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18 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday November 5, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED You'll Love Our Service! 905-335-4080 BURLINGTON LINE Chevrolet Volt may jolt consumers in 2010 It has an electric motor and a conventional engine, and it can't be classified as a zero-emissions vehicle. But whatever you do, don't call the GM Volt a hybrid! "It's an electric vehicle," says Johan Willens, GM's global director of advanced propulsion and environmental communications. "The electric motor drives the wheels at all times." It has a 16KwH Lithium Ion battery pack that gives the Volt a range of around 40 miles, sufficient for most everyday use. But what's different is the Volt's small engine, which isn't coupled to the drivetrain but acts as a generator, recharging the battery when it's out of juice. So Volt owners won't be stranded if they travel for more than 40 miles. "We call it a range extender," says Willens. In fact, GM calls the concept E-REV for extended-range electric vehicle and it will play a major role in GM's environmental plans in the future. The Volt was shown at Paris in productionready form and it has changed a lot since the original Volt concept was unveiled at the 2007 Detroit Show. It's a much more rounded shape now, and Willens says the changes are necessary in order to optimize the Volt's aerodynamic efficiency which helps add precious miles to the range. Volt will go on sale in the US at the end of 2010, but Europe is likely to receive other models using the E-REV concept, possibly a version of the next-generation Zafira, which will use the same platform as the Volt, but whose MPV body is more likely to appeal to European tastes than the Volt's four-door sedan. What has enabled GM to produce an E-REV is the advance in battery with Lithium Ion technology. Willens said most users won't travel for more than 40 miles a day, which could mean the generator is rarely used. This has created other issues, such as oil pooling in the generator, though Willens says GM has come up with solutions for this. -- from Autofiles/yourautos.ca EUROPEAN DEBUT: Getting its European debut at the recent Paris Motor show, the production GM Volt is more aerodynamic than the original concept.