SAN FRANCISCO–During the first half of our around-the-country drive in the Chevy Volt, the first conversations started stirring over one of the greatest features of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles: How quiet they are. Problem is, they’re apparently too quiet, at least for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Last week, NHTSA proposed adding sounds to EV and PHEVs running below

(Odometer: 24, 890 miles) CHULA VISTA, Calif.–You’ve no doubt used Leviton products in wiring or re-wiring your home. The Long Island based company is known primarily for ground-fault circuit interruption technology, and its products sit in 90 million U.S. homes. Out here, on a ridge above the Pacific Ocean, a Leviton unit is taking the concept into a new and

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

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

More than a century after the commercialization of the automobile, we find ourselves in another–perhaps the most significant–transition in automotive technology since then: electric vehicles. I bring this up because since Day 1 of the Drive for Innovation I wanted to take the Chevy Volt to some unusual places, like Pikes Peak. But the primary spot I wanted to park

PHOENIX–An engineer who works on one of the most advanced commercial aircraft designs is soon to be the proud owner of one of the most advanced electric vehicles. Ted Yan, a systems engineer with Boeing, won the grand prize sweepstakes in our Drive for Innovation: A new 2012 Chevrolet Volt. Yan has been following the drive since we began in

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:

In the first of a three-part series of video excerpts from Design West, Munro & Associates' Al Steier and TechInsights' John Scott-Thomas analyze the Chevy Volt's battery pack. Here is their presentation, edited to 15:05:

(Odometer: 20,147) TEMPE, Ariz.–In the red Chevy Volt–our innovation "magic carpet" around the country–we've drag raced a Prius. Here at Arizona State University's main campus, we got a chance to take it up a notch. Brian Jackson, an engineering student here, commutes around campus on an electric bike. The prices of these feats of engineering are coming down into the