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VIA Motors introduces V-TRUX range of extended-range electric trucks, vans and SUVs
If you're launching a line of extended-range electric vehicles, ala the Chevy Volt, it's hard to imagine a better person to help you with the launch than Bob Lutz, the driving force behind that very car. Now he's working with VIA Motors, which today introduced a line of electric vehicles of a rather different scale. The V-TRUX line of big boy toys includes modified GMC trucks, SUVs and vans, customized to include a Volt-like powertrain that enables up to 40 miles of electricity-only driving before switching over to the onboard 4.8 liter V8. More details after the break.
Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid priced at $40,000
Chevy's Bob Lutz crushed some dreams this morning when he announced that the Volt hybrid electric vehicle will run closer to $40,000 as opposed to the $30,000 he originally implied. To make us feel a little better about that extra $10k, he offered the fact that Chevrolet would be losing money on the first-generation Volt and Congress may offer up at $7,000 tax credit for plug-in hybrids anyway. So, in other words, we should be happy that it's as cheap as $40,000, right? As for the car's release date, 2010 is still looking solid.[Via Autoblog]
Bob Lutz test drives a Volt mule, deems the experience "electrifying"
We already knew that Chevrolet was testing out a fair bit of Volt hardware in modified Malibus, but the time finally arrived for bigwig Bob Lutz to take a test drive in one such vehicle. As General Motors forges ahead with plans to produce the vehicle and have it on the roads by 2010, Lutz was able to get behind the wheel of an "engineering development vehicle" with the 16-kwh Li-ion battery pack system; after cruising about with nary a drop of gasoline to thank, he semi-intentionally coined the experience "electrifying." It seems the version he drove wasn't exactly refined, thus he refrained from commenting (read: blasting) too much about the ins and outs of how it performed. Still, even 'ole Bob missed the "throaty roar of a [traditional] engine." We'll raise our glasses to that.[Via Wired]
