GM's plug-in hybrid concept: the Chevy Volt

Rumors have been swilling about an upcoming plug-in hybrid from GM, and it just hit the wires in all its gas-budget-friendly wonderment. While the Chevy Volt concept car does kick it 20th century style with an internal combustion engine, the 71 hp, 1.0L three cylinder engine isn't directly hooked up to the wheels. Instead, GM's new E-Flex platform uses the engine to automatically keep a 40 mile li-ion battery charged, which in turn powers the car. With a full fuel tank, the Volt has a range of 640 miles, but the battery should do just fine for most commutes, with an overnight charge (6-6.5 hours) off of a standard 110V wall outlet to fill the juice. As for performance, the Volt can manage 0-60 in 8.5 seconds, which isn't terrible for a four door sedan that's saving you a bundle on gas money -- to the tune of roughly 500 gallons per year for the average commuter. Unfortunately, this one's just a concept for now, with no potential production plans in sight. The big holdup is the batteries, since powering a car solely on li-ion is still a bit of a risky proposition given the fact that nobody has brought one to market yet (we're all rooting for you, Tesla). GM's also vying for an actually financially viable solution: a total cost of ownership that bests current production cars. You'll hear no complaints from this side.

[Brian @ Jan 7th 2007 1:56AM]

I believe this is the first post, on engadget, I couldn't think of a comment to post.

[Sebastian @ Jan 7th 2007 2:02AM]

Also, there are two-dozen high-res pictures of the Volt available here: http://www.autobloggreen.com/photos/chevy-volt-concept-1/

[LukeA @ Jan 7th 2007 2:13AM]

I think any electric vehicle is a step forward, however this one is hideous. The windows/windshield can't be more than 10 in. tall!

Concept vehicles are still supposed to be remotely driveable.

[Chase @ Jan 7th 2007 2:30AM]

So if GM does release this electric hybrid, are they going to lease it to customers like they've done in the past? Then when they feel the heat of their big-time oil buddies, are they going to snatch them away, never to be seen again?

[John Doe @ Jan 7th 2007 3:22AM]

Doubtful since America is starting to wake up to the need of alternative fuel, or at the very least gas sipping, cars. If Ford/GM/Dodge ignores the high MPG hybrid industry they will be doomed long term as foreign manufacturers get a substantial lead.
The oil buddies are irrelevant as dependency on the Middle East has become a hot button topic in politics. It will only become more so as the US and China quietly battle for control of the Middle East's oil assets. And if you think this isn't happening now I would suggest you look into who China has been courting over the last 5 years. While we jump into another Vietnam they are positioning themselves for a new type of cold war.

Here: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050117-115550-1929r.htm

[Murc @ Jan 7th 2007 2:48AM]

wow, thats a good looking ride...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better looking then the current Prius Plugin.

I actuallt think the body style looks to aggressive...since its engine is on a weaker side. But over all, I give it a B+.

and about the window size...I like it, it makes it look like it has a chopped top, and I love that look. But yeah, sometimes it can be bad...I have drove the Chysler 300, which also looks like a chopped top, but its a great car, and you can clearly see your surroundings.......On the other hand, I have also drove the H3 Hummer, and that was poorly designed, I got annoyed at every stop light, since I had to hunch forward so I could see the stop light (instead of the vehicles headlining)...and I'm onlt 5'11". so I can only image how taller people must feel when driving the H3.

anyway...back to the topic: it looks great.

Note to all Big automakers: push towards electric, not Hydrogen please.

[John Doe @ Jan 7th 2007 3:30AM]

Whatever. I own a Prius. I don't need to drive something that suggests to the world that HEY! LOOK AT ME! I’M COMPENSATING FOR HAVING A TINY PENIS!

*shrugs* To each their own. I like the Prius's design. Its unique in a good way.

[Alexander @ Jan 7th 2007 3:08AM]

Electric cars are not the solution for high oil prices. All it will do is make the electrical grid fail, under the massive amount of amps these cars will draw during the night.

In order for a plug-in car to work, we would have to redesign the entire grid system to incorporate solar panels that would have to be put on ever single rooftop in Suburbia to get enough juice for all these electric cars. There is no other way. Yes, I've looked.

I'm not against EV at all. What I'm against is people with the mentality of "Oil Company == Bad && Electric cars == The answer" when they don't know the whole story.

Biodiesel is a better solution, as it uses up a current waste product--but it's still a stop-gap solution. Solar panels on every house, linked up to gigantic super-capacitors to store the energy and plug-in cars are the best solution. Peroid.

