Voltec

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt

    In one light, it was nothing more than a drive in a new car on a sunny autumn afternoon. But in another, it meant taking the wheel of the most radical new car since the 1997 Toyota Prius—perhaps more significant yet—and driving it on public roads for the first time. After almost four years, we drove a saleable 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car yesterday afternoon. We’d waited for this drive a long time. Eking out battery range We're not big fans of hypermiling, but our Chevrolet hosts had set up a competition among journalists to cover the 43.2 miles from the...

  • First 2011 Chevrolet Volt built on production tooling at Detroit Hamtramck plant, March 31, 2010
    2011 Chevrolet Volt Battery Pack Warranty: 8 Years, 100K Miles

    General Motors announced today that it would offer an 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the battery pack, the charger, and the Voltec electric drive components of its upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car. The announcement sets to rest potential worries that Volt owners might be stuck having to...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    2011 Chevrolet Volt To Be Sold In China, But As A Buick

    General Motors may be trying to spread Chevrolet through Europe and Asia, but it won't put the Chevy bowtie on its Volt extended-range electric vehicle when that car goes on sale in China next year. Instead, the car that hits U.S. dealerships this November as the 2011 Chevrolet Volt will be sold in...

  • First 2011 Chevrolet Volt built on production tooling at Detroit Hamtramck plant, March 31, 2010
    2011 Chevy Volt Marketing Theme Emerges: An EV for Road Trips

    GM has been talking about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt for three and a half years now. After absorbing an enormous amount of Volt propaganda, we've learned that subtle shifts in message can be important. A conference call yesterday revealed what we suspect will become a main marketing message for the...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt pre-production prototype, January 2010
    2011 Chevy Volt To Offer 'Mountain Mode' For Hill Climbing

    The 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car will offer a capability that General Motors hasn't previously discussed: a "Mountain Mode" that the driver can select if he knows that he will be climbing a long hill. GM's executive director of powertrain engineering Larry Nitz revealed the new...

  • First 2011 Chevrolet Volt built on production tooling at Detroit Hamtramck plant, March 31, 2010
    Now We Know: 2011 Chevrolet Volt Will Get 50 MPG In Gas Mode

    It's been one of the most-asked questions about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car: So what kind of gas mileage will it get? Despite confusion around Chevy's claim of 230 miles per gallon, what people wanted to know was simple: After the battery is depleted, when the car's...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt pre-production prototype, January 2010

    Bob Lutz, the retiring eminence grise of General Motors, is known for pithiness and plain speaking. Yesterday, he tossed off a nugget of news: GM is working on a range of pure electric cars, without range-extending engines, that will follow the 2011 Chevrolet Volt--most likely a few years hence. Nissan, Coda leading While the 1.4-liter engine in the 2011 Volt alleviates drivers' concerns over "range anxiety," by powering a generator to add 300 or so miles to its 40-mile electric range, other makers have moved directly into electric cars that offer ranges of around 100 miles. The 2011 Nissan...

  • Denise Gray, director of global battery systems engineering, General Motors
    BREAKING: GM Battery Czar Denise Gray Leaves Volt Team For California Startup

    A key member of the small team brought together four years ago to create the 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car is unexpectedly leaving General Motors. Denise Gray, director of global battery systems engineering at General Motors, will leave the company on Friday, March 5, to take an unspecified...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt pre-production prototype, January 2010
    UPDATE: Low-Thirties 2011 Chevrolet Volt Price Is AFTER Tax Credit

    UPDATE: Well, it sounded too good to be true, and perhaps it was. We asked GM spokesman Dave Darovitz for comments on CEO Whitacre's "low-thirties" price for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Darovitz tells GreenCarReports.com that while Chevy "has not officially announced final Volt pricing, a price in the...

  • General Motors Brownstown Township factory for assembly of Chevrolet Volt battery packs
    2011 Chevrolet Volt Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Goes Into Production

    The lithium-ion battery pack for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicles officially went into volume production today. The 16-kilowatt-hour battery pack, containing 220 lithium-ion cells made by Korea's LG Chem, will be assembled in a 160,000-square-foot factory in Brownstown...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    Faceoff: 2011 Chevrolet Volt Vs 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid

    Toyota and GM are the auto industry's heavyweights. Each has stumbled this year; General Motors collapsed into bankruptcy and Toyota is beset with embarrassing recalls that may dent its reputation for reliability. Each also has a plug-in car coming. The 2011 Chevy Volt will hit dealers in less than...

  • Cadillac Converj Concept
    GM's Second Electric Car After Chevy Volt To Be Cadillac Converj

    General Motors will follow its 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car with a production version of the Cadillac Converj concept car revealed at this year's Detroit Auto Show. It's been an open question for a while now: What will be the next vehicle to use GM's Voltec series hybrid...

  • 2010 Toyota Prius with chief engineer Akihiko Otsuka, at right

    Since it was launched in 1997 in Japan, and 2000 in the US, the Toyota Prius has only been sold as a single body style. From 1997 to 2003, it was a subcompact four-door sedan. Since then, it has been a midsize five-door hatchback, thoroughly redesigned for 2010. Now, Toyota executives told its dealers, the company plans to use the Prius name on two or three hybrid models in the U.S. market. The meeting, held last week in Las Vegas, was open to all Toyota and Lexus dealers and attended by Akio Toyoda, the company's new CEO. New cars, or new body styles? Two possibilities exist. The company...

  • first pre production chevrolet volt prototype 001
    Why is the 2011 Chevrolet Volt NOT a Hybrid?

    Even after 10 years, hybrid-electric vehicles are still foreign to large parts of the car-buying public. People aren't sure if they're worth the money, they worry that the battery may need replacing, and some still don't understand that you don't need to plug in a hybrid. Well, brace yourselves...

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