Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.

[California]

Those big KWH packs Are going to find their way into home storage and power back up, tied in with inverter and solar set ups. They will also be used for all kinds of motorized use for the do it yourselfers.
I have been watching the wrecked Chevy Volts at auctions which had ~15-18 KWH packs ... Totaled cars will really start showing up in the wrecking salvage yards at reasonable prices.

Have Chevy Bolts been covered in this thread? I read that all made prior to mid-2019 that were lease returns or traded in to dealers, are stuck there with a Do Not Sell order from GM due to fire risk. And GM has no plan to help its dealers with repairs, refit, re-certify so the cars could be released. Anybody know more?

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Can you imagine when 50 million of these cars are produced annually and being wrecked and bodies wearing out what can be done with these motors and battery packs to make all kinds of projects?

I have no faith in electric tractors, but electric implements with a high starting torque motor could be handy. You might even ditch the battery pack and power them off the tractor PTO.

 

[sd455dan]

Have Chevy Bolts been covered in this thread? I read that all made prior to mid-2019 that were lease returns or traded in to dealers, are stuck there with a Do Not Sell order from GM due to fire risk. And GM has no plan to help its dealers with repairs, refit, re-certify so the cars could be released. Anybody know more?

Yes they were /are but I just checked again and GM has them marked as "coming soon."

A person can start the buying process with the available 2019-2017 Bolts with the VIN number
Not sure that option was available a month or so back.

Chevy is installing their final fix which is a software update that is able to be somewhat predictive of a future battery problem and then instruct the owner to take the car in for service, where they run more intensive tests and if needed replace the battery pack.

Many Bolt owners are not satisfied and are trying to get GM to do buy backs and some have succeeded.

Some other owners have taken on a wait and see attitude on the software fix.

If another car burns after the "Final" update owners attitudes will probably change quickly.

Law firms are already well on their way to filing class action law suit(s)

All that said only 12 cars have burned out of the ~ 60000 sold in the US between 2017-2019

Of course any 60+ KWH battery Fire is a real bad day.

 

[California]

Thanks for the update. I really anticipated the Bolt, then the EUV. I wanted to buy one. but when each became available, I realized neither has the cargo capacity of the still-flawless little 15 year old Focus Wagon it would replace.

Also in the back of my mind was the only GM car I bought new. Chevy Citation which when introduced was as revolutionary as the Bolt is now. 33 actual mpg in a relative large car! But it started falling apart immediately. Clutch cable broke 50 miles from home in the first year (I drove it home anyway), clutch replaced at 35k, then soon near undriveable with flat camshaft, slipping clutch again, second set of tires shredded by misalignment. I traded it in at 45k miles when it couldn't maintain 50 mph on the freeway. Bought a Trooper - that ran flawless for 15 years.

So I'm still a little leery of GM's 'revolutionary' designs.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Thanks for the update. I really anticipated the Bolt, then the EUV. I wanted to buy one. but when each became available, I realized neither has the cargo capacity of the still-flawless little 15 year old Focus Wagon it would replace.

Also in the back of my mind was the only GM car I bought new. Chevy Citation which when introduced was as revolutionary as the Bolt is now. 33 actual mpg in a relative large car! But it started falling apart immediately. Clutch cable broke 50 miles from home in the first year (I drove it home anyway), clutch replaced at 35k, then soon near undriveable with flat camshaft, slipping clutch again, second set of tires shredded by misalignment. I traded it in at 45k miles when it couldn't maintain 50 mph on the freeway. Bought a Trooper - that ran flawless for 15 years.

So I'm still a little leery of GM's 'revolutionary' designs.

Rule of Thumb has always been never buy the first year of any new automotive model. That extended to never buy version 1.0 of any software package, which is relevant because all cars fly by wire now.

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks for the update. I really anticipated the Bolt, then the EUV. I wanted to buy one. but when each became available, I realized neither has the cargo capacity of the still-flawless little 15 year old Focus Wagon it would replace.

