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Archive for the tag “volt”

20 Jan 2012

NHTSA Press Reslease: Chevy VOLT Fire Probe is CLOSED

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released the following statement today regarding the conclusion of its safety defect investigation into the post-crash fire risk of Chevy Volts (PE11037):

Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed its safety defect investigation into the potential risk of fire in Chevy Volts that have been involved in a serious crash. Opened on November 25, the agency’s investigation has concluded that no discernible defect trend exists and that the vehicle modifications recently developed by General Motors reduce the potential for battery intrusion resulting from side impacts.

NHTSA remains unaware of any real-world crashes that have resulted in a battery-related fire involving the Chevy Volt or any other electric vehicle. NHTSA continues to believe that electric vehicles show great promise as a safe and fuel-efficient option for American drivers. However, as the reports released in conjunction with the closure of the investigation today indicate, fires following NHTSA crash tests of the vehicle and its battery components—and the innovative nature of this emerging technology—led the agency to take the unusual step of opening a safety defect investigation in the absence of data from real-world incidents.

Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles. Generally all vehicles have some risk of fire in the event of a serious crash. However, electric vehicles have specific attributes that should be made clear to consumers, the emergency response community, and tow truck operators and storage facilities. Recognizing these considerations, NHTSA has developed interim guidance—with the assistance of the National Fire Protection Association, the Department of Energy, and others—to increase awareness and identify appropriate safety measures for these groups. The agency expects this guidance will help inform the ongoing work by NFPA, DOE, and vehicle manufacturers to educate the emergency response community, law enforcement officers, and others about electric vehicles.

**A special thank you to the NFTSA with this press release!

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11 Oct 2010
4 Comments

Chevrolet VOLT – “A VOLT Above The Rest!”

We here are Bob Maguire Chevrolet are all so excited about receiving a 2011 Chevrolet VOLT in the first quarter of 2011! It has been a long waited and anticipated journey to this amazing electric car - but, it is a journey worth while!

2011 Chevy VOLT

Did you know that the VOLT’s Voltec 240V Home Charging Unit can charge a depleted VOLT battery in only 4 hours?! That is 6 hours faster than the other option (the standard 120V charge cord that plugs into a household outlet). This is all thanks to Chevy’s supplier of the charging stations, SPX Service Solutions. They are able to create stations that cost $490 before installation, $1,475 for installation and unit.

SPX Logo

In addition to Chevrolet’s Voltec unit, SPX will sell a variety of home charging stations and manage all aspects of installation for Volt owners, including the home survey, installation, permitting, Department of Energy and utility coordination, and identification of available programs and incentives for reduced charging rates.

VOLT Charging Station

2011 Chevrolet VOLT NJ

Posted in Automotive and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
03 Sep 2010
5 Comments

Chevy VOLT Update!!

2011 Chevy VOLT Interior

Translogic has announced that Chevy plans to start production of the VOLT on November 11! Dealers in the Washington DC, California and Chicago areas will be recieivng allocation on November 17! So, be on the lookout for the Chevy VOLT becasue it will probably be coming to a dealer near you shortly.

 

2011 Chevy VOLT

Gm plans to build around 10,000 VOLTS in the year 2011, and then three times that amount in 2012. By the end of 2012, Chevy should be producing around 24 cars a day off the line.

Posted in Automotive and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
16 Jul 2010
1 Comment

Obama Talks About the Chevy VOLT

Yesterday, President Obama made an appearance in Michigan to discuss the Chevy VOLT’s production. He was very happy to mention how many new jobs will come from the VOLT’s production and how this will help stimulate a part of the American economy.

Click on the following link to view his entire speech!

