Ben Preiss
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In January, Trend Hunter covered the release of the Chevy Volt. Now, General Motors announced that it will begin road testing its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid in the spring of next year and remains on track to produce the rechargeable car by late 2010. The Chevy Volt concept car was spotted driving around on the streets of Washington DC last month. The race is on to bring a mass-market, plug-in rechargeable electric vehicle to the market.  GM is the only automaker to have provided a time line on the production of a plug-in hybrid vehicle, even though other companies, such as Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are working on similar technology.
Automakers have said lithium-ion battery technology remains the biggest challenge in producing a plug-in vehicle as they try to lower the cost of the batteries and increase their power and storage capacity.
GM is racing rival Toyota to offer the first mass-market electric vehicle. Toyota last month unveiled a "plug-in" car based on its popular Prius hybrid model, saying it would test the fuel-saving vehicle on public roads -- a first for the industry.
(news.yahoo)References: voanews, news.yahoo Filed In: |
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