GM to replace 120-volt charging cords on Chevy Volt

General Motors said on Thursday it will replace the 120-volt charging cords for most Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid cars.

The exchange affects all 2011 model plug-in electric hybrid Volts and some 2012 models, GM spokesman Randal Fox said.

He did not know the total number affected, but said it was fewer than the more than 11,000 Volts sold so far. The car sells for just under $40,000 before federal subsidies of $7,500.

Yahoo Autos first reported the swap, citing consumer complaints about overheating cords. However, Fox said the exchange was not to address overheating.

"It's just an effort to offer a more consistent charging experience," Fox said. "It's not a safety recall. It's more of a customer-satisfaction program.

"We made some enhancements to the design to add some durability and reliability," he said. For example, GM increased the cord's cable size to enhance durability, he said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation on Nov. 25 into the safety of the Volt's battery pack after its own repeated tests uncovered fire risks.

The fires occurred after NHTSA crash tests or other tests where the car's lithium ion batteries were purposely damaged.

NHTSA closed its probe in January without finding any defects and expressed satisfaction with GM's fix to better protect the lithium-ion battery pack by adding steel reinforcements and other steps to prevent coolant fluid from leaking and triggering a fire.

Some felt the probe was unnecessary, but the Volt has received outsized attention despite its small sales totals as many Republicans have criticized the car's sales and the federal subsidies its buyers receive.

GM idled the Volt assembly plant in Michigan for five weeks due to weaker demand.

GM CEO Dan Akerson in January said the Volt got "disproportionate scrutiny" because it had become a surrogate for election-year politics and commentary on Obama administration policy.

GM has showcased the electric car as the centerpiece of efforts on fuel efficiency and cutting edge technology.

Volt owners will be notified of the exchange in the next few weeks and as they bring in their cars for the battery enhancement they will also receive the new cords, Fox said.

The new cords will not change recharging time and the exchange does not affect the 240-volt cords, he said.

Chevy's Volt draws GOP scorn as campaign heats up

Republican Lutz angered over 'lies' about the car, damage to GM

Ever since it became known that the plug-in hybrid car's batteries had caught fire weeks after government crash tests, the Volt has become the whipping boy of Republican politicians. Conservatives have equated General Motors Co.'s Volt with everything from government bailouts to radical left-wing environmentalism.
"Although we loaded the Volt with state-of-the-art safety features, we did not engineer the Volt to be a political punching bag," GM CEO Dan Akerson said during a Congressional hearing on the Volt in January. "And that, sadly, is what the Volt has become."
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich faulted the Volt for its lack of space for a gun rack. Front-runner Mitt Romney called it "an idea whose time has not come." American Tradition Partnership Inc., a conservative group, referred to Volts as "exploding Obamamobiles."
Akerson said all the trash talk about the Volt has been pinching sales. Obama's challengers, though, see it as an effective way to resonate with their voters.
Republicans buy Silverado pickups and other Chevrolets in greater numbers than Democrats do, said Art Spinella, who studies new-vehicle buyers as president of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore.
While Chevy customers tend to lean conservative, less than 14 percent of Volt buyers so far this year identify themselves as Republicans while about 53 percent call themselves Democrats, according to CNW survey of 1,416 people. Buyers of the Chevrolet brand as a whole were 37 percent Republican, 22 percent Democrat and 41 percent independent.
Disappointing sales
Politics aside, Volt sales have been a source of disappointment for GM. The Environmental Protection Agency gave it a 95 mpg rating for city driving, less than half the 230 mpg rating GM had anticipated in 2009.
After the battery fires became public in November, 2011 sales fell short of Akerson's goal and following slow sales in January and February, GM decided to stop making the cars for five weeks. While the government's investigation found the Volt to be as safe as other vehicles, they are complicated and expensive for a small car at nearly $40,000 before a federal tax credit.
Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf electric car missed its sales targets last year, too, raising questions about the size of the market for technology-laden fuel-efficient vehicle.
BOB LUTZ BLOG ON FORBES.COM: The Chevy Volt, Bill O'Reilly And The Postman's Butt
Republican bashing
It's impossible to know to what degree political rhetoric is hurting Volt sales, but Akerson isn't alone in believing the numbers would look better without the Republican bashing. Chevrolet dealers in the U.S. sold 7,671 Volts last year, missing GM's target of 10,000.
About 1,600 Volts were sold in the first two months of the year, a pace that doesn't match Akerson's plans to deliver 45,000 in the U.S. this year. At least part of that gap is a result of attacks on the campaign trail, Spinella said. Buyers from the political center to the right, "will not buy a car that has anything at all that they perceive being associated with the administration," Spinella said.
While the Volt accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the world's largest automaker's sales last year, it is getting heightened attention because "it's a hallmark car," Akerson told reporters in San Francisco this week. After the announcement last week that work would stop for five weeks at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant where the Volt is made, Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, posted on Twitter about it with the hashtag "#ObamaonEmpty."
The Volt, introduced a month before Obama said he would run for president, can go more than 30 miles on electricity before its gasoline engine kicks in and powers a generator to recharge the battery. The car has a range of 379 miles with both electric and gasoline power combined.
Lutz outraged

