It isn’t very often that a new product comes along with the potential to revolutionize an industry and jumpstart a whole new set of businesses and services, but the new Volt under development at Chevy may do just that by bringing a new level of portability to electric energy.

If you’ve ever lost power at home, there’s probably been a moment when you’ve considered purchasing a generator of some sort. But questions like how much does it cost? and where would I put it? may have stymied your enthusiasm.

What if your car could double as a generator, where plugging one end of a cord into your house circuit and the other into a car like the Chevy Volt would provide power as long as you had a charge or gas in the tank? The possibilities during travel in rustic settings become numerous as well. Can you imagine a fully automated tent complete with razor-thin laptop, massage table, and satellite television — all powered by your Chevy Volt?

Then again, that might not even be a vacation with so many amenities at your fingertips.

Regardless, Chevy definitely has this functionality on its radar. Take a look at the video below where Chevy Engineer Tony Posawatz talks about vehicle-to-grid functionality being one of many businesses that may grow within the ecosystem launched by the Volt.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY6wkK8_e9o[/youtube]

So how does the Chevy Volt pack so much power without using gas for the first 40 miles? It stores electricity in a line of batteries down the middle of the car. Take a look at this video.

Chevy is pushing an openness to innovation from its partners and with the public through transparency on the Volt’s progress, and that’s creating a fair amount of buzz on the web.

As an example, GM-Volt provides regular blog updates and has excellent inside contacts, it’s the perfect sort of outlet for Chevy to communicate with forward thinkers online.

Though still in the hands of engineers at Chevrolet, the Volt is sure to create a storm of innovation and controversy as its planned 2010 launch date approaches.

Chevrolet told GM-Volt that “the marketing plan(s) isn’t set and won’t be until we get far closer to production. [The] reference to the “smile states” (CA, FL, DC, NY etc) is based on the high number of ‘early adopters’ there. Still, the plans have not really gone beyond the discussion phase.”

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Entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 5:32 pm under Science and technology, Technology.

Read more entries by Matt Jansen.
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