General Motors has been telling us since 2007 that the Volt would be a "range extended electric vehicle" but as it turns out, the combustion engine really can turn the wheels. As usual, GM has made the entire vehicle overly complex, which adds cost and requires more maintenance down the road, pun intended. The MSRP is nearly 10 thousand dollars more than the Nissan Leaf and preliminary reports indicate the Leaf has a better ride. Furthermore, there are drivers who had the EV1 in the past stating its ride was better than the Volt. How could this happen, since the EV1 was built 14 years ago? Surely automotive technology has advanced since then.
You will have to study the image above to understand what is going on but here is the skinny:
One electric motor drives the wheels at most speeds.
One electric motor kicks in for assistance at higher speeds.
The combustion engine comes on and locks to the outer ring gear at speeds greater than 70 moh, thus driving the wheels.
This last fact is what makes the Volt a hybrid rather than an electric vehicle, range extended or otherwise. We were told from the beginning that the range extender would merely kick on when the batteries were depleted to provide current to the motors though the generator, but obviously, it does more than that.
How does this make you feel? Are you irritated knowing that GM deceived us once again or is it really no big deal? How often do you drive at speeds greater than 70 mph? If you are on the highways much then the answer would be quite a lot of time.
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