Chevy Volt
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As we move toward the December launch of electric cars from real automakers--the 2011 Nissan Leaf and the 2011 Chevrolet Volt--there are many myths and fears that will have to be dispelled among consumers. One of them is the old toaster-in-the-bathtub fear: If you get an electric car really wet ... It. Might. KILL. You! To dispel that inchoate anxiety--or maybe just to highlight yet another facet of the Volt's exhaustive development testing--the latest video from GM's ever-perky PR firm shows a Chevy Volt driving through the flooded-road water trough at Milford Proving Grounds. As the release...
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Can GM Convince You a 2011 Chevy Volt Is the Go-Anywhere EV?As we count down the months before the first 2011 Chevrolet Volts arrive at dealers in California, New York, Michigan, and Washington, D.C., it's time for the latest reboot of the Chevy marketing machine to kick into action. Chevrolet said in a press conference last week it would start running ads...
John Voelcker -
Want to Buy a 2011 Chevrolet Volt? More Details, Dealer Info
Less than six months from now, the first 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicles will be sold by dealers in selected launch markets. Today, General Motors showed a few more cards, releasing news in various presentations on additional early markets, production numbers, and answering...
John Voelcker -
GM Launches Venture Arm To Keep Up With Automotive Tech
Cars are quickly become the new connected devices. Equipped with voice-command, streaming media centers, navigation displays and more, the newest line of vehicles out of major automakers are borrowing more from computers, the web and mobile technology than ever before. Now, riding this wave of...
John Voelcker -
Coulomb launches ambitious plan to electrify cars: 4,600 new charging stations
Coulomb Technologies unveiled ambitious plans today to install 4,600 new charging stations for plug-in vehicles in homes and commercial spaces across the U.S. — a project nearly half-funded by federal stimulus money.The news comes at a tenuous time for electric car makers and electric grid...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
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 Volt: It's the electric car without limits, the one you can take on spontaneous road trips, and it's different from all those other EVs with their limited ranges. Unlike such plug-in hybrids as the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid--which expands the electric range of a conventional hybrid--the...
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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...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
First 2011 Chevrolet Volt Rolls Off the Line, But Not For Sale
The 2011 Chevrolet Volt took another step last week in its long and highly publicized gestation, with the first complete vehicle rolling off the production line at GM's Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant. On Wenesday, March 31, the first model of the mass-produced electric car built in North America...
John Voelcker -
GM Planning Engineless All-Electric Cars To Follow the Volt
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...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
You heard it here first, folks. Maria Rohrer, the Chevrolet Volt marketing manager responsible for the remarkably awful "Volt Dance" at last month's Los Angeles Auto Show, has been reassigned. An internal General Motors memo last week said Rohrer would become director of Chevrolet truck advertising. She is no longer associated with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle, which is to arrive in dealerships before the end of the year. The notorious Volt Dance, performed to members of the general public attending the Los Angeles show, was instantly savaged across the...
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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...
John Voelcker -
Five Questions: Andrew Farah, 2011 Chevrolet Volt Chief Engineer
Last weekend, we finally got the chance to drive the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. By and large, we liked it; see our full First Drive report for more details. Riding shotgun was Andrew Farah, the chief engineer for the 2011 Volt. During our ride and after, we asked him five questions--just as we did Volt...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
Most Popular Posts of 2009: Prius Perks, VW Golf TDI, Ethanol & Urine!
Maybe you're already overloaded with end-of-year lists. But indulge us; this is the weirdest collection of most-popular articles we could ever have imagined. We've got urine. We've got Muslims and ethanol. We've got hybrid Ferraris. We've even got our ever-popular rant on why Miles-Per-Gallon is a...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
If the mechanical prototype TheCarConnection.com recently drove was any indication, the 2011 Nissan LEAF will be an extremely quiet vehicle, free of the motor and drivetrain whine that accompanies some other electric cars.
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The Volt Song: What Happened, and What It Could Have Been
And we thought our piece on the LA Auto Show's Volt dance was pointed. Hah! Look here. Or here, followed by here. Or here. Ouch. Like a good journalist, we wanted to know more. So we asked for an interview with Maria Rohrer, Director of Global Volt Marketing Operations at Chevrolet, to understand...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevy Volt Dance: Hey GM, We Want Our Bailout Back, Now
We don't use a lot of profanity here at the global GreenCarReports.com headquarters. But there were a whole bunch of horrified OMFGs floating around once we finally got to see the notorious Volt Dance that was unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show. We write about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...
John Voelcker
