![]() ![]() Practicality - This car is really designed to be a daily commuter vehicle with extended range, not a car to make regular long distance trips across the country. Safety - Do you really want 15-20 gallons of liquid fuel sitting next to a giant battery pack that under some weird failure event, could possibly produce a lightning size spark?ĥ. Why make the electric drive system haul extra weight around and reduce AER range?Ĥ. ![]() Weight - Every added gallon weighs about 6.25 lbs + the additional weight of the tank. Sizing - If the tank is bigger, the fold down seats may not work well.ģ. Engineering - Stale gas might be more of a problem than anyone is letting on.Ģ. So what would be the reasons to keep the tank small?ġ. In the graphic below the tank can be seen from above sitting behind the T-shaped battery pack.Ĥ5 MPG X 7 gallons = 315 miles + 1 gallon, becuase you would not want it to run completely empty to get the range. The light blue object behind the battery is the fuel tank. The graphic above shows the underside of the Volt after a crash test. Thus it seems GM is aiming for 300 miles of gasoline range, and therefore average real world charge sustaining miles per gallon will be the principle determinant of how many gallons is needed to reach that goal. "We're going to tweak it as such and I've got plenty of time to do that." "The reason we're not (announcing it yet) is we want to make sure we get over 300 miles of fuel range," says Farah. Previously, then Volt executive Frank Weber told that the tank would be between 6 and 10 gallons, and Farah confirms at least that it is less than 10 gallons.īut why is GM being so vague about this figure? A typical gas-powered car gets replaced roughly every three to five-years. The Chevy Bolt has a 60 kilowatt-hours battery, while the Chevy Volt has an 18.4 kilowatt-hours battery. "We're not releasing the size of the tank yet," he added. The batteries are very different in size, which makes sense because of the hybrid and fully electric difference. " But I haven't told anybody who's asked how big it is." "That's interesting speculation on their part," said Volt chief engineer Andrew Farah. The size of the gas tank has also not been released yet, though in November Edmunds claimed it was 8 gallons, and went on to speculate that the Volt would thus get 38 mpg in charge sustaining mode. GM has not announced the production Volt's miles per gallon in charge sustaining mode, though the evidence suggests it will be somewhere between 30 and 50 MPG. With production, these parameters were changed. We also know that some EV enthusiasts hope to never use gas at all.The original Chevy Volt concept car was described as having twin 6 gallon gas tanks, 50 MPG in charge sustaining mode, and thus 600 miles of gasoline range. I was able to see it on the 3-D virtual reality screen (that's not it in the graphic above).ĭebating how much total range is needed usually evolves into questioning how long can people hold their bladders on long trips and that fact that gas stations are particularly abundant. The tank is actually box-shaped, wider at the top than bottom. Later, VP Jon Lauckner told me would be under 400 miles.Īt this point I surmise the tank will hold between six and seven gallons, which should lead to a 340 to 390 mile total range. Farah wouldn't confirm exactly how many gallons it would contain, he said maximum range would be about 400 miles. The concept actually had two six gallon saddle-type tanks, These have been removed in exchange for a single tank at the rear. Over time, as engineers have developed the car's final internal layout, as per Volt lead engineer Andrew Farah, it became apparent that there really was no need to carry 12 gallons of gas. At 50 mpg (under ICE range extension mode) this resulted in the car having an overall 640 mile maximum range. When the Chevy Volt concept was first introduced it included a pair of 6 gallon tanks. ![]()
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