December 3, 2009
Andrew Farah
Adam Carolla and Andrew Farah talk Chevrolet Volt. They get into the details of the new platform as well as take her for a spin. Back to the Lambo’s with Amgad’s 1984 Lamborghini Countach S. This week on user calls and we talk about imported cars that we can’t have then pop to the Bubble Boy. Special guest Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Bastards tells us about his first couple of rides. Enjoy!
Check out more GTO info at Chevrolet Voltage
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Quick Links
Quick Link to Guest Car, Chevy Volt
Quick Link to Christoph Walt’s First Car
Quick Link to Amgad’s Lamborghini Countach S
Image Gallery
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It seems as if you guys reused the phone in section from last week in this weeks episode. Did no one call in?
Love the show Adam, great niche podcast, with the custom’s and manufacturer based content, I love it all.
I have been listening to you for ten years!
Your right! We had new user calls and we hit this one twice. I guess we could say it was so good we carried it over or some lame excuse but just a slip up. I could blame it on the Weez but I listened to the show and didn’t catch it either so not a weed issue 😉
I am for electric cars (provided we vastly upgrade the power grid in this country), however…
No one is talking about the realities of having to replace these lithium ion arrays. Anyone that’s owned a laptop knows that 3 years down the road, the battery lasts between 1/3 and 1/2 as long on a full charge and old laptops often have lithium ion batteries that last minutes. This means your car may lose up to 75% of its range in the first 5 years of ownership.
So, Tesla / Chevy / Toyota / Honda using 700-1200+ of these batteries in an array in a new car and they will have to be replaced every 6-10 years and, in Tesla’s case, we’re talking about $40-60k worth of batteries. Nothing says I love the environment like having to dump a literal ton of nickel hydride or lithium ion batteries into the landfills every 5-10 years. Recycling those batteries is not as pie in the sky as we’re being told and who wants to reinvest half the cost of your car into your paid for car every half decade just to bring your car back up to range?
Lastly, the 200mpg is a joke. The energy being used is coming, primarily, from coal power plants and if you think your electric bill’s kw/h price aren’t going to double and triple as we start transitioning to this new medium of having cars pull multiple heavy appliance power draws overnight for hours in the garage, you’re fooling yourself.
Independent testing sources like Motor Trend and Autoweek target the Tesla’s actual MPG at about 35mpg, depending of course on what hours you charge it during the day, negotiating night time rates with the power companies, and kw/h pricing in your area. 35mpg? Great for a performance car, but it’s not what is being advertised.
In short, the reality is, we need safe boron and pebble bed nuclear power plants out the wazoo, a vastly upgraded power grid, clean turbodiesel generators in cars… AND THEN we can enter this age of clean emissions cars for everyone.
Until then, we are really just fooling ourselves without changing much. How are those Prius batteries going into the landfills doing right about now?
Luna
Hey Adam,
my bad i hit tab, enter,
But I love you Adam and Ive been listening since early loveline, but Luna is correct battery powered/ hybrid technology is not the way to go. I’m an avid watcher of Top Gear and they had talked about a study saying that because of the way the Nimh batteries (and I’m sure Lithium ion batteries as well) are produced and refined all over the world, the Prius is actually more environmentally harmful to the environment than a Land Rover Discovery!
I am pretty sure that LI battery packs are essentially 100% recyclable. In addition given their cost I don’t think people will just be tossing them out anyway.
I want to put this in Adam’s slippery slope bin (EV, Gas, Nuke) I don’t think any individual technology is the answer, but more so a mix of them. I do also think we will be running nukes and solar to charge the cars, but in ANY mention of the EV you very rarely hear how much the cost of the battery replacement is going to be, and you are going to need to replace just as sure as your laptop battery.
When all said and done I shouldn’t really have much to say as most cars (with a few exceptions) have been in the 12-14 mpg range. I’m going to use every drop of dino fuel until its gone. You might think of me someone who is forcing the discovery of alternative fuel sources by using as much as I have.