Also in the back of my mind was the only GM car I bought new. Chevy Citation which when introduced was as revolutionary as the Bolt is now. 33 actual mpg in a relative large car! But it started falling apart immediately. Clutch cable broke 50 miles from home in the first year (I drove it home anyway), clutch replaced at 35k, then soon near undriveable with flat camshaft, slipping clutch again, second set of tires shredded by misalignment. I traded it in at 45k miles when it couldn't maintain 50 mph on the freeway. Bought a Trooper - that ran flawless for 15 years.

So I'm still a little leery of GM's 'revolutionary' designs.

Hagerty, an insurance company specializing in classic cars, notes that the X-car was GM’s prime contender for one of the malaziest cars of the Malaise era, a car that did enormous damage to GM’s reputation, putting together a most unenviable record for recalls and poor quality control.[16]

I recall reading that in 1981, the little dog could pull higher Gs on a skid pad than the Corvette. It apparently handled very, very well and won some stock road racing championship 2 years in the early 80s.

 

[/pine]

I have no faith in electric tractors, but electric implements with a high starting torque motor could be handy. You might even ditch the battery pack and power them off the tractor PTO.

Lets see...you ditch the battery powered electric for PTO drive to power an implement...Why that is just pure genius...I am amazed nobody has thought of that before...!

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Lets see...you ditch the battery powered electric for PTO drive to power an implement...Why that is just pure genius...I am amazed nobody has thought of that before...!

Thus speaks the corn farmer. If you had ever tried to keep all the belts and whistles of a mechanical berry picker synchronized, you would see the advantage of multiple electric motors. Add in programmable microprocessor controls and there is room for a huge reduction in crop waste.

 

[California]

Rule of Thumb has always been never buy the first year of any new automotive model. That extended to never buy version 1.0 of any software package, which is relevant because all cars fly by wire now.

Yeah. I waited until they had built 500,000 Citations, 1.5 years, before I bit the bait. But I discovered nothing was improved.

First morning there was an oil puddle in the driveway. They replaced the A/C compressor.

One time I before sitting down, I reached over to the passenger doorhandle. My knee ripped through the seatcover. EVERYTHING was like that.

But it was a blast to drive. Very light, so quick, and it cornered well. And my overall average was over 30 mpg.

Hagerty, an insurance company specializing in classic cars, notes that the X-car was GM’s prime contender for one of the malaziest cars of the Malaise era, a car that did enormous damage to GM’s reputation, putting together a most unenviable record for recalls and poor quality control.[16]

I recall reading that in 1981, the little dog could pull higher Gs on a skid pad than the Corvette. It apparently handled very, very well and won some stock road racing championship 2 years in the early 80s.

Amusing story how they did that: Road and Track pulled some amazing numbers with the sample GM loaned them. Incredible ... literally.

So they tore the car apart and found it was hand-built to perfection. Simplest example was this factory-fresh car had the tires planed down to 1/3 of normal tread depth. No wonder it cornered. R&T titled their writeup 'May We Build One For You?'

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Thus speaks the corn farmer. If you had ever tried to keep all the belts and whistles of a mechanical berry picker synchronized, you would see the advantage of multiple electric motors. Add in programmable microprocessor controls and there is room for a huge reduction in crop waste.

Technology drives down the cost of goods I read. Huge reduction in crop waste can lead to lower food cost.

While our Leaf is off line the Subaru Forester is my daily driver so the analog vs digital difference is apparent.

The Forester is the best people mover under adverse conditions I have ever own and it was cheap with the 105K miles at the time of purchase at $6K.

The FWD Leaf has awesome traction management but nothing like a Subaru fulltime manual 4WD.

There's no timing or fan belts, transmission, alternator or engine oil to change.

Staying warm in the winter and cool in the summer without running an engine is amazing.

The Kobalt 80 volt chainsaw, leaf blow, line trimmer and walk behind self propelled mower are game changers for this old man. No blade movement is required for the self propelled feature to work which was handy when walking dealing with leg blood clots for 5 months this year.

Electric motor instant torque is huge in vehicle use going in either direction.

Once the baby boomers die off the pro/con EV talk will die off I expect.

With that being said I think there is little reason for most baby boomers to ever own an EV in a financial sense especially if they currently own nice ICE vehicles until ICE vehicles cost $5K to $10K than the same EV vehicle.