Photos of the plug-in electric car Chevy Volt were accidentally put on the Internet yesterday for 12 minutes--enough time for carconnection.com to get a hold of this one, and several more. GM CEO Rick Wagoner has said that his company is literally pinning its fortunes on this car. This version, which kind of looks like a four-door Honda Accord, is different from the beefy, low-riding, two-door concept Volt that Chevy had shown the press a while back. It's supposed to get 40 miles on a single charge, and if the battery runs low at that point, a gasoline engine turns on and will take the car a total of 400 miles. The car can be plugged in to a regular outlet. (Charge time takes 10 hours.) The company that "killed" the electric car could be the one that brings it back. It's supposed to hit showrooms in late 2010. Hopefully, production will run smoothly--and maybe in a couple of years I won't need grease power anymore. Of course, the only problem is that right now most of my electricity comes from a coal-fired power plant, which means if I own an electric car, I'd be using coal to charge it. Plus it's not like Chevy would take a 25-year-old Mercedes wagon as a trade-in, despite its obviously pristine condition. (See: "name that car part" below.)
