GM Chevrolet Volt Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle

General Motors is back in the electric car business. First, the company announces a plug-in hybrid version of the Saturn Vue at the L.A. Auto Show. Now, GM has turned up the juice by unveiling the Chevrolet Volt, an “EV range-extender” concept car that makes petroleum an even smaller part of the equation. In fact, with its 40 mile pure electric range – which GM says covers more than half of all Americans’ daily commute to work and back – the Volt may eliminate the need for gasoline altogether for some drivers.

Central to the Volt concept is the new E-flex System, which GM says represents a rethinking of automotive propulsion that places primary focus on electric drive. Plugging into a 110-volt outlet for about six hours will fully charge the car’s lithium-ion batteries. When the batteries run out after 40 miles of electric-only driving, a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder turbocharged engine runs at constant speed, turning a generator that replenishes the batteries. That engine could be replaced in future iterations of the concept with powerplants that run on pure ethanol (E100) or biodiesel, or even with a fuel cell running on hydrogen...thus the “flex” in the E-flex System.

In the Volt, the gas-powered engine gets about 50 mpg while it’s working to sustain the batteries. Some quick math reveals that overall fuel economy would be a staggering 150 mpg for a 60-mile drive. Run the engine on E85 ethanol, as the Volt is capable of doing, and even more gasoline use is displaced. Importantly, the Volt is able to do all this without compromising utility, which is a significant problem that plagued the truly wonderful but now infamously defunct GM EV1. The Volt will easily seat four passengers and their luggage, accelerate to 60 mph from a standstill in under 8.5 seconds, and cruise for 640 miles without refueling.

The Volt is about the size of the compact Cobalt and based on similar vehicle architecture, yet with a much more athletic stance. The styling is sharp, edgy, and distinctively Chevrolet. One interesting feature is a transparent roof and beltline courtesy of glazed polycarbonate material from GE Plastics. The plug-in recharging ports are tastefully integrated into the front quarter fenders on either side of the vehicle.

Unfortunately, the Volt is being held back by the same culprit that actually killed the electric car the first time around: battery technology. GM admits that it is still waiting on a technological breakthrough to produce a large, production-ready lithium-ion battery pack. GM thinks that could happen by 2010 or 2012, though we’ve been through times of optimistic predictions like this before when battery breakthroughs just didn’t come. Still, we’re crossing our fingers on the battery issue and it’s nice to see the General all charged up again.