Chevrolet Volt.
At a ceremony this year at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, MI, General Motors won two awards for its recent concept vehicles. The Chevy Volt won in the category of best Specialty concept and also got the Most Significant Concept of the Year.
What is it? An electric-drive concept car from General Motors, the Chevrolet Volt is a futuristic, sporty-looking four-seater with an electric motor, lithium-ion battery pack, and a small 1.0-liter, three-cylinder gasoline engine. This is a plug-in hybrid: an electric car that you can recharge with house current or from the gasoline engine. Unlike current-generation hybrids, the engine doesn’t ever drive the wheels, it only recharges the main battery, which powers the electric motor drivetrain. GM calls this design E-Flex, and sees it as one possible future for the electric car, since the Volt concept can be adapted for different powertrain configurations, such as gasoline/electric, diesel/electric or hydrogen fuel cell/electric, all using the same motor drive.
At this point, the Volt concept has an all-electric range of only 40 miles in everyday driving. But General Motors stated that with the gasoline engine kicking in to charge the battery, a 150-mile trip would get the equivalent of 150 mpg. With a full charge of battery and gasoline power, the car has a claimed range of some 600 miles. The electric motor produces the equivalent of 160 horsepower.
What is new or notable: An electric-car chassis with many possible alternatives for supplemental power.What is new or notable: An electric-car chassis with many possible alternatives for supplemental power.
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