Steve Leibson, longtime industry editor and engineer, got a chance this summer to tool around in the Silicon Valley in a Chevy Volt.  It's always good to get a different perspective, but Leibson's over three days tracks ours over 12 months.  He writes: "Quite simply, it drives like a smooth, well-bred car and it’s clear that GM engineers worked really

It's sometimes difficult to restrain oneself, much less one's company. Every innovation is born of a huge measure of optimism and confidence that this is the solution for the market. When the Drive for Innovation rolled into Boston in the fall of 2011, we hadn't heard of XL Hybrids. Today, we did, as the company announced a supplier deal with

Paris-based Valeo SA has an idea it hopes will help bring down the cost of hybrid car technology. Valeo has developed an electrification solution for the powertrain, Hybrid4All, which enables car manufacturers to turn a traditional engine –diesel or gasoline – into a hybrid engine, at an affordable price by using simple and standardized components. Valeo claimed the “Hybrid4All” architecture is

7/17/12 By Charles Murray, Senior Technical Editor for Design News If gas prices reached $5, $6, or even $7 a gallon, would you respond by purchasing a hybrid? How about an electric car? Some consumers are already contemplating their responses to those questions. And the news is that alternative fuel vehicles have apparently begun creeping into the mainstream consciousness. A

7/19/12 By Charles Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Design News In the midst of the Tesla Model S rollout at the company's California manufacturing plant recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a startling prediction: "In 20 years more than half of new cars manufactured will be fully electric," he said, according to a Reuters article. "I actually feel quite safe in

Avnet Field Application Engineer (FAE) Ann Worthington said her job can put the “fun” in “functionality.” That’s what happened with a recent case, when a new customer asked for a full range of solutions for their new product line. “It’s always fun for us as FAEs to go through these complex designs,” she said. “Each option, each part becomes a

(Second Teardown article in a series.) By John Scott-Thomas, TechInsights The Chevrolet Volt, GM’s entry in the electric car market, is one of the most complex vehicles on the road, using almost 100 microprocessors that are controlled by about 10 million lines of code. By comparison, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner gets by with only 6.5 million lines. One of the real

Here's a presentation compiled by Al Steier of Munro & Associates and John Scott-Thomas of TechInsights that walks you through what they found during their analysis of the Chevy Volt's charge/powertrain system:

By John Scott-Thomas, TechInsights The Chevrolet Volt is GM’s atonement for the cancellation of its first modern electric vehicle, the EV1, and a potent attempt to create a bold new technical future. The Volt’s control systems are among the most elaborate ever created. Close to 100 microprocessors are in the car, and over 10 million lines of software are used; a Boeing