GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site Blog Archive GM Explains Why the 1.4 L ICE Range Extender was Chosen For the Volt Apparently the smaller turbo 3 cylinder they were considering was actually heavier and had lower FE than this larger one. But dang, did they really need something this big? That's almost as big as the ICE in the Prius.
I call BS. I believe that the 1.4L 4-cylinder was chosen over a 3 cylinder because the 1.4L is going to GM's new world engine for small cars. They have announced that 1.4L will be used in the new Chevy Cruze, which will be GM's world small platform. The 1.4L will be available in multiple outputs and in both NA and turbocharged forms. The Volt is already going be be expensive enough without using a low volume engine just for the Volt.
The reason to have a larger ICE is to down size the battery pack to hit the price point. This means the EV range will be reduced and compensated by running in series hybrid mode, which is less FE than parallel mode.
For the record, does anyone have the ORIGINAL specifications for the Volt: range, engine, price, etc. We should capture that for comparison later. Make sure you provide links for verification.
