Utterly Meaningless

GM already had a perfect electric car, and undo pressure from “big oil” killed it. And killed the associated technology too.

Reference the movie “Who killed the electric car?”

It’s hard to stomach all this hoopla about modern hybrids. Especially one from GM. Blah.

The new engine design is much more advanced than the EV-1. That car ran strictly on batteries and was limited to 100 miles or so between charges. The Volt should be able to go over 400 with a diesel generator.

Perhaps, Daryl, but using the diesel to generate the electricity to charge the battery or run the motors isn’t mechanically efficient. The “range” when assisted by the diesel will be dependant on the size of the fuel tank. And even when the batteries are charged from other sources, that energy isn’t going to be free or environmentally neutral.

It’s at least as efficient as using the engine to drive the wheels. And considerably less complicated than a “normal” hybrid.

Yeah, it most likely wouldn’t be carbon neutral (unless we get serious about biofuels and renewables.) But the footprint would still be much smaller than today’s vehicles.