Bob Lutz, the former vice chairman at General Motors who helped develop the Volt, said he's angered that the car has become politicized.
"I don't mind criticizing Obama, I don't mind criticizing the Democrats and, you know me, I think global warming is a huge hoax perpetrated by the global political left," Lutz said. "But when it comes to starting to tell outright lies to advance your political purposes and damage an American company that is greatly on its way back, hurt American employment in Hamtramck, Michigan, I just think it's totally outrageous."
Lutz, a Republican, said he voted for former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in the Michigan Republican primary in part because former Massachusetts Gov. Romney wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times in 2008 headlined "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" about his opposition to a GM bailout.

Obama's role
After President George W. Bush extended emergency loans to GM's predecessor, Obama's administration managed its $50 billion bailout. The U.S. still holds 32 percent of the GM shares, which have gained 26 percent this year after falling 45 percent in 2011.
Obama has embraced the Volt's fuel-saving technology and said it's his choice for a new car once he's no longer president.
"It was nice," he told a UAW audience on Feb. 28 about sitting in one. "I'll bet it drives real good. And five years from now when I'm not president anymore, I'll buy one and drive it myself."
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., who owns a Chevrolet dealership in Butler, said he doesn't sell the Volt at his store because it's too expensive for his customers, who would be better served with a cheaper Cruze. While it may be an engineering marvel, it's too far out for his customers, he said.
"It's still just not a viable alternative to the market that I serve in western Pennsylvania," he said. "I just don't have people coming in to buy that car."
Social issues

The Volt not only personifies the bailout for Republican candidates, it also plays to other controversial issues such as class and environment. On the campaign trail, for example, Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker, has peppered his stump speech with comments about the Volt, including during a stop Feb. 17 caught by C-Span.
"The average family that buys it earns $170,000 a year and this is Obama's idea of populism and in his new budget he wants to increase the amount given to every Volt buyer to $10,000, which is an amount which would allow a lot of people to buy a decent secondhand car but it wouldn't be an Obama car," Gingrich said to cheers in Peachtree City, Ga.
"But here's my point to folks: You can't put a gun rack in a Volt. So let's be clear what this election is all about," Gingrich continued. "We believe in the right to bear arms and we like to bear the arms in our trucks."
The Volt "can do a lot of things," including tote a gun rack, responded Selim Bingol, vice president of GM's global communications, on a company blog. "But if you are looking for a vehicle for your next hunting trip, it may not be your first choice."

Chevy Volt fire probe is closed, NHTSA says

U.S. safety regulators said today that they've closed an eight-week investigation into the Chevrolet Volt, concluding that the plug-in hybrid's battery doesn't pose a significant fire risk following a crash.

In a statement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it "does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles."

The agency said that modifications intended to reinforce the Volt's 435-pound lithium-ion battery pack that General Motors announced on Jan. 5 should "reduce the potential" of the pack catching fire in the days or weeks following a crash.

In November, NHTSA opened an investigation after two incidents in which the Volt's battery pack either caught fire or emitted sparks in the days or weeks following crash tests.

An earlier battery fire occurred in June, three weeks after the agency completed side-impact testing on the Volt.

