Behold the Volt

The EV1 could only go 200 miles on a full night’s charge. With gas, you can go 350 – 400 miles on one tank, stop for 5 – 10 minute fillup, and then drive another 350 – 400 miles, all with the AC running while driving in the mountains and pulling a trailer. You can do this for thousands of miles without ceasing. And you never wake up and think, “I forgot to charge the car!” You just stop on your way to work and fill it up. The same car you drive on your 60 mile commute will also take you from Los Angeles to New York. Convenience… Versitility… until the purely electric car can at least get close to matching gas power in convenience and versitility, it will never take over. This is where the Volt has a huge advantage over the EV1. The designers understood that until we come up with a vastly improved electrical storage system, we will have to supplement battery power with some sort of fuel to allow for the convenience of limitless driving.

I have to agree the EV1 was much better design and could go 200 miles on a single nights charge. No gas to use ever. But since GM sold the copyright to Shell Oil company no one can build a car similar to that as Shell Oil has the first copyright of a main stream electric car which within the last 12 years could have opened the road to there being a 1/2 million fully electric cars on the road today.

The full electric car will never make it because they need no maintenance other than tires.

How could dealerships stay open if their customers never needed oil changes, coolant flushes, new thermostats, radiator hoses, fuel injectors, fuel pumps, fuel filters, oil filters, air filters, and so many other things.

All the car manufacturers have the technology to make 100% electric cars. They don’t because they can’t make money off of it. So whether it’s Chevy or Toyoto they both want to keep the cars atleast somewhat gas because there is no money in it for them otherwise.

Okay ONE: Yes, GM styling pretty much sucks. They’ve been chasing EVERYONE else’s tail for years now. If they ever want to make any headway, they need to fire the whole freakin’ styling department and start from scratch with some new, young blood. TWO: anyone who says the Volt is operates anything like existing hybrids hasn’t been paying attention. It gasoline engine is a generator only, not a part of the drive train. ALL other hybrids on the road tie the gasoline engine directly to the wheels. THREE: calling the Volt a failure because it doesn’t perform like the Tesla Roadster is beyond ridiculous. That’s like saying the Aveo is failure because it doesn’t perform like a Mustang GT. Did we forget that the Tesla is a $100k supercar? C’mon, use some sense.

tony your dumb please learn how to spell cobalt lol

Lame… GM already made a PRODUCTION all electric car back in 1992 that could go 120mph, 0-60 in ~6s and about 200 miles on a charge. Come on, seriously, 16 years later now with better technology, they could do much, much better than that even! Cut the oil umbilical GM, stop being stupid, give us a REAL electric car back.

It looks smaller than previous photos or illustrations.

looks like that hybrid honda that i keep seeing on TV commercials.

I think it looks awesome…. and kinda loks like the tC But better!

Sarcasmo ur dumb lol first of all the colbolt looks nothin like the 96-00 civic haha and the new chevy looks more like a malibu or a newer civic not as much as scion

Yeah those cars are the Beat and the Groove…Thats why it says VOLT in big letters on the back of it WTH! Get your eyes checked Tiger. As far as the battery powered movement think of all the places those same batterys have to be transported on huge ships from over seas and trucks to make it to the factory to be put in the car. Kinda cancels out your save the planet frame of mind dosent it.

No Toyota didn’t, get your facts straight its called the EV1 made buy GM in 1996 watch the documentary called “who killed the electric car” some time maybe you might learn something

This is old news folks. GM is once again copying good Japanese engineering. The Japanese spec Toyota Prius as already, and has been capable of this for many years now. The reason us stateside folks do not get to use the benefit of this is because of California emissions laws, (which is what nearly every new vehicle’s emissions standards are based on) require that the catalytic converter must be warmed up in the first few minutes of driving, whether or not you are gas powered OR battery powered!! The laws will have to change for the Volt to actually make it to production. Its a great concept for either vehicle, either manufacturer. Just know that Toyota got right first.