I won’t even go into my opinion of many (not all) Prius folks, but here is some of that off this list for your enjoyment –
http://www.bleachburnout.com/blog/?s=prius&x=0&y=0
Sandy
P.S. Everyone please drive an EV so I will have plenty of fuel for my Diesel Excursion…
If you really wanted to burn through fuel you wouldn’t have bought a diesel.
@ Luna:
You’ve mounted a completely fatuous argument for the following reasons:
Our electricity comes from many sources other than coal. It’s anticipated that by 2030, 20% of our nation’s electricity will come from wind alone.
Electric motors convert about 70% of their “fuel”‘s potential energy into kinetic energy on the shaft.
Internal combustion engines convert about 30% of their fuel’s potential energy into kinetic energy on the shaft. (Most of it is turned into heat, hence “combustion.”)
As Adam pointed out, electric cars require much less maintenance than internal combustion engines.
Your point about increasing the number of nuclear power plants is a valid one. However, uranium is not a renewable resource. We’ll eventually run out of that, too.
And you’ve mounted a fatuous rebuttal for the following reasons:
You are a tool!
Nobody cares about hybrids!!
In 2030 you will be dead by then…..thank god, along with most of us.
Don’t tell people what their points are you freakin tool. You have no idea! I don’t see any backup for your accusation either. So shut your Man juice gargling mouth!
Nobody cares about hybrids!!
LOL
In 2030 you will be dead by then…..thank god, along with most of us.
ROFLMAO
TOOL!
Luna…if you managed the battery on your laptop differently it wouldn’t wear out as faxxt…Toyota only lets their batteries get down to 70% depletion and their life is way way longer.
running a lith ion battery down to 5-10% will wear it out.
Toyota warranties their batteries for ten years and I don’t think they replace very many.
Right on!!! Piss on the hybrid!! Gasoline forever!! or at least until we run out…..don’t care, I won’t be around!!
Luna works for Chrysler.
Errr Fiat?
Rock on Luna
While I agree with Luna’s well thought out position and healthy skepticism, I also applaud the apparent steps forward, or at least in a new direction that are being taken. I think Luna hits the core of the issue with the power generation question. If this is indeed a step forward and not just a way to get the Man off their back, then new ways of generating large amounts of power must be developed and built to make electric personal transportation feasible. (not windmills, either. I want the lights to come on every time I hit the switch). If we just use the existing coal fired power plants to fuel electric cars, then this is just a way to deceive the same people that are playing the lottery as their retirement plan.
“Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur”
On another vector:
I agree with Jay Leno that cars powered by new fuels such as electricity or hydrogen may just prove to be the savior of our gasoline engined cars for enthusiasts like us, just like gasoline engined cars were the savior of horses for hobbyists today. (don’t get me started, I clean stalls for my wife’s horses every day)
How’s that Lambo pass smog every other year now that it doesn’t have the stock intake setup?!?!?!? 😉
If you want a great mpg form of transportation, drive a motorcycle! Other people will have your life in there hands given texting and cell phone use (legal or illegal) but your looking a 50mpg. Just a thought.
it’s losing those arms and legs in a wipeout that are the problem I think…with bikes you often get one chance…I gave up on street bikes years ago because it’s just a wipeout waiting to happen…escpecially if used for daily transport.
I use a small cc motorcycle (150cc) for local transport to work and errands every day. I do have a car but use it only for longer trips out of town. I try to be as careful as I can and so far so good. It’s nice going to the gas station and spending only 4-5 dollars on a refill.
Well, not fun like a motorcycle, but I found myself a poor mans hybrid. I drive a ’96 Ford Aspire. Got it for $950 and I get 45 mpg. Yes it’s a tinny little pos but w/ that mileage might as well! I need something to balance out my Sexpedition mileage. I can seen getting a volt type vehicle, but I’ll look into the life expectancy of the batteries first. Not gonna pay $40k for a car and have to pay another 5k+ for batteries every 3 years!
