Chevrolet's Volt From Blue
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday September 24, 2008
LARGE-capacity petrol engines as we know them might not be dead, but they are starting to look a weeny bit off-colour, especially with the decision of troubled car-making giant General Motors to go greenish.
Already-cash-strapped GM was hit hard by the recent (and still largely current) fuel crisis during which American buyers deserted in droves to buy smaller, more economical vehicles.Now big cars and V8 engines are out and the big American is hitting back with an electric car, in this case a production version of the Volt concept vehicle first seen as an ideas machine back in January 2007.Volt (will they keep such an awful name for production?) is officially an E-REV (extended-range electric vehicle) and on full batteries can run about 70 kilometres. When the power runs out a small internal combustion engine kicks in but works only as a generator to power up the batteries that supply current to the electric motors.Volt will be revealed to the European market in Paris on October 4 and production is scheduled to start in the US in early 2010.Will we see the Corolla-sized, four-seat Volt come to Australia though? Word is that Holden would be keen to bring it here in small numbers as a competitor to Toyota's Prius.IT'S DIESEL TO POWER OF SIX Page 56 Holden's Sportswagon loves to run wild on weekends, see Saturday Drive
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