Chevrolet to Sell Volt in Europe, Priced from €41,950 or €1,000 Less than the Opel Ampera

Chevrolet announced at the Geneva Motor Show that it will sell the Volt in Europe, with prices in Germany starting from €41,950 (US$58,560). It will be similarly priced in other European markets, where it will arrive in November 2011.

The Volt's sister car, the Opel Ampera, will also go on sale this year in Europe, at a slightly higher starting price. Unveiled in final production form at the Geneva Show, the Ampera will cost €42,900 ($59,885), but prices can vary in different countries depending on the standard equipment.

Chevrolet said the Volt would be fully equipped with all the usual safety and convenience features, plus leather seats. As in the US, European buyers will have an 8-year/160,000 km warranty (100,000 miles) on the powertrain and the lithium-ion battery.

"Our price in Europe is based on the U.S. Volt price adjusted for transportation cost, import duties, exchange rates and homologation," said Wayne Brannon, CEO of Chevrolet Europe.

The Volt and the Ampera are basically the same car, both being built at GM’s Detroit Hamtramck plant in Michigan, US. There are only minor differences between the two cars, mainly concerning the front and the rear styling. In battery-only mode, the EVs have a maximum range of 40-80 kilometers (25-49 miles) that can be extended to 600 km (373 miles) when the gasoline engine / generator kicks in to charge the battery.

The 111 kW (150 hp) electric motor delivers 370 Nm of torque (273 lb-ft), accelerating the car from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in around nine seconds while top speed is 161 km/h (100 mph). The battery can be fully recharged at any household 230-volt power outlet in three to four hours.

By Dan Mihalascu

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Chevy Launches MyLink Infotainment System in Response to Ford's SYNC

The 2012 Chevrolet Volt and Equinox models will be the first to offer Chevy MyLink, an in-car infotainment equipment that integrates internet radio, hands-free, voice and touch-screen controls, all of which can be accessed via Bluetooth connectivity.

Three years ago, Ford introduced a similar system, called SYNC, whose aim was to reunite in a friendly and efficient way the various in-car controls that a driver can access while driving. Now Chevy is ready with its own technology, developed together with GM's subsidiary OnStar.

MyLink provides drivers with stereo audio streaming, wireless control of smartphones, voice-activated commands and a full-color 7-inch touch screen display that centralizes media sources. For example, the driver can initiate phone calls, select radio stations or stored media only by using his voice.

Other features are Pandora internet radio, which allows users to personalize their radio experience, or Gracenote, which identifies the user's music collection and presents information such as artist name, genres and album cover art on the MyLink screen.

Basically, MyLink does everything that SYNC does, plus the future integration of the Powermat wireless cell-phone charging system that eliminates cords. The MyLink infotainment system will expand to other Chevrolet models in the next 18 months.

By Dan Mihalascu

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The Biggest Threat to the Chevy Volt are...Rats?!

Okay, readers: hands up if you like rats. No, not the cute white ones you see in science labs or can buy at pet shops. I’m talking about the sewer-dwelling, disease-carrying ones that invade your house to eat, poop and scare your misses.

What if I told you those same feral rats are not only a danger to your home but also to your brand-spanking-new plug-in hybrid extended range electric vehicle? How’s that grab you, hmm?

So a month ago , the automotive mavens at Kicking Tires were handed the keys to a new Chevrolet Volt. What’s that got to do with rats, you ask? Well, in a move that some at the office have labeled, “karmic justice” and others have labeled, “bloomin’ rats”, a member of the repressed rodent classes has attacked Kicking Tires’ futuristic loaner and rendered it befuddled. *Gasp!*

So here’s the skinny: with a blizzard blowing in Chicago, Kicking Tires’ Senior Editor David Thomas dropped the blog’s Volt off at a multistorey garage and plugged it in at a public charging station. Last week, site blogger Joe Wiesenfelder received a text message alert from ChargePoint reporting a, “ground fault” and that the, “session [was] terminated”.

On Thursday night, Wiesenfelder received an email from Todd Dore, the treasurer for the Fox Valley Electric Auto Association. Mr. Dore parks his converted VW Beetle next to the blog’s Volt, and reported that a rat had scurried underneath, probably looking to escape the subzero temperatures of the Chicago winter.

