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Edmunds Inside Line is reporting the Chevy Volt apparently doesn't use the engine to recharge its batteries while driving, going against what every media outlet — CNBC , the buff books and every web site including this one — have reported as fact for the past two years. Confusion apparently stems from a press release issued when the concept version of the Chevy Volt was first revealed in 2007 indicating: "When the battery is depleted, a 1-liter, three-cylinder turbocharged engine spins at a constant speed, or revolutions per minute (rpm), to create electricity and replenish the battery." Instead, we're now being told, via the press release from last week's production reveal : "a gasoline/E85-powered engine generator seamlessly provides electricity to power the Volt's electric drive unit while simultaneously sustaining the charge of the battery." So, after some portion of the initial 40 miles of all-electric driving depletes the battery, the...
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If you're a GM fan-boy, you're probably a pretty happy camper this week. GM's celebrating its centennial and you've seen the live reveals of both the upcoming Chevy Cruze , the 40 MPG+ econobox you can't ignore yesterday , and today , the Chevy Volt , GM's resuscitation of the electric car. One of these two will save GM, the other will not. If you can't tell from the headline, let's make it clear again: Keep your fancy-pants electric cars, GM — you won't be saved by the Chevy Volt. No, instead, it's the little Chevy Cruze that should get the savior-like halo. galleryPost('2011VoltNotSavior', 9, 'Chevy Volt - Mass Market MPG'); galleryPost('2010ChevyCruzeLiveD', 9, 'Chevy Cruze - MPG For The Masses'); Despite the hype, and as I laid out in a piece today for Popular Mechanics , the Volt, Tesla Roadster, the upcoming plug-in Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight will not be what I'd call mass-market game-changers...
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If you're a GM fan-boy, you're probably a pretty happy camper this week. GM's celebrating its centennial and you've seen the live reveals of both the upcoming Chevy Cruze , the 40 MPG+ econobox you can't ignore yesterday , and today , the Chevy Volt , GM's resuscitation of the electric car. One of these two will save GM, the other will not. If you can't tell from the headline, let's make it clear again: Keep your fancy-pants electric cars, GM — you won't be saved by the Chevy Volt. No, instead, it's the little Chevy Cruze that should get the savior-like halo. galleryPost('2011VoltNotSavior', 9, 'Chevy Volt - Mass Market MPG'); galleryPost('2010ChevyCruzeLiveD', 9, 'Chevy Cruze - MPG For The Masses'); Despite the hype, and as I laid out in a piece today for Popular Mechanics , the Volt, Tesla Roadster, the upcoming plug-in Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight will not be what I'd call mass-market game-changers...
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An aspiring designer at GMInsideNews has taken it upon himself to restyle the Chevy Volt , responding to criticism that the plug-in corporate savior is a bit on the bland side. Aside from applying a selection of questionable hues to the Volt, he sketched in "lightning bolt zigzag style headlights" in an effort to give the design some teeth. The beltline has also been jacked into a pseudo-G6 high-rise tribute, resulting in an effort that's arguably more derivative than the prevealed Volt we've already seen. What do you think? Full renderings in technicolor goodness after the jump. [ GMI ]
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The Observer of all things Auto at Edmunds has cobbled together a series of quotes allowing them to say what they think without actually saying what they think: The 2010 Chevy Volt is ugly. Quoting their own Jane Nakagawa, they bust on the Volt pretty hard, calling it "a huge disappointment" and "completely unacceptable." Harsh. If the "leaked images of the Volt" with their recklessly unflattering photo angles are to be believed, the Volt may be ugly, but we'll reserve judgment until we see it in the flesh tomorrow morning during the live unveil at the Renaissance Center. [ Edmunds AutoObserver ]
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GM's just sent us two new photos of the production version of the 2011 Chevy Volt . While the first of the two shots doesn't show much more than what we saw when ABC News lifted the skirt last weekend , the second one shows us the big bowtie on the rear end of the new gasoline-electric sled from GM's American Revolution. Check out the high-resolution shots in the gallery below. We're also being told GM will have 50 prototypes running around on the highways and byways of Metro Detroit doing testing by the end of the year. Hmm, maybe this whole Volt thing's actually going to happen. galleryPost('2010ChevyVoltProdP', 2, 'Like A Volt Of Lightning');