[Alexander @ Jan 7th 2007 3:16AM]

Oh, and about Hydrogen: It takes 4 times the energy to make a fuel that is a QUARTER as efficient as regular gas. So, the result is you will spend 16 times as much money on a Hydrogen-fuel based car, rather than a gas/diesel car.

Basically, they use electricity to seperate out water into hydrogen and oxygen. Then they have to use motors to compress the gas down to a managable size. Then they use trucks to transport it around to where it's got to go. Then you put it in your car, and it combines back with oxygen to make water--and the fuel-cell collects the electricity from this reaction. The cycle is basically this:

Electricity + Water = Hydrogen->Compressors->Transport->Your car->Electricity

But the government likes it, because it makes people rely on them for the fuel. So that's what we'll see, if anything. It is also a very complicated system in your car, so you can't do repairs at your house anymore, so mechanic shops like it. It also has a lot more to break, as well as wearing out faster.

All in all, it's a shim-sham of flim-flammery.

[Alex @ Jan 7th 2007 7:07AM]

Then again, there is the solution that is being explored by BMW, which is burning hydrogen as direct fuel instead of going through a fuel cell and electric motor (look it up, the have a prototype, a 7series i think) and that afaik is actually quite a bit more energetic when it burns than fuel (I don't have exact figures or anything, I'm speaking from memory, and can't be bothered to google it).
Of course it still needs the electrolysis and transport, but it seems to be more viable.
I do somewhat agree with you that electricity isn't a good solution, at least with today's battery technologies and motor technologies, and the thing about power-grid failure is a good point.
OK, now to comment on the post, not on a comment...

[tphil9 @ Jan 7th 2007 3:41AM]

i drive a 2006 corvette, and i dont have a tiny penis.

to each their own.

[James Stringer @ Jan 7th 2007 3:54AM]

Hope SONY isn't making those batteries...

[Alex @ Jan 7th 2007 7:11AM]

Oh, so replies don't work like that here...hmm...I'll have to remember that...
But, yeah, the usage of a fuel engine coupled with an electric motor is prevalent in heavy transport (boats and trains), so what GM is doing isn't exactly very inventive, though the application to a car is interesting, and something to follow...
OK, I'm tired, so don't kill me if what I said was somewhat inconsistent :p

[Adam Filipowicz @ Jan 7th 2007 11:11AM]

I like the fact that the small engine is used just to charge the batteries or power the electric motors
that im my opinion is a real hybrid.. none of this.. 3.6L V8 with a 10HP hydrid electric to help..

[Kent Beuchert @ Jan 7th 2007 12:38PM]

Tesla won't be proving anything about li ions. It uses 8671 LAPTOP batteries, can you imagine replacing 8671 batteries, which cost $20,000 +
(some claim they cost $30,000) and need replacement every 5 years, pretty much regardless of whether you actually drive the car or not. Tesla uses a Rube Goldberg , horribly complex system of computers and sensors and HVAC to provide a 24/7 temperate environment. The reason Tesla isn't using vastly superior and practical Altair Nanosafes is because Phoenix Motors has an exclusive contract with Altair for using their batteries in an all-electric vehicle that weighs less than 10,000 pounds. The ignorant press media isn't even aware of this. Hell, they don't even know that NanoSafes exist, in most cases. Tesla is providing their customers with an obsolete vehicle,and the small econobox they are threatening to produce (at $50,000) will be every bit as big a flop as the EV1. An economic absurdity and totally impractical.

[James Smith @ Jan 7th 2007 1:11PM]

Leave it to GM to have the fuel-efficient car a concept we will never get to drive. And all those gas-guzzling rehashes of 1960 hot rods get put right into production. No wonder Toyota does so great, they actually build the cars of the 21st century, GM & Ford are stuck in the past, and when they show any small sign of making a leap forward, they pass it up.

[Murc @ Jan 7th 2007 8:54PM]

You Couldn't be more Wrong.

I dont blame you for being wrong though, I blame the left-wing media in this country, since they are the ones who give US companies a bad rep, and foriegn ones a good rep.

BTW, the 60's & 70's were muscle cars, not hot rods...hot rods are typicaly refered to as around the 30's.
And on a side: Something you wouldn't ever hear about on CNN, is the fact that your beloved Toyota RECALLED MORE CARS LAST YEAR THEN IT SOLD.

[LD @ Jan 7th 2007 5:29PM]

Only a decade and a half later and GM has gone from 150 miles per charge to 40. Pathetic.

