Hybrid Car Review

The GM FastLane Blog talks about the Chevy Volt and what kind of effect an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV) would have on drivers in their every day commute.

We used real world data from the Regional Travel Survey conducted by the Southern California Association of Governments over the past few years. The survey measured the daily driving habits of over 600 commuters in the Los Angeles area, one of the world’s busiest, most congested driving regions.

What we learned was pretty telling. If everyone in this study drove a vehicle like the Volt:

* Sixty-four percent of the drivers in this study would never use a single drop of gas during their daily travels.
* On average, Volt drivers commuting less than 75 miles a day would use 1/5th the fuel compared to drivers using a conventionally-powered vehicle.
* Drivers of the Volt would have 70 percent fewer initial engine starts than conventionally-powered vehicles. Initial engine starts are a large factor in the total emissions produced.

It certainly sound appealing. But I still wonder about how many people can take advantage of plug in vehicles like the Volt. At the very basic level, you need to be able to plug it in. For those people living in apartments, for instance, how would they recharge their vehicles? Is the US really ready for plug-ins?

Unless Chevy and Toyota start worrying about these sorts of questions, plug in vehicles are going to become a real niche vehicle.

In the presentation GM goes on to show how EREVs are superior to Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), since most commuters would never need to buy gas for their every day trips.