Chevy Volt Owner Crosses 200,000 Miles

Worried that plug-in cars might be too fragile or technologically complicated in the real world? Well Chevy Volt owner Erick Belmer has proved that you shouldn’t be, as InsideEVs reports the Ohio man’s plug-in hybrid just crossed the 200,000 mile marker, and he hasn’t experienced a single problem yet.

Belmer is among the early adopters of GM’s plug-in hybrid, and since purchasing his 2012 Volt he has driven an average of over 6,000 miles per month. That’s a lot of driving, and though he often drives well past the 38-mile range of his Volt, he’s still managed to do over 36% of his driving in EV mode. He’s managed to get an average of over 60 MPG in his Volt for the past two years, an impressive feat considering he drives as much in one year as many people do in five years.

Many fleet owners of the Volt don’t even crack 40 MPG, though Jay Leno’s Volt averages over 2,300 MPG. The actual average fuel economy for Volt owners is somewhere around 450 MPG, but Belmer is still doing better than 99% of America though, and he’s done it over the long term to boot.

As you might imagine Belmer is pretty enthused with his accomplishment, telling InsideEVs;

“Volt is holding up flawlessly! No noticeable battery capacity loss. Used 9.7 kw because it’s a 2012. I am so pleased with this vehicle!”

“The Volt was always my dream car! To get to drive it everyday is a dream come true! This car is Wonderfully engineered!”

Here’s to another 200,000 flawless miles.

Image: Erick Belmer

Army’s New “Fuel Efficient” Ground Vehicle In Jay Leno’s Garage - VIDEO

As one of the foremost car guys in pop culture, Jay Leno has had plenty of ink spilled regarding his love of automobiles. But unlike many collectors, Leno loves the odd, weird, and futuristic in addition to the standard collection of classics. This makes his garage in SoCal a stopping point for many next-gen vehicles, including the Army’s Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator.

Nicknamed “the FED”, this next-gen ground combat vehicle is set to replace the HUMVEE and uses carbon fiber and aluminum, as well as a dual-charged (that means turbocharged AND supercharged) Cummins 4-cylinder diesel for motivation. Combined, these technologies result in a 30% fuel economy improvement, allowing the FED to achieve a remarkable seven miles per gallon.

You read that right; 7 mpg. Still considering the 15,000 pound curb weight, the 7 mpg rating ain’t too shabby. The U.S. military is the largest energy consumer in the country, and literally billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on fuel. This is why the military is experimenting with everything from algae fuels to corn oil.

Leno gets the walkaround of the FED in this next video, so make sure you check it out.

US Army invades Jay Leno's Garage with the Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator

Some of the fastest and most expensive cars in the world roll through Jay Leno's Garage – we're pretty sure this fits mostly in the latter category. Army General Dennis Via brought the US government's new Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator prototype troop transporter for Leno to check out and take for a spin. We're sure there were more than a few surprised residents and motorists in the LA area when Leno took the massive FED out for a late-night test drive.

The FED employs plenty of carbon fiber and aluminum as a weight-reducing measure, which helps give this four-seater a 30-percent improvement in fuel economy over current military vehicles. Yet even after such a significant increase in efficiency, the FED only gets seven miles per gallon. Under the carbon fiber hood, the FED is powered by a turbocharged and supercharged Cummins four-cylinder engine putting out 200 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque. That helps produce enough power to allow the 15,000-pound FED to have a top speed of almost 75 miles per hour.

In the near term, lessons learned on the FED will be applied to current military vehicles most likely including the seat design and seatbelt harnesses aimed at reducing injuries in the case that the vehicle runs over an explosive device. Scroll down to watch Leno crawl in, on and under the FED.

News Source: Jay Leno's Garage via YouTube

Jay Leno burns rubber in Tesla Model S - VIDEO

Jay Leno burning rubber:


 

Jay Leno Drives Chevy Volt 11,000 Miles Without Gas, Nets 2,365 MPG

Jay Leno is nearing a milestone.

“I took delivery of the Volt on Dec. 12 last year,” Mr. Leno said in a telephone interview before appearing Tuesday at a Chevrolet event held in conjunction with the Los Angeles auto show. “And I’ve never had to put gas in it yet.”

