Chevy Volt: An All-Electric Gasoline Hybrid?

40 miles seems very small. After watching "who killed the electric car" it seems like this is a step backwards. There seem to be much better batteries availabile (and they are owned by GM) is there a reason they aren't using them?

ok great, now go put it in a showroom.

Interesting car. With an big electric engine I wonder how much Electro Magnetic Frequency (EMF) it puts out. Exposure to EMF's, especially in closed quarters is known to be unhealthy.

Back 20-30 years ago, GM had concept vehicles driven by gas turbine engines. In theory, they were more efficient and lighter weight. I think the reality was that they needed a continuously variable transmission to work in their optimal range.

What I'm wondering now is if they'd be an efficient powerplant for this sort of all electric hybrid.

Sounds great, but I think a coupe is a lot less versatile than, say, a five door hatchback.

And I'm not holding my breath for it ever to be built. Until the rubber's on the road it's just greenwashing.

It is about time this technology comes out. Maybe American Auto manufacturers will see that we really want to buy from them but their gas guzzling style is on its way out of vogue. I hope that it will drive other companies (Ford, Crysler) to push to get alternative energy autos on the market that are both luxurious and environmentally friendly.

It's too bad they're nowhere near production on this since the battery for it is still half a decade away from shipping.

Just by looking at the Bat Mobile look you know you'll never see it at the local dealer.

Should we trust GM ?

WhoKilledTheElectricCar ?
Who killed the electric city trams ?
Do they care about pollution and climate change ?
Do they care about anybody? ...see "Roger & Me".

Don't like it: Start your own car company.

Otherwise stop wasting your time complaining.

So nobody can criticize cars unless they own a car company? That makes sense...

You probably have to own an oil company to criticize Exxon too, right?

Sounds good, but GM has announced lots and lots of stuff that never made it to production over the years. Lets wait..

Every car company announces stuff that never make it out of the prototype phase. Lutz even admitted they dropped the ball on hybrids and electric cars. He said Toyota took the risk and it paid off, and now GM is playing catch up. With this and they dual mode hybrid coming out soon, they are in a decent position to come out on top. At least they are not only pushing hydrogen. Also let us not forget Toyota is putting big buck advertising their new large pickup.

Pretty cool. GM makes series hybrid busses so they have the tech to do this. It would be interesting to see how it performs.
Of course the tech could be put into other vehicles.

Someone mentioned an old turbine car, that was a Chrysler. They stopped making it as it used more fuel than a conventional piston engine, it also had lots of lag like on a turbocharged engine and in traffic could burn cars behind it.

I've been reading this site for several years now.

You guys have 1-5 posts about major car companies and their amazing CONCEPT CAR designs.

And yet...where are these cars? Why don't any of them ever go into production?

It all seems like a big greenwash smokescreen to me.

I'm not flaming this site, btw - I'm just saying that these companies are full of s**t. It's about what they DO, not what they SAY.

I was at the show yesterday--this vehicle is the big story here in Detroit. In fact, it was the only vehcile, hybrid or otherwise, that I could not get close to or even see because of the crowd around it.

My point: it's nice that the buzz is around a hybrid vehicle, not the lastest gas monster.

It's great to see a major automaker finally moving forward on what small companies have been proving possible for several years (see Energy CS, CalCars and HyMotion). But while the announcement is exciting, GM still isn't giving any solid timeline on WHEN we can see these cars on the road or HOW MANY cars are actually going to be produced - at best they say 3-4 years if the battery technology is available. There is a demand for plug-in hybrids NOW - there are hundreds of cities, counties, utility districts and fleets already placing "soft orders" for such vehicles. Such early-adopters of these vehicles would provide test markets for GM to refine the technology and build public confidence and interest in these cars.

I have to admit I'm a little concerned that they will use the announcement of these concept cars more to clean up their image than clean up their product line. There is a lot GM can do between now and when we may see these concept vehicles actually on the road.

We all know increasing fuel efficiency is the direction automakers need to head – so let’s get past the hype of a handful of concept vehicles and look at what they are doing with the rest of their fleet. Overall average fuel economy from the Big 6 is worse today that it was 10 years ago and GM is still heavily dependent on its gas guzzling truck lines. In addition to that they are still fighting tooth-and-nail against increasing fuel economy regulations, suing states that try to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and in December argued before the Supreme Court that carbon from tailpipe emissions was not even a pollutant. GM is still planning to expand their Hummer line to become 25% of their overall sales. Consumers still have limited options to find fuel-efficient cars that are affordable, well-built, and fun to drive. There are plenty of things automakers can do today to increase fuel economy – and I'm tired of being shown distracting concept cars that we won't see for 3-4 years if ever.

