Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is a smart guy. He made a billion or so dollars off of PayPal and started his own rocket company after all. Seems strange then that he would be so misinformed about the Chevrolet Volt.
In this video, Musk dismisses the Volt because he thinks the gasoline engine is too small to propel the car after the batteries run out of power. You would think he would know that the Volt never actually runs on the gasoline engine alone, but apparently he's too busy trying to turn his Model S concept into a reality. Fast forward to the 27:23 mark to hear his comments.
Tesla Model S: More Concept Car Than Prototype
firstwagon says:
08:11 AM, 05/12/09
Well he is mostly right. The generator puts out less then half the power that the drive motor uses. If your batteries are depleted then the car will only have 40 to 50 hp worth of power to run on.
Depending on how well engineered it is, it may average out so you don't notice though (except in track testing and aggressive drivers).
By have the gas motor running at it's power peak all the time and putting the power into the batteries, it will make enough power to cover the average difference.
I'm more curious as to how efficent a car can be with a 4 cyl gas motor roaring at high revs all the time.
You'll be sitting there at the light with your motor roaring at 3 or 4000 rpm while the Prius beside you sits in silence.
brn says:
09:25 AM, 05/12/09
At 90 minutes, I couldn't watch the entire video so I'm going to make some assumptions. If I'm wrong, I deserve to be flogged.
Elon needs to stop slamming the Volt. Promote your own vehicles all you want, but stop misleading people about the Volt. It discredits him in my eyes.
billt9 says:
10:18 AM, 05/12/09
The Volt's 53 kw generator is 71 hp (=53 kW).
Although it's a generator, not a mechanically linked driveline engine, which may mean more/less? loss of power to the wheels, which are driven by electric motors.
Who knows. Hire some engineers to make it work.
At least Mr. Musk said "I could be wrong, but that's the reasoning we choose to focus on electrics".
So Mr. Musk was just explaining his company's reason not to pursue electric/hybrid range extender.
I don't see anything offensive about him explaining his company's direction.
billt9 says:
10:43 AM, 05/12/09
I too can't conceptualize how the Volt's generator will be able to drive the vehicle.
But that's based on what I know of today's tech already deployed in the field.
The Volt's generator may be able to do what it does based on tomorrow's tech, the Volt's tech, in development.
But based on today's tech, I too cannot understand how the Volt's 53 kW generator can drive the vehicle.
The Prius had a 80 hp engine. And it needed the electric pack to help out.
The Volt does not have a mechanical driveforce plus an electric driveforce like a Prius. The Volt has only electricity to the wheels. I don't understand how that's doable, but apparently it will be by the time the Volt is out.
firstwagon says:
11:51 AM, 05/12/09
I don't think Elon is slamming the Volt. He's bringing up some very good engineering concerns.
I do have a lot of engineering background but even if you don't it's easy to see some of the potential problems.
I've alway liked the Prius because it's such a brillant piece of engineering. As soon as I heard about the Volt, I was impressed and wanted to know more.
It's very hard to find real information on it though. Everything is PR fluff or minor bits of technical information. From what I have read I have serious concerns as to how well it will work and whether or not people will accept it as a real car (beyond the 40 mile EV range).
Musk is also bad for hyping is own product while under estimating the cost while over estimating the abilities. At least he does have a working product though.