

Today at the NAIAS, GM unveiled the Chevy Volt. It's Chevy's latest foray in to the electric car race. Please hold all the EV1 jokes until after you read this report.
The Volt features 21 inch rims, can be recharged to full capacity in less than 4-hours by simply plugging it into household current, and it gets 150 miles to the gallon. Well, sort of. This is how GM computes the mileage. Let's use a 60 mile trip to work as the example. The primary power train consists of a lithium-ion battery powered electric engine that moves the car up to 40 miles without using a drop of gas. Then a 1.0 liter 3 cylinder turbocharged gas engine, which gets 50 mpg, carries you the remaining 20 miles, all on .4 gallons of gas which equates to 150 mpg.
Even if you don't buy the creative math GM is using to sell you on the Volt's amazing mileage, with its aggressive stance, huge wheels, and angry looking front end, it's still a hot looking car. With the new Camaro, the always beautiful Corvette, and now the Volt, it appears that GM and Chevy are waking up in the styling department.
One last cool feature about the Volt is a new manufacturing/architecture feature that GM has built into it. The Volt takes advantage of the "E-Flex" system which allows several engine configurations to be installed at the factory. The turbo 3-cyl fits in there, as well as an E85 option, a bio-diesel, and even a hydrogen powered fuel cell.
The only downside of this concept car is its lack of availability. The car exists, and could hit production on a relatively short time span, if only the automotive battery technology could keep up. The Volt requires a 400 pound lithium-ion battery, which simply isn't ready for production yet from automotive suppliers.
[Source: Automotive News]
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