Chevrolet Volt's Petrol Engine to Power Wheels in Europe?

For those of you who were expecting a Chevrolet Volt/Vauxhall Ampera whose hybrid driveline would be operated fully electric, your wait might have been for nothing. According to a report from British daily The Telegraph, it seems that General Motors is flirting with the idea of letting the car’s petrol engine handle all the work at high speeds, at least in Europe.

The reason for that sudden change of heart – well, it’s not so sudden when you hear the motives behind the move – is rumored to be the poor high-speed performance experienced by the Volt when driven solely by the electric motor.

Even though GM promised to deliver a car that can be driven up to 40 miles on the power supplied by its electric battery only, it seems that when the Volt exceeds 50 mph (80 km/h), the electric motor runs out of torque and the car’s performances are consequently affected.

“We are considering driving the wheels directly from the petrol engine,” said Andreas Voight, an Opel project engineer, according to the aforementioned source. In the initial project, power was supplied for 40 miles by the electric motor only, after which the petrol one would come into play and partially recharge the battery, while also powering the alternator.

The change would not necessitate much work from the GM engineers however, as the engine is already linked to the wheels through the planetary twin-clutch transmission. This way, if in a hurry, one can step on the gas without worrying about the car’s performance or how it’s going to “behave” on a motorway.

Basically, the 40-mile battery-only range will still be ensured by the guys at GM – after all, this is the marketing trump card for the Americans – but the performances of the Volt when running in battery mode only would be restricted to a lower level (below 50 mph, for sure). Voight hinted that a definitive announcement will be made in the autumn on 2010.