I few shots of the Volt at the LA auto show. When you first walk in to the show Edison had a booth for "Are You Plug-in Ready?" and I thought EVs would be highlighted. Not so. Volt, a capstone turbine car (very sexy but so much heat shielding you saw very little), and a Fisker (very nice lines). I was disappointed that you couldn't sit in the Volt, only look at it on a turntable with the doors open.

Could you see the outer casing of what looks like GM's 2Mode tranny on the mockup??

Could you see the outer casing of what looks like GM's 2Mode tranny on the mockup??

I saw the 2-mode at the NY auto show last year. It looked amazingly like a normal transmission to me.

Could you see the outer casing of what looks like GM's 2Mode tranny on the mockup??

It was real hard to see anything in detail because of all the parts/hoses/tubes/covers etc. in the way and the railing kept you at a distance. Here's a shot where you can see the bottom of the tranny. So no, I couldn't tell.

I saw the 2-mode at the NY auto show last year. It looked amazingly like a normal transmission to me.

Was it in the Volt mockup??

Was it in the Volt mockup??

No, the 2-mode I saw was in a big SUV. They also had sections of the case open to the internals. It was cool. I can see no practical reason to have such a thing in the Volt. In my opinion it would add too much complexity and weight to be justified by the meager gains it might bring.

.. In my opinion it would add too much complexity and weight to be justified by the meager gains it might bring.

+1 and add cost to the equation as well.

Yes, it's the truck tranny but I swear on some other thread on this site there was talk of a what looked like a tranny case of the 2 mode or some variant in the volt mockup..

I'm just thinking maybe GM has it in the mockup so that at some later date, if they so desire, they could do a series parallel version of the Volt.

The Volts transaxle is based on the FWD 2-Mode transmission.. not the truck RWD one.

I would love to see the guts in that FWD 2-Mode transmission.. 2 motors, 5 clutches!

It was real hard to see anything in detail because of all the parts/hoses/tubes/covers etc. in the way and the railing kept you at a distance. Here's a shot where you can see the bottom of the tranny. So no, I couldn't tell.

I think we can see the bottom of it, squarish looking silver shape on the other side of the engine.. looks larger than I thought. Did you see any belts on the engine?

That's right, I remember now, it was the 2 mode for the saturn. Probably a smaller version of the truck 2 mode. but it's way complicated.

Herm,
Just google 2 mode and go to the wikipedia site. Good cutaway and schematic.

So I don't think my premise is too far off, ie that GM could turn the Volt into a series parallel system like the Prius if they decide in the future.