Without any second thought we can say today that we are witnessing the Electrifying transition phase in Auto industry which has the potential of becoming the game changer for the Industry in many aspects. Lets not go in those aspect right now, but think of the future of the transportation. Why still drive a car which is using almost the similar technology used by our great great grand parents? While we always see technologies are getting older in the matter of months not even years, why Auto industry is still injecting gasoline in the cylinder to cover those miles. Well here is your answer… VOLT.
Volt is not only the answer from GM of the decade old question ‘who killed the electric car?’ but also the answer to those who believed GM is just a dead elephant. Well in many sense equipped with many ground breaking technologies Volt is not only going to be the face of the GM future but also going to be the benchmark for the auto industry. Without any doubt in coming years there will be four wheelers coming into the market which is going to be more sophisticated and more advance than current Volt, but for sure this vehicle has the full potential to become the spearhead of that new era of automobile.
Well, I do accept when I became the part of HEV team working for Volt and other products and started learning about this car, I had many questions and doubts. I was skeptical about the technology, I was skeptical about its acceptance in the market, I was skeptical about its practicality and I also doubted its status as an Electric vehicle. Well I spent some more time and not all my doubts got clear but also became the fan of its technology. I feel privileged to work with the team who are involved in the development of this product. In US when I took a test ride of this car on MPG (Milford Proving Ground), my appreciation for this car only increased by many folds.
This car holds the key for the future status of survived GM but again its just the beginning. Currently working for some other future products from GM which are supposed to be launched around 2014, I have no doubt over what would the car of future will look like. But lets talk Volt here.
There are several queries about Volt which keep circulating among many car enthusiasts. There is no prize money for answering these question, so I am answering them in the shortest possible way first and later will discuss in some what detail. Here we go…
Is Volt an Electric car?... Yes
Is Volt is only an Electric car?... No
Is it better than current Electric cars from other manufacturers, e.g. Nissan leaf etc.?... Yes
Is it an answer to current environmental concerns?... Yes and No
Will it be successful?... Good potential
Is it just some other ground breaking technology than Electric drive?... Yes
I will answer them in more detail as I will keep moving ahead in this blog.
There are many things which are interesting about this extraordinary car, but let me try to bring some of interesting facts along with the slides provided by GM website.
Yes… It is an Electrical vehicle. For first 40miles (around 64km) it runs on electricity ONLY. So if you are daily commutation limits in this range you actually burn zero gallon gasoline.Initial claim was for 60 miles (almost 100km), which I still believe should be the range of the vehicle. You may call me greedy but I would have loved to see that range from this vehicle. Also the initial concept look of Volt was very aggressive, like Camaro but they had to smoothen the sharp angels may be considering aerodynamic aspect.
You run out of charge in the long drive. Off course you would not like to spend hours to charge your battery to make it run again. No problem, you have onboard conventional IC engine which can run your vehicle as well as charge the battery as vehicle keeps moving. So in other way its better than just an electric car which may need hours to run again once it got discharge. You may think of it as an Hybrid but again it only uses electricity till 40miles. No Gas. It gives extended range using IC engine and that’s why called EREV (Extended Range Electric Vehicle).
I can say this because I have felt it in person. I can bet over if you can say vehicle is on or off. There are several other features including the styling of the vehicle which make you feel you are in some sort of technical advanced car and being a technical person, it feels great.
Well quite honestly saying before reading this even I was not very sure of all these mentioned features. But sounds cool. Isn’t? well, considering current driving style we might not need or use some of these feature but again its future. You like it or hate it but these applications are gonna be stay and will not only limited to Volt but also will extend to other vehicles.
Now here is for the end users, which certainly not going to be here. There initial plan is to launch it in US and also in China. In Europe they are launching this technology under Opel brand. Out of these I like Bose Audio the most. I had experienced it in Cadillac STS and it was mind blowing. Warranty for battery and drivetrain for 8 years is really class apart. Well I can’t comment on lease price but believe it is very competitive.
Well its for the guys in the US. But I will advise if get a chance take a test drive of this vehicle, and if you find it awesome which I believe you will then don’t forget to appreciate the automotive engineers involved in its development:)
Well it’s a new promising technology in Auto industry which promises a lot and I believe is capable of delivering most of it. There are many issues which may not be answered right now until Volt come on the road and spend some time. Some of them would like, is it really environment friendly? At very first glance it seems it is as it has the capacity to eliminate green house gas significantly but again it carries almost 200kg Li ion battery which does not go very well with environment. Disposing and recycling would be an issue in coming years. Just an million vehicle sold would mean 200million Kg of Li ion battery and will keep increasing with years to come… well lets see.
But one thing for sure, it’s a new car with some new technologies never before. It might have taken much more time than expected to come in the market but better late than never. Also, may be GM has learned after burning its hand. It still got criticized for killing its Electric vehicle, just imagine if they would have pursued those EV after 20 years how much different and developed electric vehicle we would be seeing. They would be far ahead than Toyota or any other manufacturer for that matter which claim to be number one in Hybrid and Electric vehicle market. Well its never too late and in couple of months we would be seeing this car on the road moving forward smoothly with its driver to the future...These all snap shots are from GM site.