Obama Speech on the Chevy VOLT

Posted in Automotive and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
31 Mar 2010

Nissan’s leaf Electric Vehicle to be launched soon

Nissan Motor Co. will sell the Leaf electric car for a base price of $32,780 in the United States and begin taking orders on April 20. When combined with a $7,500 federal tax credit, the Leaf will be priced at $25,280, the automaker said in a statement today. State and local credits can further reduce the cost to consumers, Nissan said. Early on today, the automaker also said it would sell the battery-powered Leaf hatchback starting off at 3.76 million yen ($40,640) in Japan, where it is also counting on government subsidies to slash the cost to consumers. Nissan said it aims to sell 6,000 Leaf cars, its first mass-volume all-electric model, in Japan for the year ending in March 2011. The company will start taking orders for the model April 1 in Japan, with the first delivery expected in December. After accounting for Japanese government subsidies, Nissan said the net cost to consumers to buy a new Leaf would be near 2.99 million yen ($32,373). The Leaf pricing also represents a premium over established, combustion-engine powered small sedans, such as the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. Analysts have said the premium reflects the cost of developing and producing the Leaf’s lithium-ion battery pack. The cost of batteries and the reluctance of consumers to pay more upfront for fuel-saving technology are seen as the major hurdles to mass-market adoption of electric vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp.’s gasoline-electric Prius hybrid, now in its third generation, has a base model starting price at just over 2 million yen ($22,195) in Japan. After trailing rivals Toyota Motor and Honda Motor in the hybrid field, Japan’s No.3 automaker has bet heavily on pure electric vehicles along with partner Renault SA of France. Nissan has said it expects that 10 percent of the world’s auto market will be electric vehicles by 2020, a ratio at the top of industry projections. The automaker has also announced a series of partnerships with utilities and government agencies in the United States and Europe where it believes it has a chance of seizing market leadership. The five-passenger Leaf is designed to provide a range of about 100 miles. Nissan has developed the battery pack for the Leaf with NEC Corp., so that it can be recharged overnight on a 220-volt connection. While skeptics abound, almost all major automakers are working on developing battery-run cars for use mainly in urban areas, to meet stricter emissions and mileage regulations being introduced around the world.

Posted in 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, 2011 Silverado HD, Advanced Technologies, Auto parts, Auto Repair, Auto Review, Automotive, Automotive Advice, Automotive dealers, Automotive industry, Automotive manufacturers, automotive market, AutoTrader.com, Bob Maguire Chevrolet, Buick, Car Review, Chevrolet Corvette, Consumer Reports, Crossover Review, Crossover Segment, electric cars, Fuel Solutions and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
30 Mar 2010

Electric Cars Are Almost Here!

We all know how important it is to lower our carbon footprint; what we do today ultimately affects those in the future. Nissan and Chevrolet have decided to help future generations by introducing electric cars. Nissan is placing its ‘Leaf’ on the market later on this year, and the same goes for Chevrolet with its ‘Volt’.

The Nissan Leaf will be able to travel up to 100 miles on one charge! Now, 100 miles may not seem like that long of a distance, but most Americans actually travel less than that to get to work and back every day. Wouldn’t it be nice to virtually never have to pay for gas again?

The new electric cars are being modeled to look and act as normal, gas vehicles. There are many technological attractions about green cars – including, blind spot sensors, collision avoidance systems and touch sensitive controls. Even the prices of the vehicles are aimed to be priced around those of its gas competitors (roughly $30,000 to $40,000).

Be on the look out for Nissan and Chevy’s electric cars later on this year!

Posted in Advanced Technologies, Automotive, Automotive dealers, Automotive industry, Automotive news, Bob Maguire Chevrolet, Chevrolet, Chevy Volt, electric cars, Fuel Solutions, Maguire Auto Group, Nissan, Nissan Leaf, Windsor Nissan and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
14 Jan 2010

GM Will Make Pure-Electric Version of Chevy Volt :

General Motors Co. will build a pure-electric vehicle by expanding the Chevrolet Volt’s battery pack and removing its internal combustion engine, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said Monday. It’s the next step for the Volt, a car the company says can run 40 miles on a charge from a standard home power outlet. After the battery wears down, a 1.4-liter four-cylinder internal combustion engine takes over and generates electricity to power the car. It’s due to go on sale this fall at a cost of about $40,000, before tax credits.

Lutz would not say exactly when the pure-electric version would make it into showrooms, but said it would be “technologically trivial” to switch out the internal combustion engine. Lutz told reporters at the Detroit auto show that GM could quickly expand the Volt’s battery pack and take out the engine to build a fully electric car similar to Nissan’s Leaf. The Leaf, also to go on sale in the U.S. late this year, which can get up to 100 miles on an electric charge but must be recharged or have a new battery installed to go any further.

