volt

The folks at General Motors this week continued with hot weather testing of the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt went through a series of Grade Load tests on the Circle Track with a towing dynamometer, which simulates endless hill and mountain climbing. The towing dyno can simulate climbing an incline with anywhere from a 2 to 10 percent grade when it is attached to the Volt, and today's tests were of the 5 and 7.2 percent variety.

A towing option will not be available for the Volt, nor is it recommended--in fact, the team at the GM Desert Proving … Read more

Audi may be the first car with its own app store, Mercury dies so Lincoln can live, Chevy Volt and other electric cars are tricky for first responders, Motorola launches safe-driving Android apps, and will the real James Bond Aston Martin please start up?

• Audi rumored to have apps coming to unlock features in its cars

• Ford pulls the plug on Mercury

• CNET drives the 2010 Infiniti EX35 Journey

• Pedal-powered Porsche looks great, goes slow!

• "Original" James Bond DB5 goes on sale for the first time--but it's not really the "original"… Read more

Chevrolet and OnStar are sponsoring a series of training courses for first responders across the U.S. specifically geared toward electric-vehicle crash rescues.

The training has the endorsement of a myriad of rescue organizations including the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), according to a joint statement from all parties involved.

Sessions will be held in 2010 in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., as well as at leading rescue and first-responder conferences throughout the year.

In conjunction with the rescue organizations, Chevy … Read more

We drive the Chevy Volt--yep the real one--and the 2011 Kia Sorento (with monkey.) The Nissan Leaf is open to anyone to preorder. Smart airbags may not be so smart. And we'll find out why mobile TV in your car may not be that easy to receive.

• We drive the Chevy Volt

• Smart airbags not so smart if you're wearing your belt

• Nissan Leaf reservations opened up to all

• Mobile TV in cars not exactly a slam dunk (map)… Read more

The Chevrolet Volt has probably been "coming soon" for longer than any vehicle in automotive history, but trust us, it's real. We know this because we were recently handed the keys to a preproduction version of GM's electric Prius-hunter for a test-drive in downtown San Francisco.

GM tells us that this preproduction model was hand-built late last year, and that substantial tweaks have been made to both the software driving the Volt and the fit and finish of the interior of newer versions being tested elsewhere--and that the production models that roll off assembly lines in November will be tweaked further still. However, the actual hardware of the vehicle's drivetrain is about as showroom-ready as it gets.

Extended range electric vehicle The hardware in question begins with a T-shaped lithium ion battery pack running the length of the vehicle's center tunnel and rear seats that provides power to a 120kW electric motor. The motor is connected to the front wheels through a single-speed transmission and handles all of the vehicle's motivational duties. Running in electric vehicle (EV) mode, the Volt has an estimated optimal range of 40 miles, more than enough--by GM's estimates--to handle commuter duties for the vast majority of drivers.

Also tucked under the Volt's hood is a 1.4-liter gasoline engine. This engine integrates a generator, producing juice to keep the Volt's batteries trickle-charged in extended range (ER) mode when trips exceed the vehicle's 40-mile EV range. This gasoline engine is not mechanically connected to the drive wheels or transmission, only the electric motor is. So don't go calling the Volt a hybrid around GM's people. The preferred term is extended range electric vehicle, or EREV.… Read more

Last week, rumors were swirling around a potential partnership between General Motors and Google to develop an Android-based telematics system. On the eve of Google's I/O conference, GM made an official announcement about its actual plans for the Android OS, a version 2.0 of the Android version of its OnStar Mobile app for Chevrolet Volt that will feature Google Maps integration.

Essentially, what GM will be doing is adding a "navigation" tab to the Android version of the OnStar app that allows users to see their current location and the location of a connected Chevrolet … Read more

If there's truth to the rumors, General Motors' next -generation in-car cabin tech suite may be powered by Google's Android operating system. Sources at MotorTrend say the automaker and search giant are in negotiations over just that sort of thing.

The Android/OnStar infotainment hybrid would go head-to-head with the likes of Ford's Microsoft Sync suite, offering access to a user's connected media, allowing two-way communication between a connected smartphone of any brand, and potentially replacing GM's OnStar turn-by-turn directions with Google Maps navigation. Perhaps there's even room for an in-car app store of … Read more

Concerned that drivers will suffer performance on the steepest of grades, General Motors engineers have included a "Mountain" mode in the Chevy Volt to boost the available power.

Mountain mode, which will be selected by the driver, is essentially a cue to the car to start storing up extra energy in the battery. Once in place, it means that the car will have all the available power from the gasoline engine and batteries, explained Larry Nitz, GM's executive director of hybrid and electric powertrain engineering, during an update with the media on Tuesday.

There are few circumstances … Read more

Chevrolet has taken the yet-unreleased Volt extended-range electric vehicle in an odd direction for the Chinese market, making it bigger and less efficient with the newly revealed Volt MPV5 concept. The concept takes the styling cues of the Volt sedan that we're already familiar with and super-sizes it into a five-seat crossover.

The Volt MPV5 is only 0.6 inches longer in wheel base, but overall it is 7 inches longer than the sedan version. Height has been increased by about 7 inches and width has spread by 2.9 inches. The result is a vehicle that gives its five passengers a bit more elbow room.

Under the hood is the same Voltec powertrain consisting of a 111 kW (150 horsepower) electric motor that twists the Volt MPV5's front wheels to the tune of 273 pound-feet of torque. Electric power is supplied by the same T-shaped 16 kWh lithium ion battery that juices the sedan, but the heavier MPV5's EV range has been reduced to 32 miles (down from the 40-mile zero emission range of the Volt sedan).

Once the battery is exhausted, a 1.4-liter gasoline range extender takes over supplying electricity and keeping the electric powertrain spinning until the battery can be plugged in and recharged.… Read more