I am a conservative. I'm not a hippie. It just doesn't make sense. The technology for better gas mileage is there as a car from 15 years ago got better fuel economy than current vehicles, including hybrids. Battery technology was sufficiently advanced 15 years ago to produce a vehicle that already bests this concept.

There is simply too much money to be made with the status quo and infrastructure for a large car company to switch. Gas means lots of moving parts. Moving parts break. That means repairs which means lots of infrastructure in service centers for repairs, regular maintenance, etc. Gas means fuel pumps which means gas stations. The same can be said of hydrogen as a fuel carrier.

Electricity frees people from all that infrastructure and that scares car companies...and oil companies. We would likely need to upgrade the grid, but that's about 4 decades overdue anyway. Even if we used fossil fuels to create the electricity to power electric cars we would use less and pollute less.

[ChillyWilly @ Jan 7th 2007 5:48PM]

While this is a step forward, I bet there's still a good number of people that won't trust GM's entry into electric cars given their treatment of the EV1 over the last 10 years.

[Ray S. @ Jan 8th 2007 1:05AM]

P.S.: The name of the company is EEStor, and apparently they keep a very low profile for some reason. Here's another link.

[Ray S. @ Jan 8th 2007 1:06AM]

I don't know nothin' from nothin', but I found this article from cnnmoney.com (Sept. '06) interesting. It's about a company that claims to have patented some kind of battery that can charge in five minutes and power an SUV.

Also, I don't think it's necessary to declare the "one" thing that will replace gasoline. I think it will probably be many things, including electric, biodiesel, ethanol, possibly hydrogen, combinations of those... and gasoline itself, which will take a long, long time to phase out completely. So I think warnings about overpowering the grid are premature.

[mark @ Jan 8th 2007 7:00AM]

My son brought home from the school library some Popular Science magazines from the early 1990s; just about the identical stories back then; GM vehicle; hybrid, etc.

[Paul @ Jan 8th 2007 4:25PM]

The problem with American car companies is their hybrid or electric cars are all merely concepts. The reason they're getting killed by the Japanese is because Toyota and Honda are actually manufacturing hybrids instead of just pretending they're going to. Until GM gets some balls and produces a hybrid car (not truck or SUV) people can actually buy, they'll continue to eat Toyota's dust.

[codeSuidae @ Jan 8th 2007 5:14PM]

Someone wrote:
"Electric cars are not the solution for high oil prices. All it will do is make the electrical grid fail, under the massive amount of amps these cars will draw during the night."

This is not true. A recent study showed that because most cars would be charged during off-peak (night time) hours that the current grid has enough capacity to handle about 83% of our current transportation energy requirements (I'm not sure if this includes trucking).

Some studies show that by leveling the load between peak and off peak times (by bringing up usage at off-peak times) the electric grid would actually be strengthened over time.

Of course this increases the fuel consumption of whatever is providing the electric power (coal, nuclear, water, wind, etc), but that 80+% number is a huge amount of power.

[seefoodiet @ Jan 9th 2007 2:01PM]

Whats the cost per charge?

What is the life expectancy of batt?

Will there be difference in insurance cost due to HP difference with these EV, like gas cars?

thanks for any info.

[Edward Neidert @ Nov 13th 2007 12:34PM]

The cost of charging is less then gasoline on a per mile basis. Enough electricity to travel 30 miles will run you about a dollar to a dollar fifty, depending on your area. Lithium ion batteries are good for a hundred thousand charges, so battery wear is not an issue. Insurance rates are up to the individual company, but I do see potential for these cars to br prized by car thieves, so that is a possible concern.

[Rick @ Jan 10th 2007 9:37PM]

that is one stunning sweet looking car... can't believe it's a Chevy?! Flock I'd buy one tomorrow.

[lj @ Feb 3rd 2007 8:22AM]

See the dedicated enthusiasts website:
http://www.gm-volt.com

[Bill @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:45AM]

WOW!!!!! Build it SOON!!!

[docsharp01 @ Mar 31st 2008 9:26PM]

Excellent article and comments about GM's plug-in hybrid concept: the Chevy Volt.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com

[Aarti @ Feb 6th 2009 7:13AM]

Its now time to explore wild imaginations and produce at least few concept cars that can be recognized worldwide.

[Concept Cars @ Feb 6th 2009 7:20AM]

Its now time to explore wild imaginations and produce at least few concept cars that can be recognized worldwide.
http://www.localcarsnow.com