There may be a market for pure-electric vehicles for people who travel less, or GM could need it to meet government fuel economy regulations, he said. Once you’ve done the Volt, pure electric is trivial. You just leave some parts out,” Lutz said.

Lutz also said electric vehicles may not get the stated range on fully electric power because of weather, atmospheric conditions, terrain and driving habits. He said he had a Volt during the Thanksgiving weekend and got only 28 miles on full-electric power because of the cold weather. “It varies a lot more than the range variation with a gasoline-powered car depending on your driving style,” Lutz said.

The Volt equipped with the internal combustion engine was unveiled three years ago. Once it goes on sales later this year, it will qualify for up to $7,500 in tax credits.

Posted in Advanced Technologies, Automotive, Automotive dealers, Automotive news, Chevrolet, Fuel Solutions, Maguire Auto Group and tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
09 Jan 2010

GM Makes First Electric Car Battery

GM Makes First Electric Car Battery
General Motors has made its first mass-produced electric car battery as it gears up to sell the new Chevrolet Volt to the general public later this year. The lithium-ion battery was made at GM’s Brownstown Battery Pack Assembly Plant that will produce the batteries for the automaker’s Volt assembly line in Detroit. Regular production at both facilities is expected to begin in the fourth quarter. It was just five months ago that GM announced it would invest $43 million to convert the empty 160,000-square-foot facility into a production ready battery-manufacturing plant.

GM Chairman Ed Whitacre Jr. had told reporters Wednesday that GM will send out some Volt models before November, when they are scheduled to hit showrooms. He said the company might sell a few early, and it could send some to consumers before November. GM has plans to test about 100 with utility companies before the showroom debut. This idea of the Volt should be great, even like the looks. The battery is of poor design. We see that it is one 5 foot long battery, and as most know, to be buried between the seats.

It won’t last forever and when it comes time to replace it, half the car needs to be disassembled. Unless of course there is some sort of access hatch, but at 5 feet long, should be doubtful.  It will not be easy to move one, lift one, etc. It’s not a one person job. On top of that, when one part of it malfunctions the whole thing needs to be replaced, which is incredibly wasteful and costly. They now cannot sell auxiliaries. If the battery was split into 3 batteries and “stacked” otherwise known as “daisy-chained” they could sell extra cells. They’d be more manageable, affordable, and I’d prefer to drive with spare battery cells that I can swap out on the side of the road, after lunch, a rest area, etc. That would also double it’s electric endurance form 40 miles to 80 on a single charge and single battery swap. I realize that’s still pathetic in the face of the cross-country vacation concept, but the car isn’t meant for that anyway. I’d rather swap batteries when I get home and charge the spares in case of bad weather, construction or other delays the following day.
Posted in 2008 Malibu, 2009 Chevy Silverado, 2009 Chevy Traverse, 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, 2010 Chevy Traverse, Advanced Technologies, Auto parts, Automotive, Automotive dealers, Automotive industry, Automotive manufacturers, automotive market, Automotive news, Camaro, Chevrolet, Chevrolet Corvette, Chevrolet Equinox, Chevy Aveo and tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
04 Dec 2009

Chevrolet Volt Pre-Production Test Drive

We’ve been following the Chevy Volt as it has progressed through many milestones before it became a development mule based on the 2011 Chevy Cruze last May. That test drive was completed entirely in electric-only mode. We experienced the car in both pure-electric and sustained-charge modes, in which the conventional gas engine powers an onboard alternator to supply the needs of the electric motor when the batteries reach an elected state of discharge. The Volt is still about a year away from production, with an intended launch date of November 2010.

The prototype Volt we drove in the parking lot of the Dodgers Stadium in downtown Los Angeles is what Farah calls a 65 percent write-off vehicle, meaning it’s about 65 percent of the way to full production standards. As such, it had a few  technical bugs already identified and rectified for future cars. Still, this prototype is a fully representative vehicle in terms of structure and drive train.

Electric propulsion systems are well-known for their smooth and quiet operation. So the unobtrusive cycling of a gasoline engine is considered a crucial aspect of this kind of hybrid system. Consumers simply won’t tolerate a system that doesn’t operate seamlessly. Here is how the Volt performed.

