A new plug-in concept heads closer to the showroom.

by Scott Corlett

We may never know who really killed the electric car–maybe it was Mr. Mustard in the library with a copy of Mame on DVD? But we do know who is trying to resurrect it.
Oh, you say, that must be Toyota, the maker of the egg-shaped Prius and current gold standard in automotive eco-friendliness. Well, hold on to your Sierra Club cards, because the actual leader of the push for the return of mass-production electric vehicles is none other than Detroit’s General Motors.

Chevrolet first showed off its Volt concept car at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. On the surface, the Volt is a super-slick, futuristic sedan, with four doors and a coupe-style body. Sure, the Volt’s design is dreamy gorgeous and makes me want to throw my jetpack in the back, as I head off to work at Spacely Sprockets. But futuristic concept cars at auto shows are more common than Britney’s breakdowns.
So what makes the Chevy Volt so special? The Volt is powered by a hulking, 400-pound lithium-ion battery. GM claims that after a six-hour charge from a standard, 110-volt outlet, this battery can power the Volt’s electric motor for 40 miles of petroleum-free driving. After 40 miles, the Volt’s three-cylinder, “EV-extender” gasoline engine takes over, not by directly powering the wheels, but by generating current for the electric motor and battery.
You say the Volt sounds more like a plug-in hybrid vehicle than an electric car? Well, that depends on your daily driving patterns. If you drive less than 40 miles a day, then the gasoline engine never starts, and the Chevy Volt is in fact an electric car that solely relies on a wall socket for its nightly juice.

But what if your commute is longer, let’s say 70 miles per day, then what kind of mileage will the Volt offer? Based on GM’s claim of 50 mpg for the three-cylinder engine, you will use 0.6 gallons of gasoline to travel your 70 miles (40 “free” miles plus 30 miles at 50 mpg). This equates to an astounding 117 mpg for your daily commute.
The Volt’s mileage numbers are fab, but what’s revolutionary about this Chevy is its E-Flex System. E-Flex is the Volt’s clever powertrain architecture, which allows future EV-extenders—such as diesel or E85-ethanol engines, or even hydrogen fuel cells—to easily replace the current gasoline plant.
Just imagine the petroleum savings using the simplest of these alternatives, the E85-ethanol engine. E85 fuel is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Now, your 70-mile commute consumes almost entirely only American-made electricity and ethanol. Plus a measly 0.1 gallons of old-fashioned gasoline, which works out to something like 700 m.p.g. That thud that you just heard? That was Al Gore running to sign up for the Volt’s waiting list.

Well, not so fast, former Vice President. GM says there’s one little bump on the road to independence from foreign oil. The Volt’s huge lithium-ion batteries won’t be ready for production until sometime between 2010 and 2012. But if GM can deliver on the Chevy Volt, then what’s good for General Motors will once again be good for America.