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98 Posts
I love my Volt and the fact that it uses so little gasoline. I would love to see an option from the GM factory to have the Volt be a switchable fuel vehicle. If the ICE were setup to run on CNG in addition to gasoline (not difficult from what I've read), a large percentage of Volt owners who today run on gasoline regularly due to long commutes, could offset those gasoline miles with CNG miles.
My ideal Volt would use gasoline only as the last of three energy alternatives. First of course, is the traction battery for ~35 miles, second would be the ICE running on clean CNG for the next ~100 miles, and lastly ICE running on gasoline for the last ~100 miles if needed.
Drop the 9 gallon gasoline tank for a 3 gallon gasoline tank to make room for the CNG storage.
A typical commuter use case (average less than 50 miles/day) : Charge battery daily, fill CNG tank at your city's one or two CNG stations when it does get low/empty, and lastly leave 1 gallon of gasoline in the tank for emergency miles. (Likely weeks or months between CNG fill up and gasoline usage only on long trips.)
A heavy miles commuter use case (average 50 to 100 miles/day) : Charge battery daily, fill CNG tank in your garage via home NG hookup, and lastly leave 1 gallon of gasoline in the tank for emergency miles. (Only buy gasoline when traveling on long trips.)
Road trip use case : Leave home with full battery charge, full CNG tank, and full (3 gallon) gasoline tank. You can drive 200 miles on your supply of battery, CNG, and 2 gallons of gasoline then stop and refill gasoline tank every 80 miles for as long as necessary to get to your destination. Gas stations are everywhere and buying a small amount of gasoline every 80 miles when traveling across long distances would be fine with me (and a lot of other Volt owners, I imagine) knowing that my car runs on nearly 100% domestically sourced energy. Most folks know that natural gas is much cheaper per mile than gasoline and it is cleaner too.
Honda's CNG powered Civic is a clean machine too but it has the obvious limitations of CNG supply while traveling long distances.
If the Volt could adopt to be an EREV powered by CNG, it would win the hearts of even more fans and take any market for the Honda's vehicle too.
The Volt is an amazing, flexible, efficient vehicle. Let's take it to the next level. GM could provide this switchable fuel solution at a reasonable cost from the factory. GM may not try this, but I hope to see some of the CNG conversion kit makers build a kit for the Volt.
Cheers,
My ideal Volt would use gasoline only as the last of three energy alternatives. First of course, is the traction battery for ~35 miles, second would be the ICE running on clean CNG for the next ~100 miles, and lastly ICE running on gasoline for the last ~100 miles if needed.
Drop the 9 gallon gasoline tank for a 3 gallon gasoline tank to make room for the CNG storage.
A typical commuter use case (average less than 50 miles/day) : Charge battery daily, fill CNG tank at your city's one or two CNG stations when it does get low/empty, and lastly leave 1 gallon of gasoline in the tank for emergency miles. (Likely weeks or months between CNG fill up and gasoline usage only on long trips.)
A heavy miles commuter use case (average 50 to 100 miles/day) : Charge battery daily, fill CNG tank in your garage via home NG hookup, and lastly leave 1 gallon of gasoline in the tank for emergency miles. (Only buy gasoline when traveling on long trips.)
Road trip use case : Leave home with full battery charge, full CNG tank, and full (3 gallon) gasoline tank. You can drive 200 miles on your supply of battery, CNG, and 2 gallons of gasoline then stop and refill gasoline tank every 80 miles for as long as necessary to get to your destination. Gas stations are everywhere and buying a small amount of gasoline every 80 miles when traveling across long distances would be fine with me (and a lot of other Volt owners, I imagine) knowing that my car runs on nearly 100% domestically sourced energy. Most folks know that natural gas is much cheaper per mile than gasoline and it is cleaner too.
Honda's CNG powered Civic is a clean machine too but it has the obvious limitations of CNG supply while traveling long distances.
If the Volt could adopt to be an EREV powered by CNG, it would win the hearts of even more fans and take any market for the Honda's vehicle too.
The Volt is an amazing, flexible, efficient vehicle. Let's take it to the next level. GM could provide this switchable fuel solution at a reasonable cost from the factory. GM may not try this, but I hope to see some of the CNG conversion kit makers build a kit for the Volt.
Cheers,