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Update : We just got our hands on some images of the ongoing work at the Warren Tech Center at on the clay model and chassis of the Volt . GM's just sent us two new photos of the production version of the 2011 Chevy Volt . While the first of the two shots doesn't show much more than what we saw when ABC News lifted the skirt last weekend , the second one shows us the big bowtie on the rear end of the new gasoline-electric sled from GM's American Revolution. Check out the high-resolution shots in the gallery below. We're also being told GM will have 50 prototypes running around on the highways and byways of Metro Detroit doing testing by the end of the year. Hmm, maybe this whole Volt thing's actually going to happen. galleryPost('2010ChevyVoltProdP', 2, 'Like A Volt Of Lightning'); galleryPost('voltprototyping', 6, 'Prototype Volts Coming Together');
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ABC News lifted the skirt even higher on the new Chevy Volt in a segment this weekend on Good Morning America . It's a scene eerily reminiscent to the Cadillac CTS skirt-lift by "Maximum" Bob Lutz . Given the timing of the Lutz-lift in relationship to the CTS unveil at the Detroit Auto Show , we're assuming what we've heard about the Volt skin reveal before the end of the year will probably still remain spot-on. But it wasn't just the front bumper — ABC News also got a chance to take a look at the "iPod-esque" interior of the 2011 Chevy Volt rendered in clay. We've got screen caps below, and hit the jump to see the full video segment from ABC. galleryPost('ChevyVoltSpyABC', 12, 'A Plethora Of Volt Up-Skirt Shots'); [ ABC News via CarScoop ]
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General Motors is lobbying for a $7,000 tax credit for buyers of the $30,000 $40,000 2011 Chevy Volt — more than double that originally offered for Prius buyers. The automaker's arguing the credit should be based on battery capacity. "What we favor is actually a sliding scale depending on how much battery you have on board," said Jon Lauckner, GM VP for global program management. "When I talk about $6,000 to $7,000, we're talking about a battery that's at least two times the size of a typical conversion plug-in or even a plug-in hybrid that we would offer." Of course, since new Chevy products apparently now command 4 times their MSRP , we predict the Volt will cost $153,000 after the tax credit. If congressional leaders agree to GM's recommendation, the Volt could have a "real" price to consumers closer to the originally reported $30,000. However, since GM is suggesting basing the tax credit not just on battery size, but also on the potential...
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We were beginning to think GM had developed a masterpiece of long-range marketing with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt program. Let reporters in every once in a while, strategically leak images while actually showing nothing, all the while keeping a late-2010 entry on the lips of every eco-dork in the motoring press. Let them build the buzz for you! Genius. However, with Slick Rick's statement that we'll be getting a look at the production sheetmetal for the Volt, we wonder if they've made a strategic error. What it looks like is practically the only thing we don't know about the car. Showing it off now is going to be like pulling a Camaro on us: By the time it hits the show floor, we'll be tired of the look. They'll be wasting acres of print space now, rather than revealing it with a flourish and sending it to dealers right away, Apple style. Whatever. We're not paid to come up with strategery, but making fun of it we can do all day. [ TopSpeed ]
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While the 2011 Chevy Volt is proceeding down the path from vaporware to successful range testing to production ready, its price seems to remain stubbornly in the land of the lost. The original goal was to have it on the road for around $30,000, in April, Maximum Bob dropped the bomb saying the price may come in at $48k . Well, Minimum Rick seems to be following his "Wait a month and clean up after Bob" modus operandi yet again. Wagoner, who definitely gives a shit about global warming, is now saying the Volt may actually come in below the original target. How much lower? That's a silly question to ask considering how GM seems to keep mixing the messages themselves. An $18,000 price point difference makes for a mighty different business case though, especially considering gas will only be available with live organ exchange by 2010. [Translated from German: FAZ.net ]
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