Chevy Volt test mule spotted in Michigan.

[[ChaosweaveR]]

Another member on GAGT.com spotted this outside a resturant. Figured I show the pics here as well. Rather interesting.

[Kleindl]

looks nice but I would never pay 40k for a chevy prius

[Ringo64]

Interesting... What's the big red button for?? Emergency kill or an electrical version of NAWZ!!!!

I've always wondered about this car, whether its gonna be a major bust or revive GM. At least the styling of the car looks alright, nothing too fancy but I guess were not goin for that here

I like the electric plug coming out of the grille

looks nice but I would never pay 40k for a chevy prius

but it isn't a hybrid, its all ELECTRICAL... or at least that was the plan several years ago, dunno if their gonna hold true to it.

[markpetersonii]

I love the EMERGENCY STOP button lol

Well, I'm not getting one if they are going to put things that should be in Toyotas in it lol

[Killiger2009]

thts cool how this is going into effect tho soon itll be RUNAWAY VOLT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

['86_TransAM]

Nice to see that thing out and about, hope they don't take as long on it as the Camaro.

I too love the emergency stop button, Toyota should take notes.

[ponta2147]

looks nice but I would never pay 40k for a chevy prius

As far as I know it functions much differently than the Prius. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but this is how I understand it:

Both cars have a battery, an electric motor, and a gasoline engine. BUT this is where the similarities stop.

I believe the Prius is what is known as a Parallel Hybrid. This means that both the engine and the electric motor have direct access to powering the wheels. At some speeds/distances, the electric motor powers the wheels, and at higher speeds/distances, it switches to the engine powering the wheels (using gas). This engine is usually small and underpowered because it needs to be "eco-whatever" since that's the whole point of buying the hybrid. This is also why people complain about the "low mpgs" of the larger vehicle hybrids... the hybrid part doesn't really make that much of a difference if you need to use a bigger engine...

The Volt is the (IMO significantly more awesome) Series Hybrid. This means that only the battery has direct access to powering the wheels via the electric motor, and the gasoline engine merely acts as a generator to recharge the battery or send electricity to the electric motors. This means that for a certain distance, it can run on the battery alone, then switches to drawing a current from the engine-generator (using gas) while the battery recharges.

Why is this more awesome?

Think about it... an engine that's a generator only needs one "speed" or gear... just the one gear that is the most fuel efficient to generate the most electricity with the fewest resources. The only thing that actually changes the speed of the car are the electric motors. The gasoline-engine-as-generator is optimized for its one singular duty! Compare this with a traditional engine that has to work in multiple gears to make a car work (which all of you people know way more about than me).

Here is a link to how the Volt works: http://www.chevrolet.com/pages/open/default/future/volt.do

And here's the neat article I read about series and parallel hybrids: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car2.htm

So, in short, Volt > Prius.

[ponta2147]

Actually it looks like the generator does not recharge the battery, just generates electricity to power the motors. Still more efficient than a normal engine but more expensive than just plugging in would be. The battery needs to be recharged by being plugged in, like an all-electric car would. IF you never plugged in your car ever, it would still work by refueling the gas tank, you just wouldn't get the "40 miles gas free" bonus.

From the Volt website.

[notallthere]

I thought I read that the Volt uses Lithium Ion batteries?

Have you tried to charge lithium ion batteries in -5 C weather. They need to be warm in order to charge. I wonder how they are overcoming this?

[Granite]

That is why the plug is sticking out of the grille, Battery warmer!!! LOL.

[Ringo64]

I thought I read that the Volt uses Lithium Ion batteries?

Have you tried to charge lithium ion batteries in -5 C weather. They need to be warm in order to charge. I wonder how they are overcoming this?

If you go to the Volt website on a time line it has "Cold Weather Testing" from like January to now... So I hope they got their data and a way to improve it

[[ChaosweaveR]]

I betcha that's what this test car was for.

[Sam]

yuck

[[ChaosweaveR]]

I dunno, I still think it's not that bad looking, the more I see it, the more I like it.