In Texas and New York, the company has selected Austin and New York City for the retail launch which is expected to begin in late 2010. Texas, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will begin receiving Volts in early 2011. The production of the EV begins late this year at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck facility.
The Chevrolet Volt is powered by a 16kWh lithium-ion battery and has a total driving range of about 340 miles, with electricity driving the car at all times.
The EV features a portable 120V vehicle charge cord that can recharge the Volt in about nine to ten hours using a standard 120V residential outlet and about three to four hours from a standard 240V outlet.
Under an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funded EV program, administered by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the first buyers of the Volt may also be eligible for one of 4,400 free 240V home charging stations from Ecotality or Coulomb Technologies.
Chevrolet is partnering with five Texas electric utilities and five Northeast utilities under a DOE development and demonstration program that provides Volts and charging stations to key utilities, thus enabling them to study charging station installation process, vehicle charging, and customer feedback.
The Texas utilities include Austin Energy, CenterPoint Energy, CPS Energy, Oncor, and American Electric Power while the Northeast utilities are Con Edison, New York Power Authority, Northeast Utilities, National Grid, and Public Service Electric and Gas.
