We were front and center when General Motors launched its Volt concept car at the 2007 North American International Auto Show and we were in a similar position last week when the company rolled out the production version of the 2011 vehicle. Like most media outlets, we praised GM for taking such a bold step in creating not only a gasoline-saving vehicle, but an entirely new class of transportation—something the company has dubbed an “electric range-extended vehicle.”
Last week’s unveiling of the 2011 production car version of the Volt was met with some hubbub, mostly around a new design—with some stating that the bloom had come off the rose. While the design issue is a divided one in our office, we’re in universal agreement (and disappointment) over a new revelation in the Volt story we’ve just learned about over the last 24 hours. It seems that at some point over the last few months GM changed the powertrain story for the Volt, removing one of the concept’s groundbreaking features: the ability to charge its lithium-ion battery on the fly after the initial charge had expired.
In a press release posted by GM on January 7, 2007 (the day of the Volt’s launch at NAIAS), the company said that “when the battery is depleted…(an) engine spins at a constant speed to create electricity and replenish the battery.”
The problem is that’s no longer the case. In the production version of the Volt unveiled last week, little was made of the powertrain changes, but they were published in a press release which was later sniffed out by Edmunds' Inside Line . The new powertrain configuration has the gasoline engine providing power to the electric motor, effectively creating a “powertrain double” in which both the gasoline engine and electric motor are running in tandem when in “extended-range” mode to power the vehicle.
GM responded to inquiries about this today, saying that the change from the original method of charging the batteries on the fly to the new model of running the electric motor from gasoline occurred only recently “when plans for the production version firmed up.” Miles per gallon for the gasoline engine that will provide power to the electric motor are unknown at this point. What is known is the original press release from January 7, 2007 has been pulled from GM’s media website; the link to access it is no longer active, but it's still available on GM Europe's website as of this writing
While the detail might seem small, it is a fundamental change in the Volt story. We’re still big fans of the idea of the car but hope that between now and its on-sale date in two years it still keeps the magic alive. On a side note, our hats our tipped to the team running GM's Twitter feed (Adam and Chris, we believe) who were quick to respond to our inquiries throughout the day.
