Quote:
Originally Posted by jadnashuanh
Assuming I wanted or needed a car for running around the city or short trips around home, I would not want a Volt. The Volt is a reasonable choice if you can only support one vehicle, as it can be used on extended trips. But, my gripe as a city car is that the engine still can come on, and cold starts are not the greatest thing for an ICE. The i3, without the REx, does not have any of those issues, but is limited to its intended purpose.
My issue with GM goes beyond what I mentioned, but it was not relevant to the discussion. Things are better than they were, but the vehicles are just not engineered as well IMHO...the fact that I don't fit into the Volt is just an aside...for those that do, and it performs for your desires, great. That's why there are hundreds of different makes and models out there...hopefully, something that meets your requirements. On the i3, you can't get much simpler than a single speed transmission with no sharing of power with the ICE like is possible with the Volt. While the Volt's design in that manner is a neat engineering reason to make it more efficient, the i3's design doesn't ever use the ICE for any part of propulsion, only to power the generator. On the Volt, the engine normally only drives the generator, but in some circumstances can supply some of the propulsion and charge the batteries, thus the comment on that it is complicated managing the electric motor, the ICE, and the generator, all linked into the same mechanical box. There's no direct mechanical connection between the i3's ICE and the electric propulsion system, it is entirely electrical, feeding juice to the batteries.
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I just don't get your issue with the internal combustion engine. You make it sound like cold starts are the death knell. 10's of millions ICEs have survived cold starts for the past 120 years or so with reliability in the multiple hundreds of thousands of miles. The OP seems to need a car that is not city-constrained, hence his original question; the i3 seems not to fit his needs and the Volt seems to fit them quite well.