Range-Extended Vehicle
-
After multiple delays and slipped deadlines, you might be forgiven for assuming it would never happen. But it did. Fisker Automotive has delivered one of its first production cars, a 2012 Fisker Karma extended-range electric sports sedan, to a paying customer. The video below shows the handover two days ago. But it's not just any old paying customer. The lucky recipient is Ray Lane, of the noted Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byer, who held a small press conference in the firm's parking lot. Lane may represent a late change of plans as the first customer...
-
2012 Chevrolet Volt Production Begins, Capacity Is Tripled
After a one-month hiatus, Chevy has begun production of the 2012 Volt. Thanks to the retooling, the Hamtramck assembly plant now has three times the build capacity.
Kurt Ernst -
2011 Chevrolet Volt's Extra 'Free' Electric Miles In Gas Mode
The 2011 Chevrolet Volt adds hidden fuel-free miles to the Volt’s total range
George Parrott -
Xtranormal Explains Plug-In Cars, Mostly The 2011 Chevy Volt
By now, you may well have seen short video clips of crudely animated people talking in monotonous tones, with more than occasional mispronunciations and odd rhythms. They're Xtranormal animations, created by feeding your dialogue into a website that animates them based on the author's choices of...
John Voelcker -
Volvos A La Volt: Swedish Carmaker Tests Range Extenders In C30, V60
Swedish carmaker Volvo now operates a test fleet of all-electric C30 hatchbacks, and it's also rolling out another experimental car, a V60 wagon with a diesel engine driving the front wheels, and an electric motor powering the rear. The two cars are now spawning a second generation of test...
John Voelcker -
Fisker Karma Electric-Car Charging Stations Have EV1 Roots
When you buy an electric car, you will most likely need a charging station. As buyers start to bring home plug-in cars, they will also expect their dealer to help them acquire and install a 240-Volt charging station (technically known as an EVSE, though few people call them that). Startup Fisker...
John Voelcker -
Although its much-delayed first model, the 2011 Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan, hasn't quite reached dealers yet, Fisker Automotive is powering ahead. The company announced today that it would post job listings for what will be roughly 120 positions at its Wilmington, Delaware, assembly plant where it plans to build its second model, known by the code name "Project Nina." The first group to be hired will include engineering staff, 40 technicians with electromechanical expertise, and some early production workers. A further 80 assembly-line workers will be added between this October...
-
2011 Chevrolet Volt Vs 2011 Nissan Leaf: 7,000 Miles Later
After several months of using a 2011 Chevy Volt and a 2011 Nissan Leaf as our sole family transport, we have a better understanding of both cars than we did in March, when I first wrote about how they compared. First to arrive at our West Sacramento home was a beautiful crystal red 2011 Volt. We...
George Parrott -
Who Actually Buys 2011 Chevy Volt Electric Cars, And Why?
Despite media attempts to conjure a "sales battle" between the 2011 Chevy Volt and the 2011 Nissan Leaf, both companies are selling every car they can manage to get into the showrooms. Now Chevrolet has released its first look at who is actually buying its Volt range-extended electric cars. The...
John Voelcker -
Many Ways For Volvo To Go Green And Save Gas, Says CEO
Volvo likes to think of itself as a conscientious car company. "Why are we different?" asked Stefan Jacoby, Volvo's German CEO. "We are Swedish; we come from a human-centric company. We do things because they have a purpose for people." Safety, yes, but also green Those things used to revolve...
John Voelcker -
Luxury Hybrid Maker Fisker Automotive Raises Extra $100 Million
Fisker Automotive, which manufactures luxury plug-in electric hybrid cars, has raised an extra $100 million in its third round of funding to help fund production of its luxury sedan and a second, cheaper electric car that is geared toward more mainstream hybrid electric car buyers. The 2011 Fisker...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
The Fastest, Coolest, Sexiest Supercars Now Come With Plugs
Supercars: sleek, blindingly fast, ultra-expensive objects of lust for 14-year-old boys and sober-suited executives alike. For decades, supercars were powered solely by gasoline. But now there's a new gang in town, and they've upended all the rules. The newest, coolest, most jaw-dropping supercars...
