Chevrolet Volt lands in China, sales to begin next year
The Chevrolet Volt was unveiled to an assembled crowd of journalists and potential consumers yesterday in Shanghai, the Volt has gained a Chinese name as is customary for any car wishing to sell in China, its adopted Chinese name is 沃蓝达 (Wo Lan Da)
Why the Volt is getting an airing now, but no sales until 2011 is still a mystery to CCT, it could be that GM are eager to launch the car to show their green credentials but the lack of support for imported hybrid vehicles in terms of subsidies may leave the Volt out in the cold for quite a while.
The Volt will launch in the USA at the end of 2010 and will officially go on sale in the fourth quarter in the Chinese market.
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CCT, you got it all wrong.
Volt is not an EV as GM claimed, it is actually a hybrid similar to Prius except you can drive the initial 30 miles solely on battery power. Then you can continue to drive as a normal ICE car for as far as you wish if you keep topping up the fuel tank. There is no need to plug in for recharging in long trip. Of course, if your daily trip is less than 30 miles and you have a garage to plug in, you will save a lot in fuel bill.
Volt is the answer to Prius & Insight except it is a generation ahead. The drive train is solely electric where the ICE only couples with generator. Toyota & Honda will drop in a bigger battery to fight the battle in their next model year.
BYD’s e6 is what you have to worry about. It needs a charging station infrastructure to support in long trips.
The price for the Volt in the USA is 40.000$. The planned production volume was sqeezed to a low volume of about 30.000 cars per year. Therefore it is rather a fake than a real car.
From the technical side it is quite intresting. The engine drives only the power generator. This gives the opportunity to make an cheap but very efficient engine.
On the other hand, if you have only one engine of this kind, the development costs are uge and the low sales volume will generate big losses for the car.
At least the VOlt is pure GM at it’s worst.
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沃蓝达??What kind of a name is that?
and I thought the guys at GM(China) knew Chinese…
Go ahead and split hairs…its an electric car with a generator. The car cannot operate without electricity in the batteries or solely on the gasoline engine. Hybrids can (usually) power the wheels with both but essentially will not work without the ICE