Recall that a little over a month ago I reported about the Tesla electric car to you? In that article, I congratulated the car makers on their choice of name, and speculated about what other names might be used in the future when more car manufacturers get into the game. One of my favourites was the “Volt”. Well, today, GM announced a new electric car in development, and guess what they called it? The Volt! I was rather prescient, it seems! More on the announcement of the Chevy Volt at Newsweek (I borrowed the picture from there) and the San Jose Mercury News.
What will the Volt do? It is a hybrid, but the driving mechanism is purely electric. This is different from what other well-known hybrids do”:
But the Volt is a different kind of hybrid. Unlike those on the market that are primarily powered by a small gasoline engine, this sexy little four-seater runs on pure electricity. The tiny three-cylinder gasoline engine under its hood is only used to recharge the batteries, never to turn the wheels. You can also recharge the Volt by plugging it into a standard socket for about six hours. By contrast, the 60mpg Prius can’t be plugged in and only runs on pure electric power until it hits about 15mph. Then its small gasoline engine kicks in to supplement the electric motor.
It’s good news that US car makers are finally waking up and beginning to get up to speed. Let’s hope they move fast on this, and do it for real this time, not dropping the ball as they did with the EV1 (GM’s chairman recently admitted that they screwed up in that venture, in view of Toyota’s success with the Prius). More competition, more variety and more exposure for this type of vehicle overall is what is needed here. All for the good of our environment. Bring it on.
-cvj
why not a solar power generator on the Volt to recharge the batteries? and dont use a drop of gasoline?
Good post and information about the “volt” I don’t know if I’m sold on the name though and think it will only appeal to some people.
Now that is what I call a futuristic looking car. Seriously unreal. The Volt huh? Seem like a pretty powerful name for this car. I wonder what kind of marketing they can do for this if and when it gets released. What is your thoughts about how they might go about marketing a vehicle like this?
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So you’re using gasoline combustion… to charge the battery? Isn’t that a step backwards
Probably just as many women as men, Cynthia.
-cvj
But then again, John Branch, every man wants to get a jolt from riding a Volt…;)
Why couldn’t it be the Volta? Two reasons I’d prefer that. One, car names with unstressed final syllables (what some poetry readers would call a feminine ending), especially a final “a,” seem to roll off the tongue more easily. Consider “Honda” and “Toyota” themselves, not to mention a lot of their model names. Two, Volta was the original chap’s name, after all.
Does “Volta” just sound too…foreign?
Already 2007 is starting off like an upside down year. GM “re-introduces” a hybridized electric car, and Honda promotes its new line of large pick-up trucks, oh well?? But we really do need all the Volts, Teslas, Prius’s, Insights, et al, and the sooner the better!
Cute car, but “Volt” isn’t as catchy as “Prius.” I want one anyway.