car, how many of us think about everything it took to bring that car to the lot? All of the materials mined, refined, assembled, and transported the world over so we can figure out how to finance a new vehicle. And that’s just ONE car, out of the thousands being produced and sold each day. And to go electric? Is it truly a sustainable idea?
Most of us look at the purchase of an electric powered vehicle as gaining freedom from the gas pump. But we are still consuming energy. About half of all electricity produced in the U.S. is from the burning of coal (coal – a resource which is becoming more and more dangerous and costly to acquire).
Furthermore, what is everyone going to do with the gasoline burning cars when electric decides to replace them? Is there something set up to collect and refine the materials which are currently sitting in the millions of cars across the country? When we all acquire new electric cars, how long are they going to stay in our possession before we decide that we need something new? How many purchasers of the electric car consider how much lead had to be processed to make their battery? A battery which will probably run down and need to be replaced (I imagine that’s a costly endeavor in itself) several times in it’s life?
Errrm. . . .
I have my pickup truck, it burns gasoline. It’s very low tech. There is no meter on it which will tell me my approximate MPG (because I don’t think I could stand looking at that number). However, since it is devoid of a lot of computers and electronics, I – given I have the right tools – can fix up, repair, and maintain most of it. I wouldn’t even bother with my previous car – a 2007 Mazda 6 – which had so many bells and whistles I couldn’t even find half the components if it ever did break down.
But an electric car? I might as well be working on a spaceship. And so would every mechanic out there who has made their living working on internal combustion and diesel engines.
The truck does burn through it’s share of gas. And while I can figure a million different ways to make each tank of gas, there is only one which is truly effective: I don’t drive it unless necessary. If I’m not hauling or going 30 miles outside town, I don’t bother starting her up. Instead, I ride my bicycle, walk, or use public transit. Or, when available, catch rides in the girlfriend’s Civic.
Does an electric powered vehicle reasonably fit into my future? Probably not
Understandably, not everyone lives like I do. Lots of people need some kind of vehicle to commute every day. People inhabit suburbs where nothing is really close to anything. No one wants to bother riding in the snow. It seems as though some kind of vehicle will always be the mainstay to the existence of our society.
At the same time, we are considering smarter cities with better public transportation. More and more companies are considering having employees work remotely as the office space moves into the cloud. Hopefully, as more people discover what it is that is most important in life they will also feel a relief from the pressure of having a car. Maybe then people will see their cars as machines – as tools, something to be taken care of – rather than the privilege that it is to drive it.
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