GM
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If we heard it once, we heard it a dozen times this week. The upcoming Chevrolet Bolt EV 200-mile electric car is "for regular people, not for the elites." You'd almost think that General Motors had adopted the "1 Percent" meme that appears to be the lasting legacy of Occupy Wall Street. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model 3: Revealed Next Year, Production Starts 2017, Company Confirms We heard it from GM CEO Mary Barra at Wednesday's unveiling of the 2016 Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan. "Making technology attainable also extends to electric vehicles," she said. "To make the biggest impact, it takes an...
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GM Shows Chevy Bolt EV Electric-Car Prototypes Testing: Video
We learned very few new details about the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV today, but General Motors released a development video that will likely excite fans and potential buyers of the 200-mile electric car. The bulk of today's GM media presentation is about the 2016 Chevy Cruze, to be unveiled tonight...
John Voelcker -
Chevy, Nissan Reveal Second-Life Uses For Electric-Car Batteries
It's one of the most common questions about electric cars: What happens to the battery packs after the car is junked? Do they just get thrown away? Will any of them be recycled? What happens to their components? The answer is electric-car batteries will largely be recycled--but that they will have...
John Voelcker -
How A Chevy Camaro Gets Greener: Student Competition In EcoCar 3
All cars are getting more fuel-efficient under the rising requirements for corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) from now through 2025. Still, if you thought about the category of cars with good gas mileage, the Chevrolet Camaro muscle car likely wouldn't be high on your list. DON'T MISS: How Do...
John Voelcker -
GM To Forge Ahead With Electric, Plug-In Hybrid, Other Electrified Vehicles
General Motors is unconcerned about low fuel prices, its battery-development chief says.
Stephen Edelstein -
GM To Fit CVTs To Many Car Models For Higher Fuel Economy
Most car buyers don't think a lot about transmissions. In the U.S., more than 9 out of 10 of them opt for an automatic, and that's that. But transmission technology turns out to be one of the major ways automakers are boosting gas mileage to meet tougher fuel-economy rules. And it appears GM is...
John Voelcker -
At 50 miles, the 2016 Chevrolet Volt offers the longest range of any plug-in hybrid (though the range-extended BMW i3 electric car is rated at 72 miles). Announced this week at the Detroit Auto Show, following an October technical briefing, the technology in the new Volt may turn out to hold some secrets. DON'T MISS: 2016 Chevrolet Volt: 50-Mile Range, 41 MPG, Five Seats, All New (Photos) First we need to revisit November 2012, when then-product chief Mary Barra (now GM's CEO) told journalists that the company planned to focus on plug-in electric cars and mild hybrids. "We think plug-in...
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Chevrolet Bolt Concept: 200-Mile, $37,500 Electric Car Concept (Live Video & Photos)
General Motors CEO Mary Barra had hoped to have a Steve Jobs moment this morning, but news about the Chevrolet Bolt Concept for a 200-mile electric car leaked late Friday night. Still, with no advance information, the Bolt Concept was both a surprise to open the Detroit Auto Show and a bold...
John Voelcker -
Will The 2016 Chevy Volt Be A 'Mass-Market' Electric Car? Should It Be?
While battery-electric cars are pretty simple in concept, it's often much harder for auto marketers to explain the benefits of range-extended electrics and plug-in hybrids. Last summer, Chevrolet's chief marketing officer, Tim Mahoney, said the marketing for the new 2016 Chevy Volt would be...
John Voelcker -
2016 Chevrolet Volt To Use New 1.5-Liter Four As Range Extender Engine
Later today, details about the powertrain of the new 2016 Chevrolet Volt will be released when GM CEO Mary Barra speaks to the Detroit Economic Club. But a GM press release this morning announcing further investments in Michigan manufacturing by the company included one nugget: The 2016 Volt will...
John Voelcker -
2017 Chevrolet Sonic EV: More Electric-Car Details Trickle Out
A few more details on the upcoming 2017 Chevrolet Sonic EV electric car are starting to come into focus, including its production date and a second version to be sold in Europe. Based on information from two separate sources in the auto industry, here's what we now know about Chevy's next...
John Voelcker -
Sakti3 Battery Firm: Key To GM 200-Mile Electric Car, $100 Per kWh By End Of Decade?
By all indications, there will be an all-electric 2017 Chevrolet Sonic EV for which General Motors is targeting a range of 200 miles. And one of the keys to achieving such a range from a compact car will be a more energy-dense battery than those used today. DON'T MISS: GM's 200-Mile Electric Sonic...