The 2 smaller cars in the video are the Beat and Groove concepts. The green one being the Beat and the Maroon or deep purple one being the Groove.

WTF, GM????? How about bending over for the Imports, because that’s exactly it.. you’re taking it from behind, and copying THEIR styles.

1st the Cobalt is an OBVIOUS 96-00 Civic copy.. Now, the Volt is another obvious COPY of a Scion Tc. All you domestic lovers KNOW it is too. So stop kidding yourselves.

Instead of working on the gayass Cobalt and Volt, how about a RWD Impala, Monte Carlo, and an AMERICAN(NOT Australian Holden) made GTO.

Can you say future flop. I’d rather have the original.. the Scion Tc.

Will the Saleen is helping on Cars, there will be two S281 Saleens

one is a Decpticon from last Movie call BARRICADE which is a S281 Saleen Police car and the other one is a Autobot, don’t know name let, but it is a Police car to.

Wow, Chevy haters just can’t or won’t read, they just want to hate Chevy. The Volt is unlike ANY hybrid you’ve ever seen. It has no gas engine hooked to the drive train to actually power the car down the road. The batteries do that it. There is a small gas powered generator in the car to recharge the batteries. There are so many firsts on this car it’s unbelievable. But you Chevy haters just keep on hating. And don’t forget to fill up your gas tank in your gas guzzler. All the other major car manufacturers had better wake up and get in line or it will be GM and a new line up of electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla Motors. It’s still a toss up between the new Camaro and the Volt though, if gas prices go back up again by the time these to cars come out, the Volt wins.

Here is part of an article at ecogeek.com:

Have I been hinting enough? Have I been saying that GM is going to do something that, while not healing the hurt they’ve dealt out over the last few decades, will at least get their foot in the door of the gasoline rehab clinic?

Well here it is, and it’s beautiful.

The Chevrolet Volt is a hybrid hatchback that can get anywhere from a sixty to a million miles per gallon.

OK, so you all trusted me until I said that, and now you’re checking to see if it’s April already. But I’m for real.

The Volt contains two engines, like any hybrid car, a gasoline engine and an electric engine. However, the gasoline engine never actually propels the car.

All propulsion is accomplished by the electric engine which, in turn, is powered by the lithium ion batteries. The batteries are charged by plugging them into the wall. For the first forty or so miles of driving, the batteries have enough power to move the car from zero to sixty in 8 seconds and hit a top speed of 120 mph.

Then, after all that aerodynamic, electric, regenerative-brake-using driving, an ultra-efficient, small, inexpensive gasoline engine kicks on and recharges the battery. Using only power generated by the gas generator, the car gets about 60 mpg.

But if trips are less than 40 miles (which most daily commutes are) the car doesn’t use a drop of gasoline. So the majority of trips will use absolutely no gasoline at all. Technically, if you drive 40 miles a day, for 68 years, and then drove a bit more than 40 miles one day…you would get One Million Miles Per Gallon. Of course, the batteries would die long before that, and the gasoline in your tank would likely have evaporated away or, more likely, have been siphoned off by Mad Max and his post apocalyptic marauders.

Theoretically, the 40 miles number will grow along with battery technology. GM’s engineers have also made the innovative power train (which they’re calling the E-Flex System) modular. So, instead of a gas generator, a diesel, ethanol, hydrogen, or hydrogen fuel cell generator could be used.

All-in-all, this is a fikkin fabulous idea that will likely be showing up in consumer vehicles of all shapes and sizes in the next five years. This will almost certainly be the first new car I will ever buy, and I will be proud to own it.

The Volt Runs on BOTH Electric Battery Power, AND Gas!!

It can go 40 Miles on Electric Power ALONE!!
Once your Battery goes Low, the Gas Engine kicks on, and the Volt turns into a Hybrid-Electric Car we are Familiar with.

This means that you WILL get ALOT more than just 40 Mile Trips!!

WCmillioniare, Wake up you Freakin’ Idiot!!!!