Pingback: More VOLT! « indeed, indeed
I don’t like the fact that they added a regular engine to the car, the EV-1 that GM released back in 96 or 97 ran on nothing but NiMH batteries and got between 100-140 miles per charge. That version of an electric car would basically need no servicing other than battery replacement and brake pads if I recall, where as this car still needs oil changes every ohh I’ll bet every 2 to 3 months along with whatever other services a regular engine would require. Its the reason that GM pulled the EV-1 and crushed all the cars they didn’t like the fact that once they sold you the car you wouldn’t be pumping money back into their scheduled maintenance services and I’m sure big oil had something to do with those cars not being around anymore. 🙂
Most Americans, so many that I could almost say “all” of your average consumer, wont buy a electric car if it does not have an extended range on it. The easiest way to get that extended range is to put an ICE into the car to act as a generator when the battery runs out. You have to remember the EV1 was much lighter and aerodynamic due to softer safety regulations when it was built. It was also less practical than the Volt because it only had two doors and limited interior space. No, most people don’t drive more than the batteries range every day but that doesnt matter in the minds of the average consumer. They want something that will be able to drive cross country, even if they never will drive more than 60 miles a day. The ICE is not about scheduled maintenance, it’s about selling the more cars, something that GM needs to do because the Volt will lose them money anyway. The only way to come close to breaking even on this car is to sell more of them.
I’m not a fan of the Volt, and even less of a fan of GM so I’m not here defending them. But if they ever do in fact produce the Volt, it will make the technology for this type of vehicle cheaper/more affordable, and advance the technology. Electric motors have HUGE potential in the performance aspect, and I’m all for advancing that technology.
Look I’m all for advancing the technology of electric cars/motors but this bastard child of an electric and gasoline vehicles isn’t helping any. We went from a 100+ mile range to 40 miles then you switch back to gasoline for the next 300. A Honda civic gets that kind of range now or close to it without the higher cost of the volt and a b.s excuse of an electric motor that creates the inflated cost. All I would like to see is a tesla like mass produced vehicle that gets about 75 to 100 mile range and picks up as good if not better than a lotus Elise. I know we have to start at te bottom and work our way up but this is just an excuse for car companys to see if this fails because it will cost too much for the little u get. then turning around and telling the public see no one wants “electric” cars… 🙁
I think the volt is coming it at just the right time given its high price point…Baby boomers are retiring with more money in retirment plans then ever before in history…they’ll be the consumers of this car…much like the prius…most of those drivers are closer to sixty than 30.
The bubble boy’s tire is crazy…but I’ve seen boneheads around here drive around with the cords showing thru the tread in winter.
I will never by a hybrid or anything else not running on gasoline. Piss on you hippies! Our children will just have to deal with the same crap we had to deal with…….. our pears stupidity and mistakes!! None of you will be around to ever see any fossil fuel dry up, or any other fuel source disappear. It is all a theory, and it won’t happen in any of our live times.
I think I hear banjos dude…
Did anyone else notice how obsessed the Chevy guy was with the exterior and interior looks of the car? Pretty typical Detroit mentality. The average buyer cares about how well the car will run, how much it will cost to operate, and what repairs will cost – hence why Japanese cars have (until recently) been kicking Detroit’s ass.
I agree with Tim, hybrids are more about Americans’ foolish concerns about having their range limited.
Where do you get the video for the podcasts???
Their is no single video for the podcast right now, but if you look near the top under QUICK LINKS each of those sections (Which are features in the Podcast) will have a the videos embedded. We currently don’t video the ‘orange sofa session’ as it would not be very exciting. At some point it will be available in the podcast directly. You can also see most of the CarCast video as http://www.motorator.com (search for CarCast)
HTH
Sandy