Classic! You HAVE NO clue on how Volt works. Volt is EV first and “Range Extender” later. “Range Extender” is series-hybrid AND parallel hybrid…

Learn how the technology works before you whine like a 5 yr old.

If you hate Volt for political reason (such as Bailouts and $7,500 that you keep mentioning), then you are at wrong site and stop wasting out time. B/c whine about the FAKE green SCAM of PIP getting $2,500 AND HOV sticker access first…

Prius is designed from ground up as a HYBRID. To do whatever in achieving MAX MPG. Especially in gas mode. Its electric system is there for assist. Sort like a side show.

Volt is designed as an EV or EV with range extender. Its battery system is more complex and advanced than Nissan Leaf. Its battery warranty is more comprehensive than just about all basic EVs out there. Its Engine is just there to generate electric or assist at power above 70 mph OUTSIDE its EV range. That is why there is a weight penalty and a MPG penalty for its ICE mode. But that is NOT the point. The point is for most people to operate it as an EV without range anxiety and it is good enough for MOST people’s daily commute while it still performs decently and quietly.

Like I said, Prius is a great car. A great Hybrid for people who needs to drive a lot of miles at very high MPG. But at the end of the day, it still uses gas most of the time. Volt is designed to be EV first and gas only if you have to. That is why the current Volt owners have their miles 67% electric ONLY. That is whole point.

Most people need to understand and study how Volt’s powertrain works before they group Volt as one of the “hybrids”…

1. You are clueless on how Volt works that is why you think Volt is the same as Prius. Most cars today have battery and ICE and they are NOT hybrids. You are naive to think Volt is similar to Prius. Volt is capable to function as a Pure EV regardless of Driver INPUT. NO PRIUS can do that. NOT even the Pip (scam). 10 years is a long time. So, why is PIP NOT doing well? B/c it is A GREEN SCAM. There are plenty of them on the lot here in California. They are NOT selling.

2. Funny that you mentioned that HOV sticker. Prius had it. In fact, it was the LARGEST HOV sticker holder. By your silly definition, Prius had the so called “$10k” discount as well. Today’s PIP aer also eligible for HOV sticker. IN FACT, GREEN CAR REPORTs reported that more PIP applied for HOV sticker than the Volt when Volt outsold it by 3 to 1. That easily indicates that people are buying the PIP for HOV sticker.

3. Apparently, your taste SUCKS. You bought a slow piece of JUNK Prius. That is why you think CT200 is better. If it is more luxury, then why is it slower than the Volt? When does get WORSE MPG than the Volt in ICE mode? When does the Volt perform quieter with more weight?

4. Nonsense? Japanese government has been giving Toyota low cost loans for decades, especially after the 2008 economic crisis and the Tsunami… Stop being a Toyota fan boy. GM’s bailout is also similar to loans. Loans that are converted to stocks…

5. You are silly to think Volt is tuned for MPG ONLY. Prius is designed to be highest MPG while giving away all Peformance capability. It is slow. It handles terrible and its braking performance sucks. Volt is FASTEST EV under $45k (only Tesla and Karma) are faster. It is designed to be EV first and Hybrid second. Its ICE is there to power the battery and sometimes to cut in as parallel to power the car. It also hauls around extra 700 lbs in battey weight b/c of that. When PIP hauls around extra 150 lbs of battery, its crash rating dropped from 5-star to 4-star. Great “engineering leverage”, huh?

From what you wrote, you clearly HAVE NO FREAKING idea on how the Volt works. PIP or ANY prius doesn’t even come close how it functions. Sure, it doesn’t work for everyone. If you drive a lot of long trips, Prius is perfect for you. If you care about MPG without regard of ANY driving performance, then Prius is fine. But most people drive less than 40 miles per day. For those people, Volt is perfect. In fact, Volt gives me easily 45 miles range per charge. My Volt with 3780 miles has only used 17.7 gallon of gas. See if any Prii can do that..

And I don’t drive as slow as Prius…

2. I’m happy with 20%. The Volt is often enough discounted that complaining about the difference betwen 18.5 and 20% is pointless. You should consider what the value of an HOV sticker is, that’s a huge incentive to buy the car. Some consider it to be worth $10K all on its own. That’s a massive additional public subsidy.

3. I’ve driven the Volt. It’s not a “luxury” compact car. It’s a Chevrolet with a price problem. The $30+K Lexus CT200h is actually selling fairly well, nearly Volt volumes, which is OK considering that Toyota didn’t have to spend much money developing it (the advantage of having a flexible system like HSD inyour toolkit) and it doesn’t have a $7500 gift from one’s neighbors. Oooh… imagine how well it would sell if peole got a $7500 tax credit for it. Yowza!

4. Yes, I’ve complained about some of those things but the idea of Toyota getting a bailout from the Japanese government is nonsense. You have been reading Detroit propaganda.

5. True. And the correct response to that is to tax oil to include its real social costs in the price at the pump. I have been encouraging my reps to enact an increase in the taxes on oil and an end to various favorable taxes for oil companies since the original oil crisis in 1973. Regulations on autos, credits for certain autos and other nonsense are self-defeating. Tax oil and life becomes simple and gas use plummets as people employ common-sense solutions to the price of oil and gas to reduce their financial burdens. Car-pooling has been decreasing for a decade. Add a tax of $.50 or so per gallon to gas (and increase it every year) and you’d see that trend reverse in a hurry.