Those of you who condemn the Volt and this huge effort by GM, need to educate yourselves rather than reveal your ignorance to the entire cardomain community. There are plenty of factual articles about the Volt in many automotive publications, because GM has been unusually open to the media while it has been under development. Even Toyota is watching GM take the lead for once. This advanced technology, going into production for a reasonable asking price will make the Volt an automotive sensation, which GM desperately needs.

It also looks to be very nicely styled, which cannot be said for too many recently developed GM products.

hmmm looks like another scion….I heard the Decepticons are now Dodges and Toyotas… The Fords are now gobots, so I Heard or was it the Ford cars are gonna be stand in for the Hondas….

I really do not see anything compelling about this car. GM needs to do much better than this, and at least as well as several other companies have already done, if it hopes to survive as a company. Sad to say, this car is already an outdated under-performer…and it hasn’t even been introduced to the market!

@ all the people saying the car only goes 40 miles at a time. The car has a generator, it can go 40 mpc all electric (i.e. in the morning) and then the gas generator kicks in and provides an extremely efficent gas-electric hybrid series drivetrain. Overall the volt should have a range of over 400 miles per tank.

The silver car in the video is surely a Corvette. If you look at the video, the rear end looks similar to that of the new Camaro, the wheels on the new Vette look like the ones on the Camaro in Transformers 1, and the spilt back glass is very similar to that of the classic 60s GM cars. (63 Vettes in particular)

I think it looks cool. Curious to check it out when it hits the dealerships.

Funny how the people who hate the Volt (idea, car and all) would NEVER buy one anyways.

I drive 20-30 miles per day and will definitely consider this car once my current gas guzzler is paid off.

On a tangent, these hybrids are making the newest, fanciest Mercedes and BMW look OLD! Those latter companies should be ahead here, but instead they’re totally behind on the times.

the volt sucks. it only goes 40 miles on a single charge. its no better then the electric cars from the 80s… the volt is no improvement over the last electric car GM made. and its slow.
electric power is so much more efficient and powerful… has no one heard of the tesla roadster or pml flightlink???? the tesla gets 220 miles on a charge without a “back up” motor and it IS tunable and quick. GM has failed yet again

…the silver car looks like a modded vette.

They’re making a transformers two?

oh, and i’m really curios as to what that silver car in the video is. if anybody knows, please comment my page.THANKS .

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1631252024?bctid=1759811968

——————————————————————————– that link will take you to the video that that picture was taken from. HOLY CRAP i hope this saves GM. oh, and i think there will be a Vette in the autobots? i’m not sure, the video shows this line of cars with the Yellow Camaro in it, and right in front of BumbleBee is this Silver car, its like a vette…. but its not. weird. but super cool looking. TRANSFORMERS 2 is gunna rock. i’m just glad they are keeping the Camaro in it hahahahahaha. :D

I WAN’T IT!!!

I have seen commercials for the Volt…………none for the camaro. So what does that mean?????????? When is that SOB coming out???????? “F” the dam Volt shit.

take that yota

From the other pics it looks like the new supra thats just my opinion

I wouldnt mind buying the Chevy Volt. It has Awesome gas mileage. Plus the color look’s awesome. Can’t wait to see the new Transformor’s movie…………………………………………..

That looks hot!! Could that be the first tunable electric car?

Hell Yeah Transformers 2. But I think the Decepticons are gonna win this time due to the GM recall. lol

cool this should be interesting!

The mystery poster has nailed it.

If that how we planning to solve energy crisis?
30K car with 40 miles range on the full charge?
We doomed!!!!

Huh… kinda looks like a Scion tC from that picture.

that thing is gorgeous!!! I officially want one now! in that color too!

That is something I might actually buy. WOW.

This is an informative article…

F*(k chevy/gm and transformers. one of the greatest movies for cars.guns robots and cars but theyare all the same brand. come on have at least one of other each automaker(at least the american 3)

Why am I not excited?

Whoa! One in the wild?? That’s crazy!