GM reaction

In a statement, GM said NHTSA's decision to close the investigation "is consistent with the results of our internal testing and assessment." The automaker reiterated that the change it's making to protect the battery pack "is intended to make a safe vehicle even safer."

The agency's clearing of the Volt helps GM avert a potential hit to its image. The automaker's executives have held up the revolutionary car as a symbol of innovation and fresh thinking at the post-bankruptcy GM.

Despite broad praise for the car, U.S. sales of 7,671 Volts last year fell short of GM's goal of 10,000 units.

GM executives cooperated with NHTSA's investigation but have maintained that the Volt is safe. Company executives say the voluntary fix will make the car "safer" by reinforcing the steel surrounding the battery pack to prevent it from being punctured during a crash. It also will add a sensor to the battery pack to monitor coolant leaks.

GM is asking its 8,000 Volt customers to visit their Chevy dealership to have the work done. Dealers will be ready to perform the work starting in February, GM said.

GM said that about 250 Volt owners have taken GM up on its offer to provide loaner vehicles or to buy back the car to quell any safety concerns during the probe.

Testimony still to come

NHTSA said it still is unaware of any real-world Volt crashes that have resulted in a battery fire. It said the agency took the "unusual step" of opening the investigation because it wanted to "ensure the safety of the driving public with emerging [electric vehicle] technology."

A U.S. House panel hearing is scheduled on Wednesday to scrutinize how GM and regulators handled the investigation of the fire risks. GM CEO Dan Akerson has agreed to testify.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is also expected to hear from David Strickland, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

PRESS RELEASE: NHTSA Statement on Conclusion of Chevy Volt Investigation

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released the following statement today regarding the conclusion of its safety defect investigation into the post-crash fire risk of Chevy Volts (PE11037):

Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed its safety defect investigation into the potential risk of fire in Chevy Volts that have been involved in a serious crash. Opened on November 25, the agency's investigation has concluded that no discernible defect trend exists and that the vehicle modifications recently developed by General Motors reduce the potential for battery intrusion resulting from side impacts.

NHTSA remains unaware of any real-world crashes that have resulted in a battery-related fire involving the Chevy Volt or any other electric vehicle. NHTSA continues to believe that electric vehicles show great promise as a safe and fuel-efficient option for American drivers. However, as the reports released in conjunction with the closure of the investigation today indicate, fires following NHTSA crash tests of the vehicle and its battery components—and the innovative nature of this emerging technology—led the agency to take the unusual step of opening a safety defect investigation in the absence of data from real-world incidents.

Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles. Generally all vehicles have some risk of fire in the event of a serious crash. However, electric vehicles have specific attributes that should be made clear to consumers, the emergency response community, and tow truck operators and storage facilities. Recognizing these considerations, NHTSA has developed interim guidance—with the assistance of the National Fire Protection Association, the Department of Energy, and others—to increase awareness and identify appropriate safety measures for these groups. The agency expects this guidance will help inform the ongoing work by NFPA, DOE, and vehicle manufacturers to educate the emergency response community, law enforcement officers, and others about electric vehicles.

For additional information on the Volt investigation and others, visit www.SaferCar.gov.

Dealers: Chevy Volt fire investigation doesn’t faze customers

News of a federal investigation into a Chevrolet Volt that caught fire hasn’t spooked shoppers of the plug-in hybrid, several Chevy dealers say.

“No one has asked about it,” says Ronald DeTommaso, general manager at Atlantic Chevrolet-Cadillac in Bay Shore, N.Y., on Long Island. The store is one of the largest Volt dealers in the United States; it has sold more than 30 since the car’s launch in December 2010.

On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that a Volt at one of its test facilities caught fire about three weeks after the agency had conducted a test crash on the car.

NHTSA said the crash damaged the car’s lithium ion battery, which led to the vehicle fire. Nobody was hurt in the blaze. NHTSA said it is the only case of a battery-related fire in a crash of a vehicle powered by a lithium ion battery.

Both NHTSA and General Motors have said the Volt is not more susceptible to fires than gasoline-powered vehicles. Nonetheless, NHTSA said it is working with GM and other automakers to minimize the risk of post-crash fires.

In a statement issued Friday, after news reports about the NHTSA investigation, Jim Federico, GM’s chief engineer for electric vehicles, said the automaker is working with the federal agency on its investigation.

