Engadget: Electric? Hybrid? Series? Parallel? Who cares? The Chevrolet Volt, the very car that helped us flee a soggy and cold Washington D.C. last year, was just named North American Car of the Year at the North American International Auto Show by an independent panel of judges representing major media outlets. It bested other finalists, the Nissan Leaf and the Hyundai Sonata.
Five years after the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt first went on sale, plug-in vehicles represent slightly less than 1 percent of U.S. new-car deliveries.
There's a lot of anticipation around the little Chevrolet electric car that was unveiled earlier this year. In Detroit this week, we got important updates on its progress.
30k and a 200 mile range for this?
Or 35k and a 250 mile range for the Tesla.
Not that hard of a decision.
I think the model E(screw you Ford) also has about a 200 miles range. But I also think if you asked, Chevy would confirm that according to Tesla's patents Elon Musk definitely knows what he is doing.
BTW, the Model E is several thousand cheaper. And a whole lot more attractive which means the patents don't include assembly instructions. That trash can was the best Chevy could come up with.
Yeah, thats why I like Tesla's. Their cars are easy on the eyes and not these bizarre 'cars of the future' that you would see in cheesy 90's movies.
Absolutely in love with this car, this is totally my type of car, Sud like to see more hatchbacks in the future.
The Chevy Volt's lithium-ion battery may be great for a lot of things -- like low gasoline-dependency, for instance -- but when it comes to government regulated crash tests, it's proving to be a fiery problem. As the story goes, back in May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration put a Volt through standard side-impact crash testing, and in doing so, "the vehicle's battery was damaged and the coolant line was ruptured." The big issue? The car went up in flames multiple weeks later, seemingly as direct result. That event prompted the NHTSA to further study the safety of the batts in the period after a crash, which culminated in more tests performed just over a week ago to find out if they would prove volatile again -- simply put, they did. The group recently explained that it's "concerned that damage to the Volt's batteries as part of three tests that are explicitly designed to replicate real-world crash scenarios have resulted in fire."
