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>> All kinds of alt fuel power trains these days, hybrids of all types are soft and hard hybrids, you've got diesel electric hybrids, now you've got a whole other power train right here behind me. In this concept car from GM called the Volt has a power train that GM calls E flex, here's how it works, electric motor drives the car at all times but there is a gas engine in the vehicle, what it does is run a generator that recharges the batteries that power the electric motor, but never does the gas engine get involved directly in the power train, that's an interesting way to slice and dice a combination of electric and internal combustion. So you plug the car in typically in six hours a charge is up enough on the batteries to go 40 miles which GM points out is more than enough to go back and forth to work each day for the majority of Americans. If you want to go longer range that's when the gas engine switches on, runs at a constant rpm and keeps the battery charged for up to 640 miles before you have to put more gas in the car to run the generator. By the way that little motor is only a 1 liter, three cylinder turbocharged motor so it's really efficient and of course very clean. Now the Volt is nowhere near production but it does hearken back to GM's previous leadership with the world's first production electric car that EV1.
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