General Motors has issued an update on its electric vehicle efforts, stating that calibration drives of the upcoming Chevy Volt achieved 39.9 miles of emissions-free electric-only driving range, which is exactly in line with what has been promised by The General for a few years now.
Andrew Farah, chief engineer for the Volt and Opel Ampera, said that Volt pre-production vehicles have already clocked in more than 500,000 test miles and that Volt production is on track for the fourth quarter of this year.
Lastly, Micky Bly, GM executive director of global electrical systems, hybrids, and electric vehicles & batteries said that GM’s Browstown Township, Michigan battery plant is slated to build more than 300 pre-production battery packs. Putting two and two together, we’re guessing that these will be used in the pre-production Volt units that started pre-production two weeks ago.
These updates come on the heels of GM releasing the official Volt specs and the automaker’s announcement that it will invest $8 million to double the size of its Warren, Michigan battery lab. To date, more than 850,000 miles of customer use lab testing have been completed on the battery pack design for the Volt and Ampera (probably in the battery lab). We have GM’s full press release after the break.
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