Electric and Hybrid Cars

The 2010 Chevy volt which is supposed to be launched somtime in 2011 is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with a range of 40 miles between charges.  The Volt’s propulsion system will be based on GM’s new Voltec platform.  The electric power is powered by lithium-ion batteries which can be charged by electrical outlet or gasoline engine.  No external charging station will be required. 

Unlike most current commercially available electric hybrids, the actual propulsion of the Volt is accomplished exclusively by the electric motor.  The gas engine is just for charging.  The range of the Volt is 40 miles on fully charged batteries, but after 40 miles the gas engine takes over and gives the Volt a potential range of 640 miles on one tank of gas.  This is excellent.

The expected price of the vehicle is ~ $40,000, but with the federal tax credit of $7,500 it brings the price to ~ $32,500.  For more information on electric cars click on the links to the right.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Electric Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.