Chevrolet’s Volt May Recharge After All
There’s been a lot of confusion about whether or not the Chevrolet Volt can recharge itself.
First, we were told the Volt will indeed recharge while in motion, something many electric cars are expected to accomplish. Last week, we were told the Volt will not recharge itself – making it your ordinary plug-in vehicle. Let’s have GM straighten all the confusion out.
GM’s VP for Global Program Management John Lauckner (what a title!) has explained that the Chevy Volt can indeed recharge it’s own batteries/engine, and can do so best while in a stead state of motion. In other words, blasting through intersections and jamming on the brakes, much like with gasoline fueled vehicles, will probably kill your gas electric mileage. During this steady motion, energy not being used to power the engine will be distributed back to the lithium-ion battery packs. Extra juice will also come from the rechargeable brake generators.
So, is everyone clear on exactly what the Chevrolet Volt will be able to do? There will be a quiz during our next class.
Leave a Reply