Chevrolet Volt

About Chevrolet Volt

The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in series-hybrid vehicle by General Motors, with production expected to begin in 2010. The Chevy Volt will be built at the Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit, Michigan. The company has avoided the use of the term "hybrid," preferring to call it an electric vehicle with a "range extender" due to its design.; however the vehicle still does use gasoline. This evasion is presumably due to a conflict with the EPA about mileage ratings.

The vehicle is designed to run purely on electricity from on-board batteries for up to 40 miles (64 km), or about half the range of GM's first electric car, the EV1 — a large enough distance to cover the daily commutes of 75% of Americans, which averages around 33 miles (53 km). With the use of a small internal combustion engine driving a generator to resupply the batteries, the vehicle's range is potentially increased to 360 miles (579 km) on the highway (and which can be extended for very long trips by conventional refueling).[10] Early estimates, from GM staff, were of initial annual production of 60,000 units [11], but these claims have been scaled back to a planned 10,000 units, as of May 2008,[12] with a ramp up to 60,000 units in the second year.[13]

The Volt concept vehicle was officially unveiled at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) on January 7, 2007 in Detroit, Michigan.[14] An updated version was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2007 in Shanghai, China, and the final version was unofficially revealed on the internet on September 8, 2008[15]. The production design was revealed at GM's Renaissance Center headquarters in Detroit on September 16, 2008[16].

GM faces competition from Nissan Motors, which announced their own electric cars on May 13, 2008, Toyota (with the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid)[17], Daimler’s Smarts (all-electric [18] and Smart Forfour plug-in hybrid [19]), Mazda[20], Mitsubishi Motors[21], as well as a number of startup auto manufacturers, some backed by Silicon Valley angel financing.[22]