Chevy Volt & Nissan Leaf Featured at Annual Meeting

Attendees at the IEEE-USA Electric Vehicles & Personal Transportation Workshop were treated to up-close inspections of the new Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf on Friday. These cars represent the first wave of mass-produced plug-in electric vehicles available in the United States.

Craig Eppling, a regional communications manager for General Motors, drove the Volt to Austin from his office in Dallas. He said the Volt uses electricity at all times and has an all-electric range of 25 to 50 miles, depending on driving conditions. After that, an onboard 9.2-gallon gasoline-powered generator recharges the lithium-ion battery to extend driving range to a total of about 379 miles. He pointed out repeatedly to people viewing the car that it is not a hybrid electric vehicle.

Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan America, explained that the Leaf is 100 percent electric and uses no gasoline. It has no transmission, no tailpipe and produces zero emissions. The Leaf has a driving range of about 100 miles when fully charged and has to be recharged to drive further. Perry pointed out that by this time next year, there will be 13,000 public charging stations in the United States, more than gas stations.

The Leaf on exhibit Friday had actually been sold to a customer, who takes delivery today. So when one workshop attendee asked to sit in the car, Perry said it was OK as long as he didn't have a pen in his back pocket. He didn't.

The Volt holds four passengers and the Leaf five. The primary reason for the difference is that the Volt uses a T battery formation, with some of the batteries running down the center of the vehicle. This is similar to the interior hump you see in rear-wheel drive cars like the Ford Mustang. The Leaf does not use this configuration, so it has room for one more passenger.

One drawback to the Leaf is that the outlet where you recharge the battery is in the front of the vehicle and a few owners have forgotten the car was plugged in and driven off. The Volt's charging outlet is next to the driver's side door, thus reducing the chance that an owner would forget to disconnect the electric cord.

Both cars are very futuristic in design and can be monitored and, in some cases, controlled by a mobile app on your smart phone.

The Volt is manufactured by GM at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant in Michigan. The company spent $700 million to retool the plant to produce Volts. By the end of 2012, Leafs for the U.S. market will be produced in Smyrna, Tenn. All Leafs are currently manufactured in Japan.

The workshop also featured electric scooters, which sell extremely well in China, and electric bicycles.