“I want to make this very clear: The Volt is a safe car,” Federico said. He said GM has safety protocols for handling the battery after a crash and is working with other manufacturers “with the goal of implementing industrywide protocols.”

Jim Purves, a sales manager at Al Serra Chevrolet in Grand Blanc, Mich., said customers haven’t asked about the media reports of the Volt fire.

“I think GM did a great job by getting out there and quickly clarifying the situation,” he said.

Tom Cedar, general manager at All-American Chevrolet in Middletown, N.J., said only one customer had asked him over the weekend about the reports. The customer is planning to buy a Volt anyway, Cedar said.

“He wasn’t worried about it. He said, ‘Things like that can happen with any car,” Cedar said. “I don’t think it’s going to scare away customers.”

Chevy Volt fire prompts U.S. safety probe of lithium ion batteries, report says

U.S. auto-safety regulators are scrutinizing the safety of lithium ion batteries that power electric vehicles after a Chevrolet Volt battery caught fire, people familiar with the probe said.

The regulators have approached all automakers, including General Motors, Nissan Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co., that sell or have plans to sell vehicles with lithium ion batteries with questions about the batteries' fire risk, four people familiar with the inquiry said.

The Volt caught fire while parked at a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration testing center in Wisconsin, three weeks after a side-impact crash test, said an agency official.

The official, as well as the three other people familiar with the inquiry, said they couldn't be named because the investigation isn't public.

“I want to make this very clear: the Volt is a safe car,” said Jim Federico, GM’s chief engineer for electric vehicles. “We are working cooperatively with NHTSA as it completes its investigation. However, NHTSA has stated that based on available data, there’s no greater risk of fire with a Volt than a traditional gas-powered car.”

The probe comes as automakers look to expand plug-in offerings beyond the Volt and Nissan's Leaf, which went on sale in the 2011 model year as the first mass-market plug-in electric cars in the United States.

Toyota Motor Co.'s Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid, uses a nickel-metal battery. A plug-in Prius and an electric version of the RAV4 sport-utility vehicle will use lithium ion batteries.

President Barack Obama has set a goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015. Nissan is among companies that have received financing assistance from the U.S. Energy Department and European Investment Bank to develop the Leaf and lithium ion batteries.

GM in January withdrew a request for $14.4 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.

Seoul-based LG Chem Ltd., South Korea's biggest chemical maker, supplies the lithium ion batteries for the Volt.

Concern for first responders

The fire was severe enough to burn vehicles parked near the Volt, the agency official said. Investigators determined the battery was the source of the fire, the official said.

NHTSA also sent a team of investigators this week to Mooresville, N.C., to probe a fire in a residential garage where a Volt was charging. That investigation is continuing, the agency official said.

"As manufacturers continue to develop vehicles of any kind -- electric, gasoline, or diesel -- it is critical that they take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of drivers and first responders both during and after a crash," the safety agency said in a statement today.

"Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe the Volt or other electric vehicles are at a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles. In fact, all vehicles -- both electric and gasoline-powered -- have some risk of fire in the event of a serious crash."

The agency's greater concern is for rescue response teams, tow truck operators and salvage yards who may be storing plug-in cars after an accident, the official said.

GM spokesman Greg Martin said the company doesn't believe the Volt poses any greater risk to drivers than a conventional automobile. GM has spent almost 300,000 hours testing the car and believes it is safe, he said.

After the fire in June, GM and NHTSA both crashed a Volt and could not replicate the fire, Martin said. GM has safety protocols for handling the Volt and its battery after an accident. Had those been followed, there wouldn't have been a fire, Martin said.

"There are safety protocols for conventional cars," Martin said. "As we develop new technology, we need to ensure that safety protocols match the technology."

The Volt and Leaf went on sale in late 2010. U.S. sales of the Volt have reached 5,003 units this year through October; Leaf sales total 8,048 units.

Nissan spokeswoman Katherine Zachary said today there have been no incidents of fire involving the battery in the Leaf.

"The Nissan Leaf battery pack has been designed with multiple safety systems in place to help ensure its safety in the real world. All of our systems have been thoroughly tested to ensure real-world performance," Zachary said. "To date, the more than 8,000 Nissan Leafs driving on the U.S. roads have performed without reported incident."

