Chevy Volt Hybrid

Seventy-eight percent of commuters drive 40 miles or less to and from work. If we could change the Hybrid technology behind these daily drives, imagine how much gasoline and money we could save while helping reduce emissions. It might be possible with a Concept Chevy Volt vehicle capable of running on electricity, E85, bio-diesel and gasoline fuels.

The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid concept car created by General Motors. However, the company has avoided the use of the term "hybrid," preferring to call it an electric vehicle with a "range extender" due to its design. The Concept Chevy Volt is designed to run purely on electricity from on-board batteries for up to 40 miles (64 km) —which is a large enough distance to cover the daily commutes of most Americans, which is around 25 miles (40 km).

With use of a small internal combustion engine hooked to a generator to re-supply the batteries, the vehicle's range is potentially increased to 640 miles (1030 km) on the highway. General Motors Corp. may build as many as 60,000 of its Concept Chevy Volt Hybrid electric cars for their inaugural year on the market, twelve times the sales of Toyota Motor Corp.'s hybrid Prius, for their inaugural year.

The Concept Chevy Volt concept Hybrid vehicle was officially unveiled at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) on January 7, 2007 in Detroit, Michigan. An updated version was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2007 in Shanghai, China. At the time of unveiling, the Concept Chevy Volt project had been in existence for less than a year. It was started in 2006 after Robert Lutz, Vice Chairman of Product Development and Chairman of GM North America, learned of plans for the Tesla Roadster, a high-performance electric sports car. While the Hybrid Roadster has a target price at or near US$100,000, the Volt is targeted to cost around $20K to 30K

The Chevy Volt Hybrid Off-the-line torque is instantaneous, giving you responsive acceleration. Plus, this four- to five-passenger sport sedan still maintains the passenger and cargo capacities of a production car. You'll also enjoy the benefits of features you've grown to expect — driver and front passenger air bags and the StabiliTrak Stability Control System, for instance — as well as new convenience features allowing you to charge certain small electronic devices without plugging them in.