The Chevrolet Volt, one of most important vehicles in GM’s lineup is now arriving onto dealer lots. But the Volt wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for lessons learned from The General’s first take on producing an electric vehicle, such as the EV-1 back in the 1990’s or even the implementation of two-mode hybrid systems in vehicles as big as the Cadillac Escalade.
“By adapting sub-systems such as the EV1-descended motors developed for the front-wheel drive hybrid system and electronically controlled brakes from the fuel cell Equinox, the engineers were able to focus more resources on the new lithium ion battery and overall vehicle integration. A new drive system like this involves a lot of complex control software such as the regenerative brake blending which benefited from the Two-Mode hybrid development,” said chief engineer Andrew Farah.
As with what GM learned from previous takes on electric vehicles, lessons and technologies used on the Volt will also go into future efforts towards the next generation of EV technology.
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