Progress! On Tuesday General Motors unveiled the production version of the upcoming (2010?) Chevrolet Volt, a series-hybrid vehicle who’s motive force is an electric motor with an axillary gasoline engine on board only to recharge the battery pack after its initial 40-mile range is depleted. Since the average commute for the American driver is less than 40 miles, most Volt owners will use very little gasoline, as long as they remember to plug it in at night.

Wired Magazine quotes GM CEO Rick Wagoner as saying during the unveiling:

“Revealing the production version of the Chevy Volt is a great way to open our second century,” Wagoner said. “The Volt is symbolic of GM’s strong commitment to the future … just the kind of technology innovation that our industry needs to respond to today’s and tomorrow’s energy and environmental challenges.”

Wired goes on to preview the Volt’s features and details of its development from concept to production reality:

The Volt is not a Johnny-come-lately second-rate Prius. It’s a technological step forward and a bit of a surprise from a company that has for decades been known for evolution, not revolution. The Volt’s 17-inch wheels are driven by an electric motor that gets its juice from a T-shaped battery with 220 lithium-ion cells. GM says it’s good for 40 miles of zero-emission electric driving. The small gasoline engine under the hood acts only as a generator, charging the battery as it approaches depletion and eliminating the “range anxiety” that make EVs a tough sell for road-trip-lovin’ Americans.

The sleek, rounded car Wagoner showed off today shares little family resemblance with the angular concept he unveiled in 2007. The radical redesign was borne of necessity — maximizing aerodynamic efficiency is essential to squeezing every last mile from the battery, and the original design was about as slick as a brick.

After discovering the concept car’s wretched drag coefficient of .43 — roughly the same aerodynamic efficiency as a Chevrolet Silverado pickup — GM’s designers and engineers spent more than 1,000 hours in the wind tunnel reworking the exterior. What they emerged with is, according to GM, more aerodynamic than the Toyota Prius or the Honda Civic Hybrid. “We spent three times longer on this car than any other car [in GM’s history],” says Nina Tortosa, the engineer who oversaw wind tunnel testing. “It will be one of the most aerodynamic cars out there.”

OK, looks like the future of daily commuting is only months away . . . regardless of the beatings of the do-nothing-but-impede-with-regulation Dem-wit controlled Congress. Here’s a look at the production version outside and in, although motivated only via a small electric motor as the production drive train is only being tested in Malibu mules.

Carpe diem Volt

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