Electricity has some advantages over other energy sources. It can be generated using a variety of sources like the wind and the sun, and to deliver it only requires a wire. Other sources like gasoline and propane require extraction, containers, storage space, and physical delivery. Realizing that and the trend toward gasoline price anxiety, Chevy is considering an all-electric version of the Volt.

It’s all very preliminary right now, but General Motors Chairman Bob Lutz posed a question to PetroZero during an interview, “what if we could do a Volt that’s cheaper, without engine and all the plumbing, and have a pure electric with more range?”

Key drivers to the success of a vehicle like that would be how much “more range” means, how easy and fast it is to power the batteries back up once they’re depleted.

More options are good at this point as Lutz has indicated that the price of the Volt continues to twitter. He shared some humor on pricing with GM-Volt recently, pasted in below.

It’s like this joke about a man at a conference who goes like this (demonstrates a steady clap) Then he says every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies. Some guy in the audience shouts “Then why don’t you bleedin’ stop clapping ya heartless bastard!’ (laughter)

So stop asking how much it will cost!

At this point the largest unknown is the cost of the battery system, which happens to be one of the biggest technology innovations in the Chevy Volt.

An all-electric Volt certainly seems like a harder sell, because it introduces some uncertainty for people who need to travel beyond the range of a single charge.

Related:

Entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 11:31 pm under Technology.

Read more entries by Matt Jansen.
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