GM on making a pure electric vehicle: it's "on the table"

Chevrolet Sail electric concept vehicle

General Motors' halo vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, sort of blurs the line between a battery-only automobile and a plug-in hybrid. But, as we've pointed out before, the Volt resembles a plug-in Toyota Prius on steroids more so than it does a Nissan Leaf. Since the Volt is not a pure electric vehicle – in fact, it's not even close – and GM has taken swipes at pure EVs, the question is whether The General will ever roll out a pure electric vehicle?

For a vague answer to that question, we'll turn to the words of Dave Barthmuss, GM's western region group manager for environment and energy communications, who recently spoke at a panel entitled "Economic Case for EVs." Plugin Cars' Brad Berman attended the panel and says that his "ears perked up" when Barthmuss admitted that GM is actively working on hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles. Digging for more info, Berman asked Barthmuss if GM would actually launch a pure electric vehicle. Here's Barthmuss' reply:

We've always talked about looking into plug-in hybrids or taking the range extender out and making a battery electric. They're all on the table. It could be a Volt and we could take the range-extender out. The range extender is a wonderful solution, but there are some folks who might want a full-functioning battery electric car. And we have to look at these questions globally. We haven't said that we're doing it, and we haven't said we're not doing it.

So, there's the answer you've been looking for, right? Okay, not quite, but at least we now know that a pure electric vehicle might lie somewhere on GM's worldwide table.



Source: AutoBlog Green