Hasta La Gadget!

GM and Segway’s joint venture is probably best described as a rickshaw without all the charm. The self-balancing Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project (P.U.M.A.) can reach top speeds of 35 MPH, has a lithium battery that lasts up to 35 miles with a single charge, and features vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication for potentially reducing the number of accidents. No word on when or if this’ll actually go into production but it’s expected to be priced at just 25% that of a regular automobile. Hit up the read link for more pics, including a concept model that’s just a teensy bit more reasonable. We’ll be at the launch event tomorrow to see it for ourselves and make sure it’s not all some bizarre dream.

Filed under: Transportation

GM and Segway’s P.U.M.A. unveiled and no, this isn’t a joke originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d probably never know it from all the pictures, but the Chevy Volt hasn’t actually been fully built before — so far all we’ve seen are “development mules” constructed from the shell of the company’s Cruze compact cars. That’s all gonna change on June 1st, when General Motors says it’s gonna start production on the first 100 percent genuine Volt. According to the unofficial blog GM-Volt, an average of ten cars will be made each week until a fleet of 80 have been complete. Of course, you’re still not gonna get to drive one until at least 2010, so don’t go looking for your favorite Gatsby cap just yet.

Read – Announcement (with glaring mistake)
Read – Corrections from GM exec Rob Peterson

Filed under: Transportation

First genuine Chevy Volt hits production on June 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid proves that a nearly three-ton SUV can manage 20 mpg. On a thousand-mile, mostly highway trip, that’s exactly what I got, and it’s also what GM claims (actually 20 city, 21 highway, 20 overall on regular fuel). SUVs of the 1990s were lucky to reach the mid-teens. A little bit of the credit on my trek goes to the two-mode hybrid drivetrain and a lot to the V8 engine that backs off to four cylinders when not accelerating or hill-climbing. (The hybrid benefit accrues mostly in stop-and-go city driving.) The navigation system worked well, as did Bluetooth, and OnStar’s Destination Download was great when you were under way (important since GM locks out manual destination entry): Press the OnStar button, tell the operator where you want to go, and the route is automatically downloaded.

There are some things a global economic recession can’t stop, virtues like hope and American traditions like badge engineering. While GM’s financial status may not give us much reason to hold that former virtue, it is at least continuing that latter tradition, announcing a deal that will see our Volt sold abroad as the Ampera. The news came with the above teaser shot, which shows Chevy’s bow tie logo replaced by Opel’s appropriately electrified Z, flanked by some rather more dashing headlights and bumper creases. The overall silhouette, however, looks much the same, and the Euro version is rated for 60 kilometers of petrol-free motoring, which roughly matches our 40 miles worth. No word on whether Europeans will be seeing theirs the same time we finally get to buy ours, nor whether it will feature Dr. Who sound effects instead of the Star Trek ones we’ll get.

Filed under: Transportation

Chevy’s Volt gets a lightning rebadge to become the Opel Ampera for Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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