The Chevy Volt: GM Answers (Almost) All of Your Questions

“The Chevy Volt” paid Boston a visit this week, interior and all. While at the “Volt Event”, which is hitting 3 other major cities in the U.S. (Miami, L.A and San Francisco), I had the opportunity to bring our readers’ questions and concerns about the new electric car to the engineers and designers that were in attendance.

In 1996, per direct orders from Mr. Lutz himself, the design team for the Volt began frantically sketching drawings of what will hopefully, one day, become a hallmark vehicle for General Motors. Bob Boniface, the Design Director of the Volt (father of the Camaro design) told us that GM’s main priority right now is to tie up the loose ends in terms of design and engineering and put this car into production sometime in 2010. Bob and his team meet twice a week, every week, with Bob Lutz to go over last minute ideas and production details. So for those of you that are anxious to see this on the road, don’t worry, it’s closer than it’s ever been. -Continued after the jump

For those of you that are more concerned with the design and overall logistics of the vehicle there’s good news and not so good news. There were many floating rumours about the battery life and whether Volt buyers would have to cash in some coin for an extra battery but it’s guaranteed to last 10 years and will probably be leased through GM.

But just to clarify confusion, here’s how it works. The Volt can be fully charged by plugging it into a 110 volt outlet for 6 hours a day. When the lithium battery is charged, the Volt will deliver 40 miles or pure electric range regardless of speed. When the battery runs out, the three cylinder turbo charged engine spins at a constant speed to create electricity and replenish the battery which in turn increases the fuel economy and range. The theory behind the engineering in terms of fuel conservation is that if you live with in 30 miles of work (60 miles round trip) and charged your battery every night or during the day, you would get about 150 miles per gallon.

The Volt concept uses a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbocharged engine which is designed to run on E85, a blend of 15 percent gas and 85 percent ethanol. With E85, fuel economy of 150 mpg using gasoline would translate into more than 525 miles per petroleum gallon. But if you forget to charge the vehicle or go away on a vacation far from home, the Volt would still get 50 mpg by using the engine to convert gasoline into electricity and extend its range up to 640 miles, more than double that of today’s conventional vehicles. Chevy is also playing around with “variant” systems such as the Volt with hydrogen powered fuel cell and diesel engines, which drive the generator to create electricity using biodiesel (for our European friends).

So I must admit, its capabilities are very cool. But let’s talk design for a bit. According to GM, “the Chevrolet Volt’s athletic design challenges the notion that an environmentally conscious vehicle can’t be beautiful and possess an aesthetic spirit that matches its driving characteristics.” But we’re skeptical, especially since about 4 different people at the event told us that even though “the production model won’t look exactly like concept model, you’ll be able to recognize it as the Volt if you see it driving down the street.” For me, this raises a red flag. If GM can just get the design aspect right on this car they can hit a home run just like they did with the Camaro and Corvette. Hopefully, they’ll take the kinetic idea that the concept exhibits and incorporate it into the production model casting away the typical “boxy” style GM cars are so well known for. (Pictures: Daniella & GM)

Posted by Daniella