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Comment by burk96 | Hacker News Reader

Hey you must be purchasing a Bolt right now, so congrats!

I understand your reasoning for seeing the removal of the hybrid as a good thing, but I can't agree with that. I would much rather see hybrids stay around and see gas vehicles phased out. Gas vehicles and hybrids still have the huge advantage of distribution over electric. It doesn't matter where I am in the US, I know that a gas station will be a common site in pretty much all towns or major roadways. If I need to drive 150 miles in one direction for something and then come back the same day (not uncommon where I live), I don't want to do that in an electric vehicle!

The volt is so appealing because I know it could do that using so much less gas than the average gas vehicle. And for those days I don't leave town, it would be in practice an electric vehicle.

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> If I need to drive 150 miles in one direction for something and then come back the same day (not uncommon where I live), I don't want to do that in an electric vehicle!

Why not? One way of your leg should be well within the capabilities of any modern EV(the full trip is even achievable by some). Are you going to go 150 miles and immediately return?

> And for those days I don't leave town, it would be in practice an electric vehicle.

The beauty of the Volt is: you are in an EV all the time. The drivetrain is all electric and it doesn't care where the electricity comes from.

I did that last weekend as a matter of fact. Drove about 160 miles to pick something up, was there for maybe 20 minutes, then drove home. Because I needed that thing that day. Couldn't even wait for overnight delivery.

That's a little extreme, but it's not at all uncommon for me to make the same drive with a half a day or so before I come back. But in general it's too hard to find a place to charge an electric vehicle away from home to really count on it.

I do this for day ski trips all the time in my Volt. Two weeks in a row I drove about 150km, ski'd for 3-4 hours, and then turned around and came home. Neither ski hill had charging stations but even if they did even at 7kw charging (unlikely as most stations are shared @ 3kw) that would likely not be enough to fill the battery enough for a 150km drive in the winter. And the range of a 60kwh battery (350km or so) would be tight with winter driving for that kind of trip -- in winter range is 60-70% of summer range.

> The beauty of the Volt is: you are in an EV all the time.

Not entirely true, though it certainly gives you the impression of that. When out of battery and in Gen 2 especially the combustion engine does in fact transmit power to the wheels in most hybrid driving modes. It doesn't just generate electricity, it also provides motive force.

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