Save On Gas With The Electric Car

For years there have been rumors about “who killed the electric car?” as people search for conspiracies. Some have blamed General Motors for slowing down the progress of getting electric cars into the marketplace because they pulled their EV1 off the market. But recently, GM has made some significant progress in reintroducing the electric car.

This news came much to the glee of those in the environmental movement. Those who are eager and anxious for as many viable options as possible to be introduced into the market in order to lessen the number of fossil fuel burning vehicles on the roads.

So, longtime critics of GM who had accused them of snuffing the electric car, were actually pleased at the beginning of 2007 when GM announced their latest entry into the hybrid electric car market. A new model is expected to hit the showroom floors in the next 12 to 24 months.

the electric car
The electric car that was recently announced by GM is called the Chevy Volt. It is promised not only to be a concept car, but a design and technology that will be put into production and onto the roads soon.

The General Motors chief engineer, Tony Posawatz, has claimed that with the introduction of the Chevy Volt, GM is effectively leapfrogging over the current electric car technology. This current technology, which has been most favored by the environmentalist crowd, is the hybrid electric car that plugs in to charge.

The newly announced Volt is a new advancement in electric cars, according to GM. It can be plugged into a wall-outlet to recharge overnight, just like its cousin electric motor power that are currently on the market. However, the real distinction for the Volt is that it’s battery array can be recharged while the electric car is in use, rolling down the road.

hybrid electric car
This can be achieved because it features an on-board generator that allows energy to essentially be recycled back into the bank of batteries. This advance in technology gives the Chevy Volt an estimated range of 600 miles on the overnight charge, which is a significant improvement over the other hybrid electric cars that are now available.

The on-board generating system in the Volt does rely on utilizing a small gasoline engine for operation, but GM has plans for future models to have small diesel engines or hydrogen fuel cells to power the generator and facilitate the drive-time recharging of the batteries.

hybrid electric cars
The battery pack in the Chevy Volt is also what differentiates this electric car from others that rely on a diesel drive train for the electric generator. It effectively negates the advantages of the electric car because in other such vehicles the diesel generator must run constantly. This is not the case with the Volt because of the innovative battery pack that powers the generator.

Industry experts are optimistic that General Motors has brought about the rebirth of the electric car with their new Chevy Volt. Some are even voicing predictions that the current plug-in hybrid electric cars will soon be considered obsolete even before they gained a good foothold in the market.