I've been working with the Freedom From Oil Campaign to make automakers honestly prioritize fuel economy and move beyond oil – check out what we do at http://www.FreedomFromOil.org

Stop buying vehicles that only get minium MPG. Don't accept it anymore. They will then learn. How many times have you driven to work and see these huge pickups and suv's with only one person in it? Stop buying them.

eas said: "Sounds great, but I think a coupe is a lot less versatile than, say, a five door hatchback."

Um, it *is* a five-door hatchback.

At the San Francisco Auto Show in November, 06 Tesla Motors unveiled their all electric sports car. It has a range of 250 miles and top speed of 130 mph, price $100k. Can be seen at teslamotors.com

Phoenix Motorcars has an all electric vehicle for $45k, top speed 100mph, range 130 miles. Can be seen at phoenixmotorcars.com

GM can't compete? Pretty lame. Blame it on Toyota Mr. Lutz and go stand in the corner.

Just a comment on the comments. Let's not condemn GM for their concept. It makes sound engineering sense. Remember what the term 'Concept' means.

The EV1 was killed because it was unsustainable technology. Only so much budget can be put into a prospective technology, and when GM saw that hybrid was coming to market, they had to switch. The automakers see down the road 5 - 10 years. They have connections to suppliers and while not directly spying, have insider info. The repeal of emmissions requirements in California didn't help. Blame the goverment.

Rebuttals:
"Sounds great, but I think a coupe is a lot less versatile than, say, a five door hatchback."
--Uhh, see door opening lines? They show it is a four door. Back viewing glass; could be for a hatch. Remember....C-O-N-C-E-P-T. Americans don't like hatch backs now; why would they make one to show?

"It's too bad they're nowhere near production on this since the battery for it is still half a decade away from shipping."
--Perfect! Industry standard to get a car to market is 3 - 5 years. There are batteries in development using nano tech that will charge in 15 minutes to about 80% full. Capacity will be 3 - 5 times current best.

Remember that automotive is a profit driven industry. Currently Toyota sells Prius's at a loss. GM isn't in the position to do that. The shareholders won't allow it. The market also drives the product. Get your neighbour interested in the environment.

What about the government? Total cost of the war in Iraq = $400 billion to date. If that was spent on solar/wind/efficiency incentives, how much better closer would the U.S. be to fossil fuel independence?

Underneath the buzz. GM partnered, reportedly, wth GE plastics to make a large portion of the body out of composite and other specialty polymers, greatly cutting weight. That allows the tradeoff of increased battery weight to keep the gross figure down. Then, in an odd follow on, GE just announced it may sell outright or spin off GE Plastics, which had been the nurturing ground for both Welch and Imelt early in their careers. Petro-plastic making in general is 'undeperforming' in the profits realm because of high oil (benzene feedstock) and natural gas (ethylene feedstock) costs. The upshot (my guess here) is that plastic making will be outsourced to petroleum and gas rich OPEC nations in the same manner that steel has been outsourced to coal rich recycling focused China. Somehow it all seems so unsustainable. To reverse that, total oil consumption has to go down.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18054/

Battery packs my be here in a year.

"Battery packs my be here in a year."
Good luck with that.

Really, everyone's opinion of GM would change if they had the guts to just build something.

When Toyota took on the long and challenging engineering of the Prius, they did it because they believed in the idea.

Then when they started building it, they sold it below cost. People weren't begging for hybrids, this was the peak of the SUV.

Now they sell it for a modest profit, but are also selling their hybrid technology to Nissan, Chrysler, Ford, and yes, GM.

One of the reasons for GM going in the direction of the Volt is that is doesn't need the ultra sophisticated Toyota hybrid hardware and software designs, so they don't pay Toyota's hefty license royalty. Because GM is so far behind the curve with development of hybrids, they are getting killed selling them because they sell them way below their cost. With the price of the Prius jacked up with options and all the licensing deals Toyota is making a hefty profit from their hybrid technology.

Where I work, all the fork lifts are series hybrids. Outside in the yard a generator kicks on to charge the battery packs. Drive into the warehouse the generator kicks off so there aren't fumes in the building. The generator runs off of propane, so it is really clean running and quiet. It is a beautiful system that has been around a long, long time. You still need a robust battery pack to make it work in a car, which is why GM can't really build this to sell, maybe for quite a few years. It is not just getting workable batteries, it is also getting battereis that make it cheap enough to sell. GM won't build it unless they can sell them in quantity, and if it is too expensive because of the battery, well that kind of kills it.

Some more comments on the comments...

"I'm amazed by the stupidity and ignorance in these comments."
--Instead of putting down others, speak about your concepts and ideas.

"First it is a great platform, no one wants to acknowledge that because it's GM, if it were Toyota everyone would be ecstatic."
-- well, I -was- estatic when I saw the Toyota Prius auto show concept car. But that was back in 1998, which is why many of us roll our eyes at GM. I've been driving a Honda Insight since 2002, which is in many ways more advanced than the Volt concept, which may or may not ever be built.

