Nathan Johns » cars http://www.nathanjohns.net infrequent posts, mostly about tech, music, baseball, and beer. Fri, 20 May 2011 22:41:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Chevy Volt up close http://www.nathanjohns.net/2007/12/21/chevy-volt-up-close/ http://www.nathanjohns.net/2007/12/21/chevy-volt-up-close/#comments Sat, 22 Dec 2007 06:17:00 +0000 admin http://www.nathanjohns.net/?p=63
The Chevy Volt was on campus this week and we got to check it out up close, and talk to a couple of the engineers that worked on the car.

It seems really cool. Some of it’s features that separate it from other electric/hybrid cars:

  • It’s called an Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV?) because technically it’s always using batteries.
  • It has a charge range of about 40 miles. If you drive more than 40 miles, a gas-powered generator begins to charge the batteries.
  • You can plug it in when it’s not being driven to recharge the batteries.
  • Most commuters driver 40 miles or less to and from work, so theoretically you could almost always use the batteries, rarely needing to use gas.
  • It’s capable of running on electricy, gasoline, ethanol, or biodiesel.

I believe it’s on schedule to hit production in 2010, with a target price of around $30,000. I was really impressed with the appearance of the car, too. And I got a free t-shirt. :)

]]> http://www.nathanjohns.net/2007/12/21/chevy-volt-up-close/feed/ 0 bad parking http://www.nathanjohns.net/2007/05/03/bad-parking/ http://www.nathanjohns.net/2007/05/03/bad-parking/#comments Thu, 03 May 2007 22:42:00 +0000 admin http://www.nathanjohns.net/?p=26 Ever tried parking in a crowded parking lot only to find some jerk taking up two spaces to keep other cars from parking to close to his/her fancy car? Well now you can do something about it.(Without causing physical harm to said car/owner of car)

Just head on over to http://iparklikeanidiot.com/ and order yourself a few bumper stickers. Such a great idea.

]]> http://www.nathanjohns.net/2007/05/03/bad-parking/feed/ 0