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Electric Car for the Masses The General Motors Volt by: Dale Y, The Green Guy Just when you thought American car companies couldn’t get it right, a concept prototype from General Motors might just lead the way in the electric car sweepstakes for the near future. It’s called the Volt, powered by a lithium ion battery pack, with a range of 40 miles on just electricity and a top speed near 120 miles per hour. However, the key to this design is the small gasoline powered motor inside this electric vehicle. If you need to go farther than 40 miles on fully charged batteries, the motor kicks in to power a generator, which automatically keeps the batteries charged and the electric motor running. Although this might sound like a hybrid car, it really isn’t since the gasoline powered motor never powers the drive wheels, and will never come on unless you get near the 40 miles of battery range. With motor and batteries fully charged, you actually have an advanced range of 360 miles on a tank of gas. That equates to somewhere in the area of 150 miles per gallon, and that, MyGreenClick friends is some outstanding mileage in anyone’s book. The prototypes are running now, and it is set to go into production as early as 2012 as long as they can get the bugs worked out of this unique drive train and battery storage system. GM figures they may be able to sell them between $30 and $40K each, and although it’s expensive to be sure, for that kind of technology, that’s a very reasonable price. Compared to the premier electric car of today, the Tesla which sells for over $100K (and every Tesla has been sold out, by the way, in this years production run and there is already a waiting list for next years production) $40K is pretty reasonable in comparison. The most unique feature about the Volt is it can be plugged into any outlet to recharge overnight. That makes it incredibly practical. If you never need to use the onboard gasoline motor for charging the batteries, the Volt is essentially a zero emissions vehicle. Over the past year General Motors, just like all the major American auto companies, have taken a huge hit in sales resulting in massive lay-offs and plant closings because they refused to stop making big gas guzzling SUV type vehicles. That appears to have been the wake-up call for GM, and if they can pull off getting the incredibly advanced electric Volt into production, America might still lead the way in electrics and ZEVs world wide. Let’s hope so. I’m cheering for the Volt!  Go GM! Share -advertisement- Support MyGreenClick, Support our Advertisers

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