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On the evening of September 29,
Elon Musk unveiled the production
Model X electric SUV. There were
but a handful of cars.
Meanwhile, about 39 miles north
of where Musk was making his
presentation, Pam Fletcher, General
Motors' Executive Chief Engineer—
Electrifed Vehicles, said that on that
very day, car haulers were leaving
the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly
Plant with Volts on board. A
single commercial car hauler can
accommodate more vehicles than
Musk delivered that evening (six).
And while the price of the Model
X was on the order of $132,000
for those getting the Signature
Series Model X (the prices will
eventually go south once there
is greater capacity and the more
economical versions will not have a
"performance motor"), the starting
MSRP for a 2016 Chevrolet Volt,
including an $825 destination fee
but not subtracting any tax credits,
is $33,995. This means for the
price of one of those initial Xes
you could get three Volts and have
enough left over to keep them all
p Beneath the more-stylized
sheet metal, the 2016 Volt
has a more-efcient Voltec
electric drive system.
t When the frst-generation Volt came
out, there was debate and squabbling
about whether it was truly an "electric
vehicle." After all, it, like this, the
second-generation, uses an internal
combustion engine, but primarily as a
generator. With the new vehicle, with
an all-electric range of 53 miles, that
question is moot. What's more, with
that range-extending generator (a.k.a.,
a 1.5-liter Ecotec), the total range
is 420 miles. Which is a
compelling argument
for this extended
range electric
vehicle.