Chevy Volt Plug In Electric Cars Offer Moderate Price

By: Kara Gilmour
Staff Writer
Published: Jun 12, 2009

Chevy Volt plug-in electric cars to roll out in 2010 with a moderate price tag in comparison to hybrid vehicles.

The Chevy Volt will be one of the new plug-in electric cars released next year. The Volt will become a 2011 model is expected to compete with hybrid vehicles and deliver up to 100 miles on a single battery charge. There are still certain details left out which General Motors has not confirmed.

Electric cars will soon become the next generation vehicles to compete. The GM Volt still uses a combustion engine used to deliver additional electric power for extended trips. The engine is also used as a generator to recharge its batteries.

Chevy Volt will use the same platform for the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze. The wheelbase and track measurements will be identical to the Cruze. GM designed the new electric car for the mainstream public and its intended to look efficient.

Even so, the Volt has been changed several times and the pre-production model looks smaller and does not appear to be mainstream. This automobile has also undergone more wind tunnel testing than any other GM car. The automaker put more time into its aerodynamics to free up battery technology costs.

New cars in 2010 which run on electric power will come in two flavors. One is the plug in hybrid, which uses both a gasoline engine and electricity, while the other uses more battery stored power and a smaller engine to keep the vehicle at a full charge. New vehicles coming next year will offer better fuel economy, but they do not reduce our overall dependency for foreign oil.

Chevy Volt electric cars use a 1.4-liter four-cylinder gas engine, which is more power than it needs to recharge its battery. The plug-in hybrid lithium-ion battery is expected to provide an average of 40 miles of driving range. However, GM recently stated that they are aiming for 100 miles but left out details on battery and engine specifics.

The Chevy Volt price is another topic of interest. If GM sells the vehicle for $39,000, they will not return a profit. Moreover, they will lose money on each automobile sold.

The Volt battery can fully recharge in less than three hours using a 220-volt outlet. It will take six hours if you plug-in from home to any standard 110v outlet. Even so, it is still cheaper to charge the battery using the plug-in technology.

GM has placed the electric car in pre-production for final tests. This is the phase in which the automobile will be completed and fully road-tested before it goes into post-production.