John Voelcker -
Who knew? Stephen King, creator of perhaps the most malevolent car ever envisioned--Christine, the homicidal 1958 Plymouth Fury of both novel and movie fame--is an electric car fan. In particular, he loves the family's 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the range-extended electric vehicle that plugs in to recharge its lithium-ion battery pack for a range of 25 to 40 miles. After that, the Volt switches to its engine to generate the electric power that carries it another 300 or so miles. King gave a rare interview to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune at that city's downtown parking structure, to increase interest...
-
Chevy Volt Goes North For 2012, Priced At C$41,545 In Canada
With Chevrolet on track to complete its rollout of the 2011 Volt range-extended electric car to all 50 states by the end of this year, the carmaker is turning its sites to other countries. And it's starting next door in one of the two closest foreign countries to the U.S., one right on our border...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Fire: Flaming Garage Shows Media Ignorance
A garage caught fire, destroying the two cars inside. That's what we know. One of the cars inside was a brand-new 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and the other was a home-converted electric car. But because of that, what we've gotten from various media is inaccurate at best, and potentially quite misleading...
John Voelcker -
Plug-In Hybrid MPGs: Is Parallel or Range-Extended Better?
These are exciting times to be a car shopper, as the choices in every possible category just keep getting better and more fuel-efficient. The options for ecologically sensitive hybrid buyers have taken a major step forward with the introduction of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and the imminent arrival of...
George Parrott -
BMW Hires Lead Electric-Car Engineer From Chevy Volt Team
Not so long ago, the notion of luxury German brand BMW hiring an engineer from General Motors might have been a stretch. The company prefers to promote engineers from within its Munich engineering headquarters. But reports that Frank Weber, the lead engineer of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt team, has...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Range Extender Engines: OK Now, Can Do Better
Electric cars like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and 2011 Fisker Karma get around the problem of range anxiety the old-fashioned way: They use gasoline engines. They do it because the battery systems of pure electric vehicles are large, heavy, and expensive, but the range they produce is still...
George Parrott -
General Motors and its brand strategies have been through a lot of turmoil in recent years. Now, GM is down to just four brands in North America--Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac--and is rapidly taking Chevrolet global, including its Malibu midsize model. Buick survived only because of its strong appeal in China, and is being repositioned in North America as a near-luxury competitor to Lexus. Chevy to Opel to Buick Now comes word that Buick may get what can only be described as a badge-engineered version of the Chevrolet Volt, via its Opel Ampera clone sold in Europe. [UPDATE: GM spokesman...
-
Leave Your 2011 Chevy Volt On Overnight? Not Much Bad Happens
You don't start the engine in a 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Instead, you "power up" the car by pressing a button with the universal computer power symbol on it. Once the Volt has gone through its bootup routine, complete with tones and chimes, the button glows blue and you're ready to roll on electric...
John Voelcker -
Little Lotus Range-Extending Engine For Electric Cars Proves Popular
Most car buyers haven't even heard the term "range extender" yet. But over time, expect it to become more familiar, as electric cars like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt introduce the concept of a gasoline engine that turns a generator to produce electricity to power the vehicle. Tiny, powerful, efficient...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Drive Review: Five Things We Don't Like
Some things about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt we liked, and there were a few that puzzled us. But GM's innovative range-extended electric car also has its share of annoyances. We found several features irritating, or (to be more diplomatic) perhaps not-quite-entirely-thought-through yet. That's...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Drive Review: Five Things That Puzzle Us
The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is a remarkable achievement for General Motors, but it does have a few features and behaviors that make us scratch our heads. After living with the car for five days and more than 700 miles, here are five questions we'd love to get answers to. (GM PR: You know where we live...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Drive Review: Five Things We Like
We're going to have a lot of 2011 Chevrolet Volt coverage this week, as we round up our impressions on the five days and hundreds of miles we've racked up on GM's first extended-range electric vehicle. We'll do a full drive report later on, but first, a few quick hits about the things we like in...
John Voelcker