On Friday morning, Mr. Wiesenfelder unplugged the Volt and plugged it back in without any troubles. Sensing nothing unusual, he left the garage. He picked up the car Friday evening and drove it home. On the way, the Volt produced several strange warnings including, “ABS”, “Service Brake Assist” and “Service Stabilitrak”.

The next day, Wiesenfelder noted that the secondary rear window (the smaller, vertical pane that’s not at all like the one on the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight) wasn’t demisting though the primary one was.

Concerned, he took the troublesome Volt into Grossinger City Chevy of Chicago the following Tuesday. The dealer confirmed that the rat had gnawed through a wiring harness in the engine compartment causing, at very least, those troubles.

It won’t be covered under warranty, of course – acts of rats are classed the same as acts of God – though the Volt has been trouble free for over a month and 3,000 miles. In colder countries, apparently, rats are known to climb into the engine compartments of recently parked cars to warm up. The Volt’s battery is known to stay warm when charging and even when fully charged, making the perfect overnight home for a frostbitten rodent.

Wiesenfelder doesn’t think that this is the last time this will happen, or that it’ll be limited solely just the Volt. He’s asking for input from readers and Chevrolet on how to address the problem, and Carscoop would like to do the same. How do you keep a rat from crawling into your parked car at night?

By Tristan Hankins

Source: Kicking Tires

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Opel Ampera EV Police Cruiser: Volt's European Cousin Getting Ready for Patrol

If there's one way to kick-start sales of specialty vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera, that's by enlisting the government as one of your clients. And with a starting price of €42,900 (about US$58,000 at the current exchange rates) in Europe, GM's Opel division will need all the help it can get to sell the Ampera.

Well before the Ampera hits European showrooms at the end of the year, Opel is already exploring the possibility of a police package for its range-extended electric vehicle. According to the company, the Ampera could be the perfect police car for urban use.

Like the Volt, Opel's version of the car can be driven in pure electric mode for 40-80 km before the petrol engine kicks in to produce electricity and / or motivate the front driving wheels pushing the total driving range to over 500 km [311 miles]. The Ampera completes the standard sprint in 9 seconds while reaching a top speed of 160 km/h [100 mph].

The final production version of the Ampera will receive its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

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Poll: Should GM give in and call the Volt a hybrid?

Apart from the humorous articles and the plethora of eBay finds we come up with, Carscoop’s bread and butter is automotive news straight from the manufacturer. And as such, we read a lot of press releases. In all the ones I’ve read, General Motors refuses to call the Chevrolet Volt a hybrid. It’s a range extended electric vehicle.

I speculate that it might have something to do with hybrids being uncool (so sayeth GM CEO Dan Akerson) or to avoid comparisons with that other hybrid. You know, the one made by the world’s other biggest car manufacturer.

So let’s hear the cases for and against:

Yes, GM should call the Volt a hybrid and here’s why:

A hybrid, by definition, is a vehicle that has two or more powerplants. In most cases, one is an electric motor and the other is a gasoline engine. There’s no requirement that these run in tandem, or be connected to one another in any way. More than one powerplant and you have a hybrid. And let’s face it: GM isn’t trying to lure buyers away from the Nissan Leaf or the Mitsubishi iMiev; their target is and always has been the Toyota Prius. And what’s the Prius, children? “A hybrid!” In a dumbed down worldview, nobody wanted to buy a Saturn Green Line so this was Option B. The Volt looks like a hybrid, is mechanically like a hybrid and was designed to compete with hybrids. For this, the Volt is one and the same.

No, GM should call the Volt a range extended electric vehicle and here’s why:

The Prius uses its electric motor at low speeds, when idling and when overtaking. The rest of the time it’s running on its gasoline engine alone. On the other hand, the Volt engages its gasoline engine only when its electric motor has run out of juice. Like a WWII submarine limping home on its diesel engines after its batteries have run dry. So if anything, the Volt is like a Nissan Leaf with the added security of a gasoline engine making sure you don’t end up on the hard shoulder, waiting for the AAA man to come along with a very long extension cord. For this, the Volt is a range extended electric vehicle.

So where do you stand? Do you buy GM’s marketing buzz or do you side with the cynics? Cast your vote and leave us a comment.

By Tristan Hankins

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What should GM call the Chevrolet Volt?

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