Electric cars turning on the juice

By Jeffrey Steele/CTW Features

March 9, 2007 – Automakers’ record in producing electric vehicles has been spotty at best. In the mid-1990s, for example, General Motors launched the EV1 electric car in California. That early electric had to be plugged in every 60 to 90 miles in order to continue running. After the initial leases ran out, GM recalled the EV1s and scrapped them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now GM is motoring down Electric Avenue again. The automaker is charged up about its new Chevrolet Volt. For this electric avenue is a plugin hybrid electric vehicle. For it introduced to great fanfare at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show in January. Unlike the EV1, the Volt will be capable of traveling more than 600 miles on a single charge. Before purchasers of Chevrolet Volts can turn on the juice, a lot of creative juices will have to be expended to make this concept an assembly line and dealer’s showroom reality.

When gas-electric hybrids were first introduced in 2000. For then the American car buying public mistakenly assumed these alternative vehicles had to be plugged in order to recharge the electric motor. That, of course, was not the case, but it is with the new Volt.