Chevrolet Volt

As significant as the lunar landings

Americans have taken foreign cars to their bosoms and they are highly sceptical of the products of their domestic manufacturers. The Volt has to win over the doubters by leapfrogging the competition and placing American technology right at the cutting edge of the global auto industry.

Bob Lutz, the GM vice president most closely associated with the Volt’s development has likened the car’s significance to the American Apollo 11 lunar landings in 1969: ‘If the Volt doesn’t work, it’s not fatal. But if it does work, it will be sensational and it will have the same sort of symbolism.’ Lutz has been brought out of retirement to see the Volt through to launch; he’s said of its launch date: ‘November 2010 is our internal target. We are holding the team's feet to the fire. What we say internally is: "What is there about November 2010 that you don't understand?" ‘

Extended-range electric vehicle

Blow away the smoke (in car industry-speak) and the Volt really is new. GM calls it the extended-range electric vehicle and says: ‘Unlike traditional electric cars, the Chevy Volt has a revolutionary propulsion system that takes you beyond the power of the battery. It will use a lithium-ion battery with a gasoline-powered, range-extending engine that drives a generator to provide electric power when you drive beyond the 40-mile battery range.’

Because it uses both an electric motor and a petrol engine, it’s a hybrid, but unlike the Toyota Prius, for example, which uses both sources of power to drive its wheels, the Volt’s wheels are driven by electricity alone. The role of its 1.4 petrol engine is solely to power a generator that provides the electricity for the electric motor – making it a series hybrid. The batteries, however, are not recharged by the engine – they are charged from a mains supply.

Driving less than 40 miles a day means zero gasoline and zero emissions

Back to GM: ‘The Chevy Volt is designed to move more than 75 percent of America's daily commuters without a single drop of gas. That means for someone who drives less than 40 miles a day, Chevy Volt will use zero gasoline and produce zero emissions.’ 

How will the Volt perform? GM says it will have a top speed in excess of 100 mph and acceleration of 0 to 60 mph in 9 seconds. The batteries have a range of 40 miles on electricity alone and the batteries plus range-extending petrol engine are good for over 300 miles. The batteries can be fully recharged in 3 hours in a domestic garage.

Just two hurdles to cross

But, hang on, there are just two further hurdles to cross before the Volt achieves its sales objectives. The first is its design. It’s based on the Chevrolet Cruze so it looks decidedly American and, as such, it may lack the cachet of the European and Japanese vehicles that a sizeable chunk of the American car-buying public have espoused.  

Secondly, and perhaps the most important of all the factors in the car-buying decision: the price. Lutz says the target was $30,000 but this has proved unrealistic. It’s going to be much nearer to $40,000 when it launches in November 2010. And that might be a hurdle too high in an arena where the Volt has to compete with the electric and hybrid cars that will be its principle competitors.