Chevrolet Volt

由 **アンドリュウ** 2008-06-01, 12:25 am

The Chevrolet Volt originally was a plug-in hybrid concept car created by General Motors - GM indicates that it is no longer a concept, but a full-fledged production vehicle. However, the company has avoided the use of the term "hybrid," preferring to call it an electric vehicle with a "range extender" due to its design. The vehicle is designed to run purely on electricity from on-board batteries for up to 40 miles (64 km), or about half the range of theGM EV1 — a large enough distance to cover the daily commutes of most Americans, which is around 33 miles (53 km). With use of a small internal combustion engine driving a generator to resupply the batteries, the vehicle's range is potentially increased to 640 miles (1,030 km) on the highway. General Motors Corp. had originally planned to build 60,000 of its Volt electric cars for their inaugural year, however have now scaled back production to 10,000 units.

The Volt concept vehicle was officially unveiled at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) on January 7, 2007 in Detroit, Michigan.An updated version was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2007 in Shanghai, China.

At the time of unveiling, the Volt project had been in existence for
less than a year. The Volt was targeted to cost around $30,000. As of
April 2008 Lutz was quoted as saying that the realistic unsubsidised
cost had risen to $48K, that he reckoned that $40,000 might be possible, without *** any profit, and that only government tax incentives could take the price
tag nearer to $30,000. When asked directly GM claimed that this was a
misquote, and that Lutz did not know how much it would cost.

GM faces competition from Nissan Motors, which announced its own electric car on May 13, 2008 as well as a number of startup auto manufacturers, some backed by Silicon Valley angel financing.

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