"As someone mentioned Toyota does not have a plugin hybrid either. But that's ok because it is Toyota."
-- When batteries can pass Toyotas ultra rigorous reliability tests you certainly be able to buy a plug in hybrid from them. After all, for Toyota it is just adding a bigger battery pack to the Prius, They have been building the car itself for years... GM on the other hand only has a hot rod styled CONCEPT car and no battery to run it. Their first hybrid was a failure and now they are paying Toyota for their hybrid technology.

"Oh and a hatchback is sooo much better...so what."
--Excessive sarcasm doesn't create a sharing exchange of ideas. Use your brain to explain your concepts in engaging ways without attacking others.

"And lets not forget that GM also will be releasing it's dual mode hybrid too, which is similar to Toyota's tech."
--Uh, is IS Toyotas technology, they bought a license to it use when they couldn't make it work on their own.

This car will definitely happen. Its good for the individual (savings), the country (foriegn competition and oil), and the world (global warming)
New enthusiasts website at
http://www.gm-volt.com

Its amazing how most people like dishing American companies like General Motors while blindly applauding Toyota for their vision, customer focus and technology. Most technological advancements in the automotive industry have emanated from American icons like General Motors rather than "follow the leader" companies like Toyota. General Motors has for long been outselling Toyota Globaly. Unfortunately, American companies like General Motors, Ford, DCX have been hurt by legacy unionized labor contracts and high US medical benefit costs which have distracted them from consistently focussing on product development initiatives. Despite these severe limitations they still develop great products that have to overcome the brunt of percieved quality issues. Fortunately, these percieved quality issues are slowly evaporating. Hopefully, the turnaround strategies (divesting legacy labor contracts and medical benefits) and continued drive in future product development with products such as the Chevy Volt will help bring back the excitement back to these American Icons.

UM. Isn't one of the key problems environmentally the use of Electricity, and the production of electricity. Am I missing something here or wasn't there a massive Blackout 4 years ago, and aren't brown outs becomming more frequent, and isn't the haze over most of North America caused by electricity generation???. Ha?? Isn't that a major major almost unsolvable problem at this point?

--
editor note: using electricity produced by the current grid for transportation is more efficient than burning oil, but we will also have to clean up the electric grid.

I suggest you check this out.

Please build this car!! It is absolutely awesome! I will be the first in line to buy one. This car should be out in less than two years for GM to really jump ahead of the competition... Looks remarkably like the Aero X and did not SAAB have the plug in first!! I can't wait to upgrade its accessories such as the GM vent visor, it will surely look like a muscle car that would fit my personality of looks and technology...

2010 release date, eh? Guess what ALL-electric car will be released next year. The Phoenix SUT. Sure, might be a little over the price of a Chevy Volt, but... yeah. By 2010, Phoenix should either have a more affordable car in their line-up, or have a big price drop for the SUT. But Tesla, Phoenix, and Zap will be huge competition for GM.

GM deserves credit, though. I don't see Toyota, Hyundai, or Honda working on an electric car. What I do see is an American car company (well, four, but I'm talking about GM in this sentence) taking a step into the future of automobiles.

Based on some of the videos I have seen of the volt in action, it seems like there remain a few kinks to work out. Amazing that in 2007, we can get a man on the moon yet we are paying almost $4 a gallon....hopefully the volt will lead us out of the stone age.

Found some great videos and news here http://www.chevy-volt.net

Actually we can't get a man on the moon right now but that's another story. The Volt is a step in the right direction but many features were badly designed. The shape of the car is aerodynamic but too big. The price is too high. What consumers need is a downsized version of this car for commuting. Millions of people drive to work every day (one person in a car) and spend much of their time idling. The Volt helps to eliminate some of the problems (exhaust, wasted fuel etc). But a $25-30K version is what we need. The car could also be self-charging using a solar power option. Did you know that at 100% efficiency a one metre square panel would generate 800 Watts of electricity on average. That is what the Sun puts out on averge on the Earth. 100% won't happen anytime soon but 20-30% is viable. Install a coating to replace the paint that acts as a photovoltaic cell. It can be done. The car could charge itself. I like the dual system. A constantly running gasoline engine with a fixed gear is much more efficient. 1000KM for 45L of gas. WOW.

I thought of this design several years ago. Too bad I didn't call them then.

40 miles on electric is great. 95% of my trips are much less than 40miles. Please make it afforadable and please hurry it up. Take all the engineers of of all other new product developement and get this going it will save the company. When you trully have the plug and the battery you will sweep the contry and the technology will spread across the entire GM line. Get it out, Have it work, You will make so much money you will be able to pay all you legacy costs, pensions etc. Sell it at a differnet dealership. The current sales system is broken. Maybe saturn can do it but no other has a chance. You have too many overlapping products, take a fresh bottom up look. Keep the Chevy, Saturn and Caddilac line and please dump Pontiac and Buick. If you really do the pricing right you will make a ton.