The Volt uses a three-phase AC induction motor rated at 120 kilowatts, or 160 hp, powered by a 6-foot-long, 375-pound array of lithium-ion cells mounted low along the Volt’s floorpan. Of course, weight mounted higher in the chassis would result in more noticeable roll. The engine is a normally aspirated 1.4-liter inline four-cylinder unit from GM’s global Family Zero range, manufactured in Flint, Mich., and it is hooked to a 53-kilowatt alternator to provide current for the Volt’s electric motor once the battery pack has discharged about halfway. To prolong battery life the cells are never allowed to recharge higher than about 80 percent of maximum, and they are never permitted to discharge more than about 50 percent unless an emergency occurs, and “limp-home mode” is triggered

The first few minutes of driving in pure electric mode proved the Volt is exceedingly smooth and quiet in the way it goes down the road. Indeed, the absence of mechanical clamor produces new challenges for noise, vibration and harshness engineers. Farah cited a redesign of a rear-suspension component as an example of issues that arise when the background sounds of a conventional engine and transmission are absent.

That happy state of affairs should last for 40 miles or so on a fully charged battery pack—enough to meet the round-trip commuting requirements of 80 percent of drivers. When the 1.4-liter inline four-cylinder engine cuts in during our drive, Farah is the first to notice it. We’re actually surprised to hear the news. That’s how subtly the gas engine makes its entrance. And in driving circumstances that only require modest throttle application, most occupants will probably not even notice it.

Posted in Auto parts, Automotive, Automotive news, Chevrolet, Chevy Volt, GM, Maguire Auto Group and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment
04 Dec 2009
5 Comments

Chevrolet’s Spark of hip-hop genius

A MERE five years ago someone at General Motors had a spark of inspiration.

In the depths of the Asian economic crisis, the American giant had baled out Korean maker Daewoo. Problem was, it had sunk money into a brand that arguably ranked lower in popularity than the Jedwards.  Cheap, certainly, cheerful, maybe, but when it came to quality and desirability, Daewoo had taken over Skoda’s mantle as the make everyone loved to hate. Quality and perception issues can be solved over a period of time – as Skoda has proved – but a quick fix was needed.

And some bright spark in GM’s marketing department came up with the answer just dump Daewoo and give the brand a name the world recognizes.

That name was Chevrolet – an American icon with a glorious heritage.

Since the name change, GM has been working hard to improve the quality and desirability of the Korean products and the results can be seen with every new Chevrolet which comes along. And next spring the transformation will be complete when the appropriately named Chevrolet Spark hits our streets.

Styling is hip-hop generation, the interior funky and spacious and build quality and drivability represent a quantum leap forward. Front end design provides a family link with the bigger Chevrolet Cruze, but the Spark has a character all of its own and, with a range of bright, trendy colours, it will certainly stand out on the streets.

Next up is the LS, from £8,445, which comes with bigger wheels, remote central locking, a sunglasses holder and enhanced cosmetic details. A Plus pack providing alloys, front and rear electric windows, trip computer, electrically operated and heated door mirrors, roof bars and steering wheel audio controls is available on the LS for an additional £500.

Topping the range is the £9,845 Spark LT which has bigger, 15 inch, alloys, climate control and exterior body kit and six speaker stereo. So far so good, but the real bonus is the Tardis-like interior space.

The Spark is longer, wider and higher than the Matiz. Even with the front seats well back, there’s plenty of leg room in the rear and a high roofline means that there are no problems for taller passengers.

Access is good through the rear doors but it’s a relatively narrow car and Chevrolet’s claim that this is a full five-seater is stretching it a little. Yes, it will seat five, but it wouldn’t be very comfortable on longer trips. Boot space is little more than shopping sized, but the rear seats fold to provide a decent luggage platform when traveling two-up. It will come with a choice of 1.0 and 1.2 litre petrol engines. While the 1.2 is quicker off the mark and has a higher top speed, official fuel consumption and emissions of 55.4mpg average and 119g/km respectively are identical to those of the one litre engine.

Cute, edgy, fashionable and fun, the Spark is a surprisingly good package and it comes to the market at just the right time. Buyers’ expectations of even the smallest of cars are growing ever higher and the Spark will not disappoint.

Posted in Automotive, Automotive dealers, Automotive industry, Automotive news, Chevrolet, Chevy Volt, GM, Maguire Auto Group and tagged , , , ,

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