![]() These hacks allowed Volt to reach showrooms late in 2010. Everything not specific to the new car - from the generator’s gasoline engine to the power window switches - came from GM’s extensive catalog. There was no time for a clean-sheet design so expeditious hacking began on an industrial scale.Ī big hole for the battery was cut from the middle of an existing compact car platform and a complex motor-generator unit needed to be fit in the space where the transmission formerly sat. Their vision was a vehicle that was electric first and gasoline second.įirst Chevrolet Volt prototype road tests in 2008 For anyone analyzing the information available in 2006 - cost of Li-Ion batteries, rising gasoline prices, and lack of widespread charging stations - it was the next logical step and GM moved to take that step before anyone else. In GM’s search for a compromise they chose an answer between those extremes: an electric car with a small battery to keep it affordable, backed up by a gasoline-powered generator to provide the in-between-charging-stations range consumers expect from a car. Lithium-ion batteries that gave Tesla’s Roadster intense power and long range were very expensive, forcing an affordable car to have both a limited range and a small audience. Toyota’s Prius is an affordable efficient car, but still entirely powered by gasoline. Since that perception won’t be changed by merely following, the team looked for something to put them a step ahead. A faction within GM, led by Bob Lutz, was unhappy about this public perception and sought to change it.Ĭar Hacking to Be The First To Take The Next Step Whenever there is talk of environmentally friendly technology, GM was the villain Who Killed the Electric Car. Their big introduction that year was the new Camaro: a tire-shredding muscle car derided as primitively backwards. Tesla shared in this adoration, as their Roadster hit the show circuit and promised to be the start of a wonderful zero-emissions future, even though its price tag was far from mainstream. Eco-friendly was in, and Toyota basked in praise for their fuel-efficient hybrids. But it was a high-tech car within reach of everyday consumers who wanted to do something for the environment (or at least, be seen as such). Hybrids didn’t always make economic sense as only a fraction of Prius owners would save enough on gas to offset their up-front cost. That was a future envisioned in 2006, the year of An Inconvenient Truth and a time when Hollywood stars would arrive at the red carpet in a hybrid instead of a limousine. An obituary buried in corporate euphemisms is a whimper of an end for what was once their technological flagship car of the future.Ģ006: Gas-Electric Hybrids Hit Their Stride, Battery Electrics On The Horizon Here at Hackaday, we choose to memorialize the soon-to-be-departed Chevrolet Volt. But there is also another milestone marked by the cancellation of the Volt. The human factor associated with the closing of these plants is real. At the forefront of news coverage on this are the consequences facing factories making those cars, and the people who work there. A month ago General Motors announced plans to wind down production of several under-performers.
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