I see a lot of negativity about this car. Myself, and a number of my coworkers, are talking about this car. Conceptually, if the battery and other technological challenges are satisified I foresee vehicles like this being very successful. Like a few other posts, I would definitely be thinking of buying a car like this. I'm delaying any car purchase (I drive my vehicles for 5-10 years and am looking to update one vehicle) until this car comes out. Regarding the comments on hatchbacks, I totally disagree. I've been searching for a hatchback for a few months, thinking of replacing my SUV. These and cross-overs are very popular. You get a significant amount of space (about as much as my Jeep) in a car like a Fit. I've reluctant to not purchase an American car (never done it). I still believe in trying to support the US economy, even though the lines have become a lot more blurred over where parts/cars are made.

I commend GM especially on this concept car. It would completely meet my needs. Many of my coworkers/friends use Priuses and other Hybrids. I own an SUV and have been looking for the right opportunity to dump it for over 2 years. This car will push me over that edge.

you all to quick. dont settle for any less than all electric. buying halfbrids is settling for less than whats expected. AEVs cost less than a halfbrid any way you look at it. its common good sence.

you all to quick. dont settle for any less than all electric. buying halfbrids is settling for less than whats expected. AEVs cost less than a halfbrid any way you look at it. its common good sence.

you all to quick. dont settle for any less than all electric. buying halfbrids is settling for less than whats expected. AEVs cost less than a halfbrid any way you look at it. its common good sence.

Here is an idea (and I hope auto companies are reading this):
Why don't we do the same thing with batteries as we do with propane tanks for grills? If we can make a battery (or series of batteries) that is small enough and lightweight, then we could swap dead/low batteries at battery stations (what we now refer to as a gas station) for a used recharged battery. Better yet, if this technology was standardized, all owners of 100% electric cars, regardless of make/model, would be able to quickly and easily swap their batteries.

Now, this idea is far from being achievable, duh...but don't you think that we need a standardized solution to this issue?

We have fuel cells, electric, ethanol, biodiesel, etc. What are we going to do when one person has a fuel cell car, another has an electric car, and another has a biodiesel car? Will we really have separate fuel stations for all of these?! Or will we just combine them all into one fuel station?

I think electricity is the best alternative to gasoline. The reason is that we have technologies emerging that can create electricity 100% clean; solar power is one of them. Another concept is to put bouys in the ocean to capture energy from the waves. Doug Selsam is a guy that I ran across that has an amazing idea (and products) for wind energy which does not require huge support towers or a large sum of money.

Instead of arguing about which companies have good concepts and which companies have bad concepts, why don't we all do something constructive. After all, the Federal Gov't was able to send humans to the moon in less than a decade after creating NASA. Why can't the Gov't take that same initiative with the environment? Where are the U.S. scientists and engineers? Why can't worldwide companies merge ideas to create what is best for all of our futures.

The automobile (especially in the U.S.A.) needs to be revamped. The Chevy Volt is a good start. It isn't perfect, but at least we are trying for a completely sustainable system in our country. Once we can produce most/all electricity from non-combustible sources, electric cars will be the most efficient automobiles in the world, not to mention trains, and most other vehicles.

Let's let the gov'ts at the federal, state, and local level know that we want environmental reform and a national/worldwide approach to solving our energy crisis.

I am amazed with the lack of drive and enthusiasm the world community has expressed toward the reinventing of our energy technologies.

The automobile is a huge part of our energy consumption.

Sorry about that tangent!

These vehicles may indeed be ideal for many commuters. But one must not lose sight that commuters are but one segment of the driving population.

Another very large segment is non-commuting parents (or others), who do a lot of local driving - shopping, taking kids to/from school and other activities, etc. In many cases, this application is even better suited to EVs, due to shorter mileage per trip, and the fact that the vehicle is parked at home much of the day.

The primary difference between commuters and "moms" (or dads, as in my case) is that the ideal commute vehicle is impracticably small for family needs.

The problem is, most companies developing EVs focus on commute vehicles, and don't address the needs of the typical SUV- or minivan-driving family. Obviously it's easier to develop an efficient vehicle if that vehicle is smaller. But a true energy-saving initiative would aim to reduce the number of large gasoline powered SUVs and minivans on the road. That day will come - we'll just have to wait.

Just look at the European fuel economy! Let's say Citroen! Avarage 45 MPG without batteries! Even the SUVs have that milage.

what sucks is that my high dollar suv and truck is going to be worth nothing when they are payed off in about 3 years. because of all of the new electric vehicles. what chevy needs to do is come out with a reasonable conversion kit to swith over to electric. for those of us who have spent 50,000 plus on vehicles purchased from chevy, they are not going to be worth anything at all.