This is a test hack, but you can expect the real thing by end-2010
Pic: GM-Volt
The ability to travel a sufficiently long distance on one charge – range – has been a stumbling block for electric vehicles (EVs) for a long time. Now, General Motors just might have cracked it with the Volt, its experimental, lithium-ion battery-powered EV.
Unlike some hybrids like the Toyota Prius, the GM Volt doesn’t use its petrol engine to drive the car’s wheels – it only uses the engine to charge the batteries. There are still a lot of unanswered questions – regarding the integration of the petrol engine and the electric motors, and the software that’s going to handle it – at GM, but the company’s engineers are confident they can do it.
The goal for GM, with the Volt, is to have an EV that runs on electric power alone and that has a range of more than 1,000km. So when can you expect to walk into a GM showroom and buy the Volt? ‘November 2010 looks good,’ says Bob Lutz, vice chairman, General Motors. And if its November 2010 for the US, can India be very far away on GM’s EV map…?
