Can General
Motors’ innovative electric car -- coming to you as
early as 2010 -- live up to the hype? Sean Kennedy
looks under the hood of the Chevy Volt.
Auto industry
icon Bob Lutz says the Chevy Volt will “go down in
history as a true game-changer.” General
Motors’ vice chairman isn’t just waxing
enthusiastic -- he’s telling us what we want to hear.
At least Lutz’s statements were a hit with the
300-strong audience who came to the inaugural Volt
Nation event at the New York International Auto Show this
March.
Organized by
Volt-obsessed New York blogger Lyle Dennis, who has as many
as 100,000 visitors a month to his site, Volt Nation was
billed as a town hall meeting of fellow enthusiasts
and GM executives, including the imposing Lutz. But
the dozens of gawkers, journalists, and cameramen with
klieg lights in hand crammed around the car and dais made
the event feel more like an in-store appearance with
Amy Winehouse -- complete with fans shouting praise
like “This is the most exciting car I have ever heard
about!”
Indeed, the
sleek, eco-friendly Volt has garnered over-the-top praise
ever since it debuted as a concept car January 2007 at the
North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
It’s designed as an “extended-range”
electric vehicle that, after charging its battery pack
overnight via a standard wall outlet, can be driven up
to 40 miles powered by electricity alone.
That’s just about the maximum distance 78% of
Americans drive in a given day, according to a 2003
U.S. Bureau of Transportation survey. For drivers
traveling beyond that range, a gas generator kicks in to
power the electric motor. In that scenario the Volt
will get around 50 miles per gallon, compared to 46
mpg for the Toyota Prius, the Japanese
automaker’s existing game-changer.
So people who
drive locally to and from work, maybe stopping by the
grocery store for some organic milk and whole-grain bread on
their way home, will never use gas driving the Volt. I
could drive from one tip of Manhattan to the other --
13.4 miles in total -- nearly three times and be
ecologically guilt-free. Unlike today’s hybrid
vehicles, which require gas during acceleration and at
high speeds -- and therefore produce emissions -- the
extended-range electric Volt will almost never spit any
noxious chemicals into the air.
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