While the automobile industry is taking rapid strides towards vehicles that are a lot greener and cleaner than anytime in the past, it still seems a distant dream for most people across the planet. The electric car is still something that is not as popular as those that run on fossil fuels. The reasons vary from performance to cost effectiveness. The electric car is still not catching on as fast as it should and it might still take some time to make its way in to the popular public domain. The Chevy Volt is a car that many believe is going to be the first major commercial hit in the electric car category.
The Chevy Volt is supposedly going to hit the market in 2010 and was initially priced somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. Now the car will carry an additional $5000 on its price tag as General Motors has decided to add separate battery to the vehicle in order to provide power to its speaker system and other accessories. This means that the car will most likely be priced around $35,000 or so by the time it hits the stores 3 years from now.
According to General Motors, the problem is that when you throw in stuff like headlights, windshield wipers, and a 10 speaker stereo system, it all starts to suck battery away from the wheels, and the mileage of the car. In order to solve this problem, GM is going to install another set of batteries especially for this purpose. While this does not seem like much of a solution, it is the best they can currently do to solve the problem. The company seems very committed towards the cause of bringing out an affordable electric car by 2010 in the form of Volt. One hopes that it only gets success through this endeavor.
Source: Oh Gizmo
