Chevrolet Volt

The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to be produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors and expected to be launched in November 2010 as a 2011 model. Its retail price has yet to be announced by General Motors, but is estimated to be near $40,000 USD.[4] which would give a net price of about $32,500 after the $7,500 US Federal tax credit. The automaker has kept the Volt on or ahead of schedule, despite GM's Chapter 11 reorganization.[5] The Volt's propulsion system will be based on GM's new Voltec (formerly known as E-Flex) electric automobile platform, which differs significantly from GM's earlier BAS Hybrid and Two-Mode Hybrid systems. The first pre-production test car based on the full Volt design was built in June 2009 in Warren, Michigan[6] and by October 2009, 80 Volts had been built and are being tested under various conditions.[7]

For up to the first 40 miles (64 km), the Volt is powered by electrical energy stored in its on-board lithium-ion batteries which are charged by connection to an electrical power outlet. The Volt's 16 kWh (8.0 kWh usable) lithium-ion battery pack can be fully charged by plugging the car into a 120-240VAC residential electrical outlet using the provided SAE J1772[8] compliant charging cord. No external charging station will be required.[9] Unlike most current commercially available hybrid electric vehicles, the actual propulsion of the Volt is accomplished exclusively by the electric motor.

With fully charged batteries, enough electrical energy will be stored to power the Volt up to 40 miles (64 km). This distance is capable of satisfying the daily commute for 75% of Americans,[10] whose commute is on average 33 miles (53 km).[11] After 40 miles (64 km), a small 4-cylinder gasoline internal combustion engine creates electricity on-board using a 53 kW (71 hp) generator to extend the Volt's range to more than 300 miles (483 km).[12][13] The electrical power from the generator is sent primarily to the electric motor, with the excess going to the batteries, depending on the state of charge (SOC) of the battery pack and the power demanded at the wheels. The distribution is controlled by the electronic control unit (ECU) of the vehicle.[14][15]

Because the current Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) definition of a hybrid vehicle states the vehicle shall have "two or more energy storage systems both of which must provide propulsion power, either together or independently,"[16] the company has avoided the use of the term "hybrid" when describing its Voltec designs. Instead GM describes the Volt as an electric vehicle equipped with a "range extending" gasoline powered internal combustion engine (ICE) as a genset and therefore dubbed an "Extended Range Electric Vehicle"[17] or E-REV.[12][17][18] However, due to the combination of an internal combustion engine and electric motors in series rather than parallel, this configuration is most commonly referred to as a plug-in series hybrid. See Hybrid vehicle drivetrain.