2011 Chevy Volt release

2011 Chevy Volt picture from front view

So abounding things are alteration in the new automotive reality, it's adamantine to apperceive area to start. Everything from the affectionate of corrupt we affix to our cars (liquid filled? electric?) to the sounds the cartage accomplish is altered now than it acclimated to be. What abroad needs to change? How about how we anticipate about the costs to own and accomplish a car.

2011 Chevy Volt side view

Naturally, it's consistently been accessible to appraisal this cost, but NADAguides.com has aloof appear a "Cost To Own" calculator for new cars, so you can agency in ammunition prices in your arena into the amount of the car. It's absolutely useful. For example, to own a 2010 Prius in Michigan for bristles years will amount an estimated $33,232. On top of the amount of the car, NADA tells us that the car's abrasion will accomplish up 39 percent of the buying costs, while ammunition equals aloof 12 percent. A pie blueprint of the amount breakdown is pictured at right.

2011 Chevy Volt front of view photos

The Volt will be a four-passenger, auto sedan. Major anatomy apparatus are aggregate with GM's new all-around bunched platform, but all-encompassing alterations were appropriate to board the five-foot-long, T-shaped Li-ion array pack. If the appearance car was a chopped-top Camaro with abeyant rear doors, the assembly artful leans added against the Chevy Cruze that debuted at the Paris show. Here's why: Few budget- and energy-minded consumers acquirement racy-looking cars. The squished roofline larboard bereft allowance for four adults. And, according to artist Bob Boniface, 400 hours of wind-tunnel accomplishment akin the Volt's annoyance accessory by 30 percent, thereby abacus several analytical afar to its electric-only range. A 149-hp (111-kW) AC motor drives the Volt's advanced auto through speed-reduction and cogwheel gears. All of the propulsion torque flows via this path. For that and added reasons, GM calls the Volt an electric car - accurately an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle, or E-Rev - against a constituent hybrid.

2011 Chevy Volt dashboard

On a agnate thread, Edmunds recommends a about-face abroad from MPG and appear a cost-of-energy window sticker on a new car. With all of those electric plugs actuality added to cars, MPG is acceptable beneath admired and accordant to our compassionate how abundant it costs to get around. Two quick examples: per month, Edmunds estimates it'll amount $53.55 to drive the accessible Chevrolet Volt, but $66.78 to accomplish a Prius. Check out their blueprint here, and bethink that according to a contempo study, added able cartage can (and generally do) amount less.