John Voelcker -
When an unknown automotive startup from Silicon Valley unveiled an all-electric sports car with supercar performance back in 2006, the shock was enough to make industry giant GM sit up and pay attention. That, plus the desire to gain some of the green halo seized by Toyota's Prius hybrid, led GM's then-product czar Bob Lutz to champion the development of the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car--and to protect it throughout GM's bankruptcy and restructuring. So what does the gruff, jet-flying, cigar-smoking Lutz have to say about Tesla Motors today? DON'T MISS: Tesla Model 3, Next...
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2016 Chevy Volt Range-Extending Engine To Have 75 HP?
Electric power is only one part of the Chevrolet Volt equation. While it's a part that covers two thirds of all Volt miles driven, the other third is handled by its range-extending 1.4-liter Ecotec gasoline engine. The 2016 Chevrolet Volt is expected to downsize to a three-cylinder unit to boost...
Antony Ingram -
GM's 200-Mile Electric Sonic EV For 2017: What We Know So Far: UPDATED
The arrival of a moderately-priced battery electric car with a rated range of 200 miles will change the entire market for plug-in vehicles. When that will happen, and from which maker, remains open--though the likely suspects are Nissan, Tesla, and General Motors, with BMW as a long-shot outsider...
John Voelcker -
Battery Maker LG Chem: Biggest Electric-Car Winner Of All?
Let's say your company builds a crucial, high-volume component for advanced-technology vehicles. Suppose it emerged this week that you've now got contracts to supply two of the world's three biggest automakers. That would put you in a good spot, wouldn't it? First GM, now VW Group Yesterday, LG...
John Voelcker -
Cadillac ELR Not A Tesla Competitor, GM Exec Acknowledges
Mark Reuss, the head of global product development for General Motors, has acknowledged that GM may not have a vehicle that competes directly with the Tesla Model S electric luxury sedan. Speaking yesterday at a business breakfast associated with the weekend's Dream Cruise event in Detroit, Reuss...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Volt Electric Car: Only Current GM Model NOT Recalled This Year
The current 2015 Chevrolet Volt, now in its fifth year, will be the last of its generation before a revised and updated 2016 Volt is unveiled next January and goes on sale later in the year. But GM's first range-extended electric car turns out to have logged another minor distinction in its list of...
John Voelcker -
It's no secret among owners of the Chevy Volt range-extended electric car that the innovative car's advertising and marketing has been muddled at best. Now, with a new 2016 Volt to be unveiled next January, Chevrolet's recently-arrived global chief marketing officer promises that a thorough overhaul is coming. DON'T MISS: Three Years Later, Most Consumers Don't Understand The Chevy Volt That executive, Tim Mahoney, may be best-known in the business for creating the memorable campaign, "Love. It's What Makes A Subaru A Subaru." Owners to evangelize He told trade journal Automotive News that...
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When Will Electric Cars Compete in the Mainstream Market?
Electric-car advocates often take it as an article of faith that electric propulsion will one day compete directly with vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Many would go further, arguing that electric cars are already competitive with those using an internal-combustion engine, or ICE, in the consumer...
John Briggs -
2016 Chevy Volt To Get More Efficient, Less Expensive Inverter
General Motors is still hard at work behind the scenes on the next-generation Chevrolet Volt. We won't know full details of the car for some time, but one upgrade it's likely to feature is a new, more efficient and less expensive power inverter. According to Charged EVs, GM is currently developing...
Antony Ingram -
GM Is Serious About Electric Cars, Despite Grumbling By Advocates
Sometimes memories are short. Electric-car advocates often forget that it took seven years from the first Toyota Prius hybrid, launched in Japan in 1997, until sales of the second-generation Prius started to grow in global markets. Now, General Motors appears to be the subject of suspicion and...
John Voelcker -
GM's New 3- And 4-Cylinder Engines Face Off Against Ford, VW
Yesterday's announcement by General Motors that it would launch a new line of three- and four-cylinder Ecotec engines for better fuel economy was short on some details. Notably, the carmaker only gave two examples of future cars they would power--and even declined to identify the three existing...
John Voelcker -
GM Pickups To Have Aluminum Bodies Too, But Four Years Behind Ford
It's long been known that aluminum is an effective way of reducing the weight of vehicles, but Ford's adoption of the metal for its 2015 F-150 truck has finally spurred others into action in the pickup class too. General Motors has recently secured contracts with aluminum suppliers Alcoa and...
Antony Ingram