Don't Give Up on the Chevy Volt Just Yet!

With all the bad press the Chevy Volt has been getting recently, I think it's time for some perspective.  We've all heard the stories about how the Lithium Ion battery in the Volt has the potential to catch fire in a severe crash.  And sure GM is now offering to buy back certain Chevy Volts.  But as someone who's invested long hours in the EV world, I feel it needs to be said, if I had a Volt, GM would have to pry the keys out of my cold, dead hands!

In the grand scheme of things, it's amazing how easily we forget that the petroleum tank of a standard Internal Combustion Engine vehicle can also catch fire under the right evaporated temperature and pressure.  In my years of driving, it may be unfair of me to say I've never seen an electric vehicle fire, but I've certainly seen more than one car ablaze on the side of the road.  Sure, Lithium-Ion batteries can get hot, and yes, they can cause fires.  But that's why all EVs, including the Chevy Volt, us a very intelligent battery management system.  These systems monitor battery load and keep them from overheating due to rapid charge or discharge.  The only way you're going to see an EV battery catch fire is if it's in a catastrophic accident, like the one in the NHTSA tests.

That's not to say you shouldn't get your Volt repaired.  There's no sense in being reckless and the Volt will be repaired.  GM, after all, has been long invested in the EV market.  After all, they made the EV1.

And the EV1 is exactly why you need to keep your Volt!  It broke my heart when GM recalled all their EV1 leases; it was such a beautiful car!  This was the subject of a wonderful documentary by director Chris Paine called Who Killed the Electric Car?  Seeing all those electric vehicles crushed, we EV advocates swore never again!

So get your Volts fixed, and then take them home and drive, drive, drive!  Show the world how great a car the Chevy Volt is!  Be a good-will ambassador for we few, we proud, we EV owners!  Don't let them take your electric car away again!

Is Ford headed in the right track?

Ford's Impressive Sustainability Strategy

In Andrew Winston's piece, linked above, he argues that Ford may be too late to the EV game and wonders if the automaker has the commitment to see its lofty goals through.  I, for one, wish Ford all the best in this venture, as I do General Motors with the Chevrolet Volt, and look forward to seeing where Ford takes its Focus Electric and Plug-In Hybrids, Transit Connect Electric and C-Max Energi lines.  But for me, it's more a question if whether Nissan is too little, too late.

Clearly, I've been blogging a lot recently about the Focus Electric here — and am due to post my CES report someday — but I once wrote a pro and con evaluation of the Focus Electric on the MyNissanLEAF forum where I said I'd pay as much as $3,000 for the 6.6kW charger — again, search my blog and my posts on the MyNissanLEAF forum to see how much I gripe about the LEAF not having a 6.6kW or 7.2kW charger and also the missing Cold Weather Package trim — but man, the trunk space is a joke!  I don't mind too much in a commuter car, as my future-EV is so designated, but it makes Costco runs almost impossible since the back seat is typically already filled when I take the Avalon.  And I know folks in the semi-conductor industry that do not have positive impressions of what Ford is attempting, especially with respect to BMS (Battery Management System).

Would I get a Focus EV?

Well, if Nissan keeps pushing back the LEAF roll-out in the Washington, D.C. region, and the Focus Electric is supposed to go on sale here at the end of the year for the 2012 model, then heck, yeah, I'll consider it.  You can only poke us Tier 2 states in the eye so much.  If I had the money, I'd get a Tesla Model S 300-mi edition, but IMHO it's gonna sell for $77,000 and that's well too much to swallow!  So I'm still in the LEAF camp but keeping my options opened.  In 2010 we had only 1 choice: the 40 mi-on-EV PHEV Chevrolet Volt.  This year, we may have as many as 4 choices, including the recently available for leasing Smart Electric.  Maybe even more if the Plug-in Prius makes its debut in the 2012 series as planned.  Perhaps the Coda or BYD may finally get their acts together (but don't get me started on those Chinese cars), or any number of surprises that may come our way in 2011.

We live in interesting times, my friends.  Interesting times.