Flammable element

Automakers have engineered electric vehicles using lithium ion batteries to withstand serious accidents because the element is flammable, said Sandy Munro, president of Munro and Associates, an engineering consulting firm in Troy, Mich.

Lithium ion batteries could catch on fire if the battery case and some of the internal cells that store electricity are pierced by steel or another ferrous metal, he said.

"Lithium burns really hot," Munro said. "But it doesn't happen often. You have to do something pretty dramatic to make it catch fire."

If a lithium ion battery is pierced by steel, a chemical reaction will take place that starts raising the temperature and can result in a fire, he said. If the piercing is small, that reaction can take days or weeks to occur, he said.

NHTSA this year gave the Leaf and Volt its top crash-test safety rating, following a "good" rating in April by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In the simulated side-impact crash test, a new U.S. safety test for the 2011 model year, metal punctured the battery, the official said.

Regulators want to use information collected from automakers to inform emergency responders, towing firms and salvage yards about how to handle plug-in electric cars involved in crashes that may penetrate the battery compartment, the official said.

NHTSA will use the information from the automakers, which also include Toyota and BMW AG, for a three-year $8.8 million electric-vehicle safety study it announced in June, the official said.

The Federal Aviation Administration, in an advisory to airlines in October 2010, warned that lithium batteries used in cell phones, digital cameras and other devices are "highly flammable and capable of ignition," adding that fire suppression systems aren't effective when that happens.

It issued the advisory after a United Parcel Service Inc. cargo plane carrying thousands of lithium batteries crashed in Dubai after catching fire, killing both pilots.

Fifteen electric-car or battery-powered models will be available in the United States by the end of 2014, according to J.D. Power & Associates, which forecasts a glut of electric cars given that hybrid-electric sales were only 2 percent of the car market so far this year.

GM defends Volt while critics say it's not a pure electric car

Chevy Volt

DETROIT (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. is disputing accusations that its low-emission Chevrolet Volt is a hybrid and not a true electric vehicle a month before the car goes on sale.

Auto critics Edmunds.com, Motor Trend, Popular Mechanics and others have said that during heavy acceleration the Volt uses its gasoline engine to augment power from the electric motors to drive the wheels.

On its Web site, GM says the car is an extended-range electric vehicle, not a hybrid like Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius.

“GM's insistence that the car is fully electric is hard to understand in light of the fact that the gas engine provides direct motive power under certain conditions,” the New York Times said Monday.

Doug Parks, a global electric vehicle executive for GM, told the New York Times that the automaker chose not to publicize the high-speed gas-engine assist feature previously to protect the technology during the patent application process.

'A PR problem'

The Volt debate illustrates the marketing challenge for automakers selling new technology in cars that don't fit standard classifications and whose performance is difficult to measure.

GM and Nissan Motor Co. have both made claims about their new models' fuel economy and driving range that not all consumers may attain because electric performance varies greatly by driving habits.

“You have a PR problem with any one of these vehicles,” said Jim Hall, principal of 2953 Analytics Inc., an auto consulting firm in suburban Detroit. “GM had this sort of schizophrenic thing about doing its best to manage perception and at the same time going off into traditional old-style GM hype.”

GM has promoted the $41,000 Volt as an electric vehicle to give it an image boost over hybrid-electric cars such as the Prius.

“The Chevrolet Volt is not a hybrid,” GM said in materials distributed this week to journalists. “It is a one-of-a-kind, all-electrically driven vehicle designed and engineered to operate in all climates.”

The Detroit automaker has said for three years that the Volt would always run on electric power and more recently said it would average 230 miles per gallon. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hasn't rated that number, and GM said many consumers may get lower fuel economy.

Series and parallel hybrid

GM said Monday that the engine does assist in driving the car through an electric generator.

Critics at Popular Mechanics and Edmunds both wrote they consider the Volt a plug-in hybrid and not the electric vehicle that GM has touted for years. The Edmunds review of the car had the headline: “GM Lied: Chevy Volt is not a true EV.”

According to the editors at AutoWeek, an affiliate of Automotive News, the Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle, series hybrid and parallel hybrid all rolled into one.

