Sunday, October 19, 2008

Is the future here?


A few years back the Chevy Motor Company released plans to make a production hybrid electric/gasoline vehicle. As time went on, the plans for the car seemed to change and give shape to the car that the "Volt" is supposed to be. My first major criticizm of the production model Volt and the concept Volt is the styling. My initial draw to the Volt was the attractive styling and lines of the car. It was interesting to me because it didn't look like a hybrid car, it just looked like a stylish sedan. However as time went on and design photos were released, the style began to change. Some of the formerly aggressive panels on the Volt started to get a little more bubbly... The initial design contained a lot of chrome and LED lights that accented the car well. In the production design, a lot of these accents are gone and with them the things that set the Volt apart from other cars. The reason I choose to focus on the Volt is that there is a lot riding on its success in the automotive community. The purpose of the Volt was to produce a clean hybrid in the $30,000 dollar range that looks sharp. Everyone was pretty excited about the Volt was it was first announced, but I would say that excitement has subsided. The Volt will be able to travel 40 miles on simply batteries and then after a gasoline engine will extend the mileage about 250 more miles. The gasoline never actually powers the wheels, it acts as a generator to recharge the batteries while the vehicle is in motion. The Volt won't be released until 2011, and hopfully won't undergo any more possibly deal-breaking changes.




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