Chevrolet’s Stunning Volt Concept

On top of all General Motor’s woes – decreasing market share in the US, factory closures, and having too many gas-guzzling SUVs in its line-up – the US carmaker gained some notoriety for killing the EV-1, the world’s most sophisticated electric car. It spent US$1 billion on the whole project and ended up by destroying all the cars when there seemed to be no way of extending the performance and life of the EV-1’s batteries.

Well, after all this experience, it has developed the Volt, an exciting hybrid concept car that was recently shown at the Detroit Autoshow. Unlike the Toyota Prius or Honda Civic Hybrid, the Volt draws all its power from an advanced Lithum-ion battery. But unlike the EV-1, there are various ways prolong its output – like the Prius or Civic, the Volt has an engine to recharge the battery, but that’s all the engine does – it is not connected to the wheels and cannot directly propel the car. In the Volt, the engine is a 1.0-litre 3-cylinder turbocharged engine that comes on at a constant engine speed for maximum efficiency, and solely to recharge the batteries.

Alternately, the Volt can be plugged in to have its batteries re-charged. Like a mobile phone, its batteries will be fully charged after being plugged in for six hours. With a full charge, the Volt can run for 40 miles in city traffic before the engine cuts in. If your daily commute is less than the batteries range, the engine may never need to come on, and it will use no fuel at all. The Volt’s engine, by the way, uses E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol.

Even more clever is the fact that the Volt is designed around a modular E-Flex powertrain. Although the Volt uses a 3-cylinder engine to recharge the batteries, the E-flex system allows this ‘generator’ to be changed to something else – like a diesel engine, for example, or an ethanol-powered engine, or even a hydrogen-powered fuel-cell.

The other impressive aspect of the Volt is that it is tidily packaged – its overall dimensions are similar to that of a Toyota Corolla or Chevrolet Optra, but as its powertrain is so unconventional and versatile, it has allowed its designers to give it sporty and sleek proportions.

Let’s hope GM puts the Chevrolet Volt into production soon – it would make a suitable Optra replacement. As it is, Toyota and Honda have the only petrol/electric hybrid cars in production, and it will be easier for them to modify their hybrid powertrains to function like the Volt’s E-flex system.

Check the Chevrolet Volt out at: http://www.gm.com/company/gm_exp_live/events/naias_2007/index_flash.html

The site has features webcams and all the Volt’s technical details.

Credits: Justin_Lee