For the first 25 to 50 miles it's an electric vehicle, running on the battery pack alone. Once the battery pack reaches its minimum charge, the 1.4-liter engine kicks in and turns a generator to feed electricity to the two electric motors -- or a series hybrid.

At speeds of about 70 mph or more, a clutch pack engages which lets the 1.4-liter engine lend a hand and mechanically help turn one of the electric motors, while also generates electricity for the electric motors. That would make it a parallel hybrid by using two power sources to help move the vehicle.

The new claims have arisen in recent days following the formal media launch of the Volt. For the first time, journalists are getting the opportunity to drive the Volt in all modes and driving conditions.

Up until now, GM had allowed journalists to drive the Volt in electric-vehicle mode only.

“GM has kept the complete functionality of the Volt a closely guarded secret until now,” said Bob Gritzinger, executive editor of Autoweek.com and who was among the journalists that drove the vehicle this week.

Nick Richards, a GM spokesman, said the Volt always runs on electricity and has no mechanical link from the gasoline engine to the wheels.

The car's four-cylinder gasoline engine powers a secondary electric motor, which turns the wheels, Tony Posawatz, the Volt's vehicle line director, said in an interview. The car's gas engine doesn't directly power the wheels, he said. GM never disclosed that fact because the engineers saw it as a benefit that boosted the car's fuel economy, he said.

‘Very different'

“I keep telling people that this is a smart solution,” Posawatz said. “It drives very different from a hybrid.”

Hall, of 2953 Analytics, said there are some similarities between the Volt and the Prius.

“In a Prius, there is no mechanical linkage between the engine and the wheels -- it goes through a motor,” he said. “They use the engine to drive a direct-drive generator to drive the motor. The Volt does the same thing, it's just that the Volt can run with electric power without an engine longer than pretty much any hybrid right now can.”

GM said previously that the Volt would go 40 miles on a fully charged battery before the gasoline engine starts to recharge the battery, giving the vehicle a total range of 340 miles.

The company said this week it will go 25 to 50 miles in electric drive and 310 miles on one charge and a tank of fuel.

Nissan and GM both will have marketing challenges when consumers experience lower range or fuel economy, Hall said. With hybrids and electric cars, they can drive farther in stop-and-go city driving than on the highway because braking recharges the battery.

Company claims

That means many Volt owners won't get 230 miles per gallon in the Volt and Leaf drivers won't get the 100 miles on a single charge that the companies have claimed, Hall said.

Consumers probably won't care whether the Volt is a hybrid or electric car, said Eric Noble, president of The CarLab, an auto consulting firm in Orange, Calif. Potential buyers will be more concerned with the car's price, the fuel savings and how far they can drive before needing to plug in or refuel.

“Consumers don't care what we call it,” Noble said. “In our research, most of the questions from consumers are about battery life and recharging.”

The Volt's emissions are more important than what people call it, said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, an environmental lobbying group in Washington.

“I don't think purity is the issue,” Becker said. “What comes out of the tailpipe is the issue. If it's a little, it's green. If it's a lot, it's not.”

Chevrolet Volt - Electric Plug-in Hybrid

The Chevy Volt, due out in 2010, is an Electric Plug-in that will run entirely on electricity. One nice added feature to the Chevy Volt that was not implemented on the old Chevy EV-1 is its small on board gasoline engine that can recharge the battery without plugging it in. This added feature will insure your ability to get home and not be stuck dead in the middle of some unforeseen bumper to bumper traffic. The Chevy Volt is said to go 40 miles before the auxiliary generator is needed to charge the battery.

Not yet confirmed, but Chevy also intends to deliver the Saturn Vue Plug-in Hybrid. The Vue Plug-in won't be as revolutionary as the Volt, but it will probably cost a lot less. (The Volt is expected to cost about $40,000.) For starters, the Vue Plug-in will be an enhancement to an existing vehicle, the Vue Two-mode Hybrid that's expected to go on sale next year. As planned, the Vue Plug-in will be a parallel hybrid. That means that, like a regular Toyota Prius or Ford Escape Hybrid, it will be powered by a gasoline engine with significant assistance from electric motors Starting with a full charge, GM expects to have an electric-only range of about 10 miles. GM expects overall fuel economy twice that of any current SUV.