volt

An electric Humvee may still sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to environmentalists, but the company developing a plug-in Hummer H3e claims its green version can get 100 mpg on average. And what's a little boasting without taking a shot at the competition?

Since early last year, two companies -- the Watertown, Massachusetts startup A123 Systems and Compact Power, Inc., a division of LG Chem -- have been battling for the contract to build lithium-ion batteries for General Motors's Hail Mary, the Chevy Volt, an electric car with a small gas engine on board for backup.

GM has yet to officially announce the winner, but Reuters reports that Compact Power is the victor. From our current issue, here's a look inside the fight to power the Volt.

Today, after a nearly two-year tease, General Motors unveiled the final design for the car that it hopes will save the company: the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the world's first production plug-in hybrid. The Volt is designed to drive 40 miles on a single charge of its giant lithium-ion battery; after that, an onboard 1.4-liter four-cylinder flex-fuel engine kicks in to power the electric motors that drive the car. GM will most likely make 10,000 of the cars in the first year of production; it's expected to go on sale in November 2010.

Heres an odd PR move making the blog rounds today: Bob Lutz, the General Motors Vice Chairman whos driving the charge to build the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, was recently quoted in D Magazine calling global warming a crock of s**t.

No, we're not a business magazine, but this story on Xconomy about how battery-developer A123 Systems jumped from a university lab into a potential powerhouse is pretty fascinating.