IEEE Spectrum April, 2011 - 36

chevy

Volt

GM unveils the highest tech of today's hybrids

fter two years of awe and adulation, scoffing and
skepticism-and with a General Motors bankruptcy
and a federal rescue in between-the Chevy Volt has
finally hit the streets.

And backing up a two-year PR spectacle that LeBron James would
have blushed at, this plug-in hybrid turns out to be the potential game
changer that Chevy promised. As expected, the Volt is a technical
extravaganza. Featuring the world's most advanced hybrid drive system, it can and will deliver higher overall economy than any gasoline
or diesel car sold in the United States.
But when I road tested the Volt, what really struck me is how ordinary it felt, and I mean that in a good way. This is a car that your
computer-phobic grandparents could drive-and possibly fall in love
with-without giving a thought to the liquid-cooled battery, planetary
gears, and 10 million lines of proprietary computer code churning within.
(A Boeing 787 Dreamliner, in comparison, makes do with 8 million lines.)
Nor will owners ever worry about driving range or places to plug in,
something that can't be said for pure EVs like the Nissan Leaf, which
must pause for multihour recharges after covering as little as 95 to

Fisker karma

behold the Mega-Volt

NA * iEEE SpEctrum * April 2011

115 kilometers (60 to 70 miles). That's because the
Volt offers a security blanket, a tiny 1.4-liter gasoline engine that generates electricity to power the
car when the battery becomes too deeply depleted.
So the Volt promises to usher in an era of electrified
transport, while acknowledging that many drivers
will still need to burn gasoline for longer trips.
After roughly 4 hours on its 240-volt home charger, the Volt's 16 kilowatt-hour lithium battery pack
and dual electric motor-generators (let's call them
motor A and motor B) propel the car for roughly
65 km (40 miles) on electricity alone. Driving especially gently, I actually managed 80 km. But go heavy
on the gas or crank up the climate control and that
range can plummet; the Environmental Protection
Agency credits the Volt with a 35-mile electric range.
As Chevy notes, 75 percent of Americans
commute 65 km or less round-trip. Those drivers could charge the Volt overnight and rarely
burn a drop of gasoline. Install a charger at work

If the Chevy Volt seems too
tame, too utilitarian, another
plug-in hybrid is looking to amp
up the style and performance:
the Fisker Karma.
Created by the Danish-born
Henrik Fisker, whose previous
designs include the lovely Aston
Martin V8 Vantage and BMW
Z8, the Karma is a luxury sports
sedan in an eco-friendly mantle.
Its visual drama and power will
set you back a cool US $95 900
(before the federal or state tax

breaks available to U.S. buyers).
The Karma has been delayed
many times; now it's supposed
to reach dealers late this year.
Shown in final production
form at the Paris Auto Show
last October, the Karma's lowslung curves, 5.9-second sprint
(in Sport mode) from 0 to
97 kilometers per hour (60 miles
per hour), and 200-km top speed
put it in a different league from
the Volt. Yet it adopts the Chevy's
range-extending approach

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum April, 2011