Oxford Elementery fourth-grade students in Rachel Hart and Mary Kraniak’s combined class got quite a treat on June 2 when they took a firsthand look at a 2011 Chevrolet Volt, General Motor’s first eletric car.
Their faces lit up as they got to peek under the hood at an engine powered primarily by an eletric charge that switches seamlessly to a gas-powered onboard generator for extended range.
The vehicle operates in two ways – an EV mode powered by an lithium-ion battery and an extended range mode.
The battery runs through the middle of the car and underneath the backseat.
Wally Edgar Chevrolet in Lake Orion provided the vehicle.
Students got the chance to look at the vehicle after Cailin Griffith’s presentation about eletric cars as her final project for her class’s IB unit on sharing the planet.
‘We were talking about how we could save the earth and I thought eletric cars were a great way to because they use less gas and they have less emissions,? Griffith said.
According to Chevrolet, a Volt with a fully charged battery and in moderate conditions, depending on the temperature, terrain, battery life and driving style, can go an initial 35 miles without using any gas or having any tailpipe emissions.
After that, drivers can go up to 375 miles with the extended range mode.