The big question about the Chevrolet Volt was answered today when General Motors said the car will cost $41,000. Add in the federal electric-vehicle tax credit and you’re looking at $33,500. Yes, that’s a lot. But the General says you’re getting a lot for your money.

GM begins taking orders today and says the first Volts roll into driveways by year’s end. The brass were quick to call this “a historic day” and they rarely miss a chance to call the Volt “a game-changer.” Hyperbole aside, the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf we’ll see later this year are the first mass-market highway-legal electric vehicles to hit the market.

“This is a real car,” said Joel Ewanick, VP of North American marketing. “It just happens to be electric. This is not a niche vehicle. This is the future of the automobile.”

That remains to be seen. And with just 10,000 slated for production in 2011, the Volt will be a niche vehicle until GM starts ramping up production in 2012 and beyond. But that doesn’t make it any less of a step forward.

Although electricity is the only thing that drives the Volt’s wheels, it differs from EVs like the Leaf in that it gets an assist from internal combustion. The four-passenger, five-door compact sports a 16-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that’s good for 40 miles. Beyond that, a gasoline engine seamlessly kicks on to drive the 53-kilowatt generator that keeps juice flowing to the wheels.

GM says the Volt combines the environmental benefits of an electric vehicle with the practicality of a conventional car. Although 78 percent of Americans commute less than 40 miles each day, many want or need to go much farther. When the battery dies, the Volt will keep going until the gas tank runs dry. Plug the car into a 240-volt socket and the battery’s good to go in three to four hours.

No one at GM will say exactly how big the tank is, but it is “considerably smaller” than 10 gallons. GM is keeping equally