6. The effective price of the Prus PHV is less for a comparably equipped car. We don’t know how mnay Prius PHVs have been shipped to the US, so we don’t know if the Volt is “whipping” it in sales because it is in limited supply or because people prefer the Volt. One thing I do know is that, had I bought a Volt last month instead of the standard Prius that I did buy, my operational energy costs would already be HIGHER, because I’ve been on a series of long highway trips, a situation in which the Volt does not excel. For $40K, I expected (and GM promised) excellent RE fuel economy. Instead we got a car that struggles to get 40mpg in RE mode. And it struggles to achieve that on PREMIUM. A pure act of genius on GM’s part, that was. As it was, I have been getting 52mpg since buying the car.

As for your summary, the Volt isn’t the most technologically advanced car on the market. Just look at its under-achieving engine, which is still a core part of the vehicle. Many people can and do drive around electrically but if I install solar panels, I’m replacing dirty electricity with clean, anyway, which is a net win. And if one buys a Prius, one has several thousand dollars left over FOR those solar panels.

Your comparison is silly. Here is why:

1. You cherry picked your comparison… Gen I Prius is NOT okay to compare since it was 12 years ago??? There NOTHING else in the market similar to Volt except for Fisker Karma. Apparently, you have NO idea on how Volt’s power train works. It shows how you are biased. Prius was a “hybrid” leader 12 years ago. Volt is a leader in EV with extender. No other EV or Plugin Hybrids operate like the Volt.

2. 20%? 7.5k/40k is about 18.5% Well, Nissan Leaf gets more than 20%. Prius Gen I had $5k tax deduction on a $27k sticker. 18.5%. Volt didn’t sell that well even WITH tax credits until CA get HOV stickers and FOX news and people like you (apparently a “green” Prius guy) stop bashing it. Prius Gen I and Gen II had HOV access.

3. Your compact car argument is stupid. Plenty of Luxuray Compact cars sell for far higher price than the Volt. Apparently you have NEVER driven or riden in the Volt. Else, you would know what class the Volt fits in. Also, Lexus 200 CT is a hybrid leveraged off the existing Prius chassis. The Old HS250 Hybrid (discontinued due to poor sales) also is a higher priced version of the Prius. Neither sold well. Higher price will generate lower volume. Prius Gen III sales really took off after the price point is further reduced.

4. Did you ever complain about the $7,500 that OTHER EV gets? If you do, then did you also complain about Toyota getting an US payer funded tax deduction on early generation of Prius which are all built in Japan? During the economic crisis, Toyota also received BAILOUTs from the Japanese government for assistance. Did you whine about that?

5. As far as government assistance goes, we have spend Trillions on protecting American’s oil interests in middle east. It keeps the gas price low. So, I think $7,500 per EV is a tiny fraction of what we spend on protecting our oil interest.

6. Okay fine. Let us NOT comparing with the Prius of old. Let us compare with the Prius plugins. Both are plugins, both are designed for the plugin market. Both gets Fed Tax Credits. Prius Plugin (PIP) gets less but it is also cheaper so the effective price is the same. It gets less b/c its smaller battery but it is also lower in weight by 700 lbs so its gas mpg is better. Now, what is your excuse that Volt is whipping PIP’s sales? Volt performs better than PIP In every performance category depsite the 700 lbs weight disadvantage! Also, Volt is a 5 star rated in crash test where Prius Plugin is a 4 start rated (regular Prius is 5 star rated). Prius Plugin lost 1 star since it did worse in crash with added weight. Now, that sounds to me like a “inferior” engineering.

Don’t get me wrong. Prius is a good car. It pushes other automaker with its cheap and reliable hybrid technology and focused all other automakers into the game. If Volt wasn’t out there, I might have bought a Prius Gen III myself. But please stop yourself from knocking the Volt. It will only make you look silly. Volt is by FAR the most advanced vehicle on the road. It is the ONLY technology that will bridge us to the future and get people to EV and more efficient transportations… It will also reduce America’s addiction in oil and reduce pollution and emission. Volt will allow you to offset your energy source. You can install your own solar to offset the “dirty” electricity. Prius can’t do that. But Prius is the most efficient NON-Plugin cars on the road… That is an achievment.

I admitted no such thing. If I hated GM, I’d just laugh at them until they die. It disappoints me greatly that the company that liked to call itself the largest automaker in the world, which is based here, which could be the premier US automaker in all respects, can’t build a simple, decent, effective hybrid to compete with Toyota.

There is no magic fairy dust in the Prius that is unavailable to GM. GM, in fact, had resources that Toyota didn’t have. It cashed a fair portion of the $1.25 billion in PNGV checks then did nothing with the technology they developed. Toyota, in fact, developed the Prius because they were running scared… They thought PNGV had given the D3 an edge that they were missing, so they embarked in a crash program to build a marketable, potentially profitable, high-mpg car.

They needn’t have worried. GM shelved their PNGV developments, did nothing to beat the Prius to market and in the years since has done nothing useful about developing marketable, profitable, effective hybrids.

Volt may became also a milestone for the plug in cars, let’s give time to time.

Either way this August will be a sucess for these two cars. High gasoline prices call for it!

Go efficiency!

PS: Someone before mentioned Fusion Start&Stop, altought efficient this is not a Hybrid or Electric.