Holden admits to being stunned by the level of public interest in its Volt electric vehicle which is scheduled for Australian debut in 2012.
The company used the Melbourne Motor Show to release photos of the Volt in its Holden guise (it will be badged as a Chevrolet in North America).
Volt can travel up 64 kilometres purely on electricity stored in its batteries - the reality is, this is the sort of distance driven each day by Australian commuters. When the battery runs out of power, a small petrol-powered engine generates power enabling the Volt to travel for hundreds of additional kilometres.
General Motors plans to become the first car-maker to produce lithium-ion battery packs from a new factory scheduled for construction in Michigan, North America.
Using that lithium-ion technology, the Volt can be totally recharged from a conventional 240v power outlet in less than three hours. Lithium-ion batteries do not have memories (unlike early mobile telephones you don’t need to wait for the batteries to be completely flat before recharging) so charge times for the Volt can be reduced if the batteries have not been fully depleted.
Holden reckons he average Australian motorist switched to a Volt, they would save around 1892 litres of petrol per year.
Chevrolet Volts should begin rolling from the GM assembly line in Detroit-Hamtramck late next year with right-hand-drive production (for Holden) scheduled for 2012.
