Chevrolet Electric Cars

The Chevrolet division of General Motors is entering the electric car market with it's Volt. Although typically known for internal combustion engine cars and trucks, Chevrolet is out to prove that electric cars can be powerful, sporty and fun. The Volt is scheduled to be released in November of 2010. If successful we should see more electric vehicles from GM.

Chevrolet Volt

GM's entry into the electric car market comes to us from their Chevrolet Division and it is named the "Volt".

The Volt falls somewhere in the space between plug in hybrid and pure electric vehicle. Like a pure electric, the wheels are always driven by the 3 phase AC electric motor. Like a hybrid, plug in or otherwise, the Volt has a gasoline engine. In the Volt the 1.4 gasoline engine is actually a generator, gas powers the engine and the engine powers the electric motor when the Volt isn't running on batteries.

GM tells us that the Volt will have a range of 40 pure electric miles on a full charge then the gas generator will kick in a power the car to it's full range of approximately 400 miles on 8 gallons of gas. Running on the gas generator the Volt will get about 50 miles per gallon.

Recently it was announced that the Volt will get 230 miles per gallon but that is mostly because the EPA formula for mileage isn't really built for taking on semi-electric cars. On a full charge the car will get "infinite" miles per gallon for 40 miles since it isn't burning any gas then it will get the aforementioned 50 mpg while the generator is powering the motor.

The 4 seat 2011 Chevy Volt will be available in Novemeber of 2010, although the goal is for the Volt to cost conumers around $30,000 it is expected that the early versions of the car will run around $40,000. There will be a $7,500 federal tax credit for the first 250,000 vehicles sold.

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