E-Flex Opel Appears to Have a Name: Opel Flextreme

Within the past 2 hours (it’s 7:40 PM EST) an article was published in the Financial Times of London. The articles focus is again on the theme of charging stations, only it is reported that Toyota will be teaming with French utility EDF to develop the electric architecture that will be required for future [...]

Popularity: 13%

Hyatt Builds Charging Station for the Tesla Roadster

In probably little more than a PR move, Hyatt Hotels through an agreement with Tesla Motorcars has announced that it will install Tesla recharging stations at three hotels, stretching in an arc from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe.
This comes on the heels of our last post about the speed of recharge using a 220 V [...]

Popularity: 13%

Vauxhall and Opel E-Flex Drivers Will Charge Their Cars in Half the Time

Ahead of the worldwide introduction of the next iteration of the Chevy Volt at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show, reports are beginning to circulate about the car. As we know it is an E-flex vehicle using the same basic tehcnology as the Volt only with a 1.3 L diesel on-board powerplant as opposed to [...]

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More on the Opel E-Flex Concept

Frank Weber, GM chief engineer has made some comments about the E-Flex Opel concept car set to debut in Frankfurt in 2 weeks.
Keep in mind the car is essentially the same vehicle as the Volt except for using a different range extender
For one thing Mr. Weber tell’s us is the car is Astra-sized, and as [...]

Popularity: 11%

Nissan Proposes its Electric Car Concept: the Mixim

Like every carmaker before it including GM, Toyota, Ford, and several smaller operatives, Nissan is announcing it’s interest in building an electric car with a new concept called the Mixim.
The car will be shown at the Frankfurt Auto show and it noted to have two electric “Supermotors”, one for each axle, to produce the equilvalent [...]

Popularity: 9%

Honda Tries to Re-enter Hybrid War With the “Global Small Hybrid”

The Honda Insight was the first hybrid in the U.S. market in 1999. Now, it is of course discontinued, beaten along with it’s brethren the Civic and Accords hybrids, by the Toyota Prius models of which outsell all the Hondas by 5 to 1.
Honda wont go down without a fight, and is now planning [...]

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Latest Chevy Volt Battery Pack and Generator Details and Clarifications

In some recent posts, we were able to find out and discuss some important details about how the Volt’s li-ion battery pack is intended to function. One of the most critical facts we obtained from GM is that the 40 mile all-electric driving range will occur within 50% of the batteries maximum charge, or [...]

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BREAKING: Volt Combustion Engine Still Undecided: Won’t be HCCI at First

Tom Stephens, GM VP Global Powertrain

As we mentioned in a previous post, GM recently demonstrated an HCCI engine for the first time in a driveable car. The technology; good at low fixed RPMs, very fuel efficient, seemed ideal for the Volt’s on-board generator and we discussed that possibility.
I had the opportunity to pose [...]

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What’s the Hymotion Commotion?

Soon after the Chevy Volt concept was first announced, A123 Systems announced that they were acquiring a company called Hymotion.
We know that Hymotion specializes in building add-on plug-in lithium-ion battery packs that extend the electric range of existing parallel hybrids such as the Prius or Ford Escape hybrid (as well as invalidating their warranties)
Today a [...]

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Could This Be the Volt’s Combustion Engine: GM Demonstrates HCCI Motor for 1st Time in Driveable Car

HCCI stands for Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition, and is a new type of combustion engine paradigm. Traditional engines, with which we are all familiar, use spark ignition (SI). In that system, a spark plug fires and ignites the fuel in the combustion chamber forcing the piston to move. In HCCI engines, the [...]

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NEW FEATURE: Bi-Monthly Chevy Volt Video News Update

I am trying out a new feature here on GM-Volt.com. Just as the GM execs are meeting every two weeks to discuss progress on the Chevy Volt’s development, I thought it would be a good idea if I posted a video wrap-up of the past two weeks news, information, and events related to the [...]

Popularity: 11%

Toyota Thinks People Might Not Want Plug-in Electric Vehicles Like the Chevy Volt

Bloomberg.com has published a surprising interview with Bill Reinert, national manager for advanced vehicle technology at Toyota’s U.S. unit.  He is reported to express uncertainty at what the size of the plug-in hybrid market will actually be.
He goes on to note that there is indeed much enthusiasm about plug-in hybrids right now, but is suspicious [...]

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