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The Chevrolet Volt has just been unveiled at the Paris show where Europe’s press has seen the car for the first time. GM’s revolutionary range extender car, which breaks the mechanical link between the internal combustion engine and the wheels for the first time.

More details have also emerged about the Volt’s mechanical make-up. It will use a new 1.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine (which will also be used in the new Chevrolet Cruze, also unveiled here in Paris today) that’s been detun...Read the full article

Three cheers for Chevy - at last someone has had the courage to actually produce something that is a genuine step forward towards making sure the car will survive, they should be applauded. I hope it will be a big success for them. It is a pity that it is not more adventurous looking but it has one or two nice points, like the wing mirrors and the graphics of the lights. I appreciate that the overall shape is limited by the need to be as aerodynamic as possible (even Honda's Insight looks like a Prius) but the worst point is those horrible black panels below the side windows - Why ?? it would have looked so much better if they had kept it looking as though it had the really narrow windows of the original concept. All in all a damn good effort.

Genius. Of all people, Chevrolet. Not quite done yet eh?  Write off the American car industry at your peril...

Wonder how they came up with the 176mpg figure... Guess there is some EU directive or another on this, based on driving a standardised route and distance - and if so, did it start with batteries fully charged? Like if the batteries lasted for 40 miles and the standard test is 100, it only had to burn petrol for 60 miles or so.

Whatever though, we're potentially looking at a realsitic 150 to the gallon and space to bring others with you. This seems to be the real step forward the prius wasn't!

 176mpg!!??!!  Even if it only achieves two thirds of this figure due to more spirited driving, it would still be a bloody good mpg for a car of this size.  Hope they can do something to make the price a little sharper, but other than that it looks like a winner to me (although what's with the weird black bits on the side, below the windows??).

The deal with the Volt is that it breaks the mechanical link between the engine and wheels. The Toyota Hybrid system is way more complicated. By allowing the engine to run at its most efficient, acting a a generator with no acceleration and little loading, fuel consumption is transformed. This idea of micro generation - having, say, tiny power stations at the end of the street, rather than a few huge power stations and the resultant transmission losses, is a big part of the future 'fuel saving' revolution. (I won't call the shift 'green' because that's such a debased and political term). We'll probably come to see the Volt as a landmark in the history of the automobile.

HiltonH:

We'll probably come to see the Volt as a landmark in the history of the automobile.

There's one major problem - read this: <br>

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=132112 <br>

If these guys are right (and Edmunds is respected in the States) then the Volt is effectively useless for anyone other than a commuter with a plug at work. You only get 40 miles before the battery runs out, after which point you're trying to power a 1700kg car along with its engine thrashing away to turn its electric motor. <br>

If this is the future, give me a Prius.