Chevrolet News
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Californian based EV start-up, Coda Automotive, have successfully closed their third round of investor financing. The company, which plans to produce 14,000 of their all electric sedan by the end of 2011 also announced they will be setting up offices in Singapore. Coda has been quietly working away for some months now with some seriously impressive funding rounds including the current one. The current round of funding, totalling $58 million, attracted new interest from EDB investments, an investment firm from Singapore as well as Leslie Wexner, chairman and CEO of Limited Brands Inc...
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Honda Remains Unconvinced of EV Future.Its official! Honda doesn't trust EVs. A week after Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn reiterated the company's support for electric cars along with plans to bring four EV models to market, Honda remain uncommitted about the future of Honda EVs. Honda's president of research and development, Tomohiko Kawanabe...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
OnStar Teams Up With Google To Develop New Chevrolet Volt Smartphone AppsOnStar is already one of the most handy features you can get in a GM vehicle but soon it will be even better thanks to a little help from Google. Together, the two will develop a number of new mobile app features that strengthen Chevrolet’s commitment to providing Volt customers with the most...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
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Snapped on the Street: Fiat 500 Electric Car Visits Palo AltoThe great thing about having your company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is that you never quite know what you'll see on the street. There are lots of expensive cars like BMWs and Bentleys floating around. There are also a disproportionate number of Tesla Roadsters, since the company is...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevy Cruze Green Oil Filter: Everything Old Is New AgainSometimes a "new" green idea is actually just the way we used to do things, before disposability and convenience became primary consumer values. Consider the "cartridge filter" that GM touts on the Ecotec engines fitted to its new 2011 Chevrolet Cruze. Instead of a one-piece metal cannister that's...
John Voelcker -
With GM's 2011 Chevrolet Volt now in pre-production and due to launch in November 2010, Former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz fully supports range-extended electric vehicles but remains doubtful of the near future of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In an interview with GM-Volt.com before his retirement, the 78-year-old veteran of the automotive industry shared his thoughts on the future of both electric and hydrogen fuel celled vehicles. Lutz remains a fan of the concept of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, but he cited high cost as prohibitive to their current commercial success. "We're getting very...
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Nissan, GM Are Right to Quiz Potential Electric-Car BuyersNissan has been criticized by consumers and EV owners alike for the online questionnaire that accompanies the signup process for reserving a 2011 Nissan Leaf. As part of the process, Nissan tries to ascertain if potential customers have a lifestyle compatible with the Leaf's range, recharging...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
GM Confirms Lithium-Air Battery Research to Revolutionize EVGeneral Motors is quietly conducting research into Lithium-Air batteries, the next Holy Grail of electric vehicle technology, according to a Friday article in The New York Times. GM acknowledges that while the battery technology has some way to go before it is used in commercial electric cars, the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
OK, We Get It: Adam Carolla Likes, and Hates, Electric CarsAs if legitimate news outlets didn't have enough trouble covering electric vehicles sensibly, now we get the comedians weighing in. Late-night talk-show host and stereotypical grumpy guy Adam Carolla recently lit into electric cars, in an interview with Gizmodo's Jason Chen in which he was invited...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevy Volt Marketing Theme Emerges: An EV for Road TripsGM 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...
John Voelcker -
Bill Clinton: Feds Should Subsidize Buyers' Switch to Electric CarsFormer President Bill Clinton recently visited social network digg.com for a special Earth Day interview that touched on electric-vehicle policy and legislation. He answered user questions about many ecological and environmental topics--including third-world development and global warming--as...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
‘Mountain Mode’ Gives the Volt a Boost In the Mountains
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2011 Chevy Volt To Offer 'Mountain Mode' For Hill ClimbingThe 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...
John Voelcker -
The Chevy Volt's Japanese Ancestor. From 1993. From Daihatsu!Everything old is new again. Or so goes the saying. While the 2011 Chevrolet Volt will be the first electric vehicle with a range-extending engine to be built in volume (the first pre-production Volt rolled off the line on March 31), it's hardly the first one ever. We'll ignore for a moment the...
John Voelcker -
GM To Invest $890 Million In Making Its V-8 Engines Save GasGoing green on the road may involve smaller engines, electric cars, and clean diesels, but it also requires making all engines far more fuel efficient. To that end, General Motors will announce this morning that it will invest almost one billion dollars in five separate plants to build a new, far...
John Voelcker -
Opel Ampera, GM's Other Extended-Range EV, In Pre-ProductionWe write a lot about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle here. It's a radical new car, GM's first electric car since the late EV1, and it'll be in dealerships in just six months. But GM has another electric car coming next year as well. It's the 2012 Opel Ampera. Ummmm, what's...
John Voelcker -
First Pre-Production Opel Amperas Roll Off The LineThe 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle isn’t due to hit showrooms until the end of the year but the first pre-production examples are already rolling off production lines at a GM assembly line in Warren, Michigan. Now, the first pre-production Opel Amperas, Europe’s version of...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
We go to a lot of auto shows, but we didn't make it to the Beijing Motor Show, which opened a couple of days ago. Which is a shame, because not only is China on track to become the world's largest single car market, but they have some truly outrageous concept cars. Our favorite is the Geely Emgrand GT, from the company that is in the process of buying stolid Swedish carmaker Volvo from Ford. Our friends over at Autoblog Green have a full slideshow of the car, from which we've borrowed this single image. According to ABG, Emgrand is a new sub-brand from Geely and the GT is a plug-in hybrid...
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2011 Chevrolet Cruze To Out Shine Previous Models In SafetyThe Chevrolet Cruze Is Becoming Globally Recognized As Safe
Jonathan McGrew -
2011 Chevrolet Volt To Come To Select Dealerships In OctoberWhitacre Says Volt Will Come a Month Earlier Than Expected
Jonathan McGrew -
2011 Chevrolet Volt MPV5 Concept To Be Unveiled in BeijingTomorrow at the Beijing Motor Show, General Motors will unveil its a concept car that likely shows what will be its second unique model of the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle. It's called the Chevrolet Volt MPV5 concept; "MPV" stands for Multi-Purpose Vehicle, which is what Asian and...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Electric Car To Reach Dealers In OctoberThe three-year drumbeat of anticipation for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car has just gotten slightly louder. General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre announced yesterday that the car will arrive at selected Chevy dealers in October, a month earlier than expected. The first pre-production...
John Voelcker -
Special Brands for Small Turbo Engines: GM To Follow Ford?Used to be that turbos were used in performance cars, from the Saab Turbos of the late Seventies to BMW's current range of twin-turbo sixes. These days, the little air pumps more often make smaller engines perform like bigger ones to give fuel economy. In brief, a turbocharger uses exhaust gases to...
John Voelcker