Mr. Leno, in a file photo from 2010.

The comedian and late-night television host said he had put about 11,000 miles on his Chevrolet Volt in the last 11 months.

“They gave it to me with a full tank of gas,” he said. The tank, by the way, holds 9.3 gallons. “I’ve used less than half of that.”

Mr. Leno’s expansive garage is in Burbank, and every car is maintained with a full tank of gas, current registration and valid insurance, so he can select any one of them for a drive. Some of the cars are almost never driven.

Not so his Volt. It has quickly become a favorite.

“It’s my daily driver,” he said. “It really is. I commute in it to work every day. My commute, and all my other daily running around, totals less than 35 miles.”

Chevrolet claims that the Volt can travel about 40 miles on electric power alone, under normal driving conditions, before the juice in the batteries would be depleted, after which the car’s small gasoline engine would provide added range.

“You get 40 miles free, as they say,” Mr. Leno said. “Because of the way I drive it, it almost never kicks into gasoline mode.”

Mr. Leno echoed one of the primary marketing points used by Chevrolet to differentiate the Volt from purely electric cars like the Nissan Leaf.

“I mean, I could jump in it and drive to Vegas,” he said, a trip of about 280 miles, door to door, from Burbank. “They say the range is something like 400 miles.” The Leaf can travel roughly 100 miles before requiring a charge.

Aside from the mileage, Mr. Leno said he was also pleased with the rest of the car, especially its technology. “It’s a real breakthrough,” he said. “I know people probably get tired of hearing me say that. But it really is.”

The comedian then went for the rimshot line.

“You know it’s good because they lose money on every one of them they sell,” he said.

Source: New York Times

Jay Leno Shows Off Hand Built Magnolia Special Natural Gas Roadster

We may be having a natural-gas moment.

Nexrt week, we'll test-drive a 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas, the only factory-built passenger car sold to retail buyers that runs on compressed natural gas. We drove its predecessor, the Honda Civic GX, last year.

Now noted auto collector and fan Jay Leno (he has a second job, we hear) has done an episode of Jay Leno's Garage on the remarkable hand-built "Magnolia Special" natural-gas roadster.

The featured car was hand-built in Thirties retro racer style by New Orleans designer (and crazy man) J.T. Nesbitt. As our colleague Kurt Ernst says, Nesbitt is "our kind of crazy."

After building the car, he drove it from New York City to Los Angeles, a trip of 2,500-plus miles, in a mere 89 hours. That included a cold night spent by a campfire waiting for a supposedly 24-hour natural-gas fueling station in North Carolina to open up in the morning.

The Magnolia Special was entirely hand-fabricated, much of it by Nesbitt himself. He formed the fenders out of metal sheet on an English wheel, and cast other items in his New Orleans shop, Bienville Studios.

The motive power is a 4.2-liter Jaguar straight-six engine, which he converted to run on the gaseous fuel. It is supplied from a total of five tanks holding compressed natural gas (CNG), giving it a range of roughly 600 miles (range being the weak spot of Honda's Civic NGV line).

The car is street-legal and, despite its looks, has fully modern brakes, lighting, and the rest. Nesbitt says it's run reliably for more than 5,000 miles thus far.

There are fewer than 1,000 natural-gas fueling stations in the U.S. currently open to the public, so careful route planning and navigation was required, even with a 600-mile range.

Watch the episode below, and then tell us: Doesn't it make you want to drive a natural-gas retro roadster across the country too?

Proterra Ecoliner Electric Bus - VIDEO

Will this vehicle revolutionize mass transit? It incorporates elements of Formula 1, naval and tank technology, but the most important thing about this bus is the rapid charger on its roof, which means it can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week!

Jay Leno's Test Drive Of The Chevy Volt

Here is a video of Jay Leno as he gets a good look at the Chevy Volt. His first impressions were very positive.

Green Garage: 2011 Chevy Volt

Chief Engineer Andrew Farah brings Chevy's breakthrough electric hybrid vehicle, the 2011 Volt to Big Dog Garage.