Range-Extended Vehicle
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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 questions from interested buyers in an afternoon video press conference. It also offered details on a promotional "Freedom Trip" PR stunt that will take a Volt from Austin, Texas, to New York City in just four days. New launch markets As revealed yesterday, New York City will be added to the list of...
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New York And Texas To Join 2011 Chevrolet Volt Launch Markets
The 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric vehicle will be upon us soon, very soon in fact, but for a few select markets, the Volt will arrive much earlier than elsewhere. GM has confirmed that the Volt will be launched initially in California, Michigan and Washington D.C. this fall but...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Test Drive A Chevrolet Volt With Microsoft’s New Kinect For Xbox 360
Microsoft’s New Kinect For Xbox 360 is about to revolutionize the way we play video games, while the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt will do the same in terms of the type of cars we drive. Now the two technology pioneers have come together, with new car buyers soon to have a new way of getting...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Microsoft Offering Virtual Chevy Volt Test Drives With Kinect For Xbox 360
We’ve heard a lot about the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt, read up on all the specs, even seen a few videos of prototypes doing the rounds at GM proving grounds around Michigan, but sadly, for the great majority of Americans, getting a feel for what the Volt is really like to drive is still months...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Three-Cylinder Lotus Range Extender Engine Headed For Production
Lotus Engineering, the British sports car companyâs automotive consultancy division, together with parts supplier Fagor Ederlan has announced today that it plans to develop its compact three-cylinder range extender engine for production. Lotus will be handling the engineering side...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
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 -
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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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 -
Opel Ampera, GM's Other Extended-Range EV, In Pre-Production
We 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 -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Electric Car To Reach Dealers In October
The 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 -
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 -
Pricing for the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car, eagerly awaited for many months, has now been set for both Japanese and U.S. markets.
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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 -
2010 Geneva Motor Show: Green Car Concepts Roundup
Yesterday we covered the new green production cars at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, now underway in snowy Switzerland. Today, we get to cover the cooler, sexier side of the show: concept cars! So, here's our roundup of notable green and advanced-technology concept cars at Geneva. Audi A1 e-tron...
John Voelcker -
Geneva Motor Show Preview: 2011 Fisker Karma Space Frame
While no journalist has yet driven a 2011 Fisker Karma with just nine months left before launch, the company will show the plug-in extended-range electric luxury sports sedan's aluminum space frame at this week's Geneva Motor Show. Designed to distribute elements of the car's plug-in hybrid...
John Voelcker -
Tiny Lotus Engine Powers Proton Series Hybrid Mini-Car Concept
Normally we wouldn't cover a Malaysian mini-car concept exhibited at an auto show in Switzerland. But we're making an exception for the Proton Concept, which will be unveiled next week at the Geneva Motor Show in three different body styles. That's because Proton is the first maker to use the new...
John Voelcker -
Want A Micro-Turbine Plug-In Hybrid Supercar? Call Velozzi
One of our favorite cars from the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show was the CMT-380 supercar concept from Capstone Turbine. To show off potential automotive uses for its C30 micro-turbine, it built an extended-range electric car using the turbine to add up to 500 miles to the 80-mile range of its...
John Voelcker -
The striking BMW Vision EfficientDynamics hybrid concept was unquestionably the star concept of September's Frankfurt Motor Show. It proved, once again, that when German carmakers turn their minds toward a new goal--in this case, a sports car with breathtaking fuel efficiency--they can produce audaciously good concepts that often end up as production cars. M1 for the new century? And now it looks like the EfficientDynamics hybrid sports coupe too will be offered for sale, starting in 2013, at a projected volume of 5,000 to 10,000 copies a year. Reports say BMW is viewing the car in the vein...
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Range-Extended Electric Jaguar Luxury Sedan: Details Emerge
The U.S. government isn't the only one that gives grants and loans to help automakers develop advanced-technology vehicles. The U.K. government's Technology Strategy Board does it as well, for companies that build cars there. Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, collaborating with Lotus Engineering...
John Voelcker -
Will Jaguar Have the First Hybrid Born From Jet Turbines?
"Born From Jets" may be the slogan of recently-saved-from-death Swedish Saab, but one day it may prove more appropriate for British carmaker Jaguar. The company has been awarded funding from the U.K. government to develop a small jet turbine as a range extender for a future hybrid luxury car. Its...
John Voelcker -
Five Questions: Nancy Gioia, Ford global electrification director
Ford was the first U.S. automaker to offer a hybrid, introducing the Ford Escape Hybrid crossover in 2004. It recently expanded its portfolio with the well-received 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. More recently, the company has announced plans for limited numbers of plug-in hybrids, as well as electric...
John Voelcker -
Kia Previews Plug-In Hybrid Concept To Debut at Chicago Show
With the 2010 Detroit Auto Show behind us, we're fast coming up on the Chicago Auto Show, which starts February 10. Now we've gotten our first teaser image, for the Kia Ray concept car that will be unveiled in the spacious precincts of McCormack Hall. Kia says the Ray is meant to demonstrate how...
John Voelcker -
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