Update: The Chevy Volt, the Electric Car of the Future
Progress continues on the electric car that could change everything we know about green transportation.
Oct. 29, 2008
By Todd Kaho
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It's an electric car. It's a hybrid. It's a plug-in hybrid. It's all of that and more, taking the best features of each. The Volt will hit the streets in late 2010.
GENERAL MOTORS
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The Chevrolet Volt is perhaps the most highly anticipated car in recent history. It’s not quite an electric vehicle, a gasoline-electric hybrid or a plug-in hybrid, but has characteristics of all three. What’s easier to say is this car, assuming it comes to fruition, could be a game changer — not only for the parent company General Motors and the rest of the auto industry, but also for everything we know about “green” transportation.
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How the Volt Works
The Volt’s groundbreaking design has both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. But gasoline does not propel the car — electricity is the sole means by which the Volt moves. The gasoline engine acts as a range extender, generating electricity to recharge the lithium-ion batteries when they run low.
Because the gasoline engine doesn’t directly power the car as it would in a more typical hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius, it is relatively small (1.4 liter 4-cylinder) and is designed to run at an optimum efficiency for the single purpose of generating electricity.
Flexible Fuel
The Volt uses a clever structure GM calls E-Flex, which allows the basic Volt design to be adapted for specific markets around the world. In Europe, for example, a small diesel engine will likely replace the gasoline engine for the range extender. GM has also shown a version of the Volt with a hydrogen fuel cell stack in lieu of the gas engine.
40 Miles and No Gas
One of the primary goals for the Volt is to enable it to operate for 40 miles strictly as an electric vehicle, without assistance from the range extender. Forty miles, GM says, is enough to cover normal daily commutes and driving. If that’s true for you, you wouldn’t use a drop of gasoline to get around town. Beyond 40 miles, your fuel economy would be about 50 miles per gallon for each additional mile driven. So if you drive 90 miles total with the range extender running for the last 50 miles, your fuel economy would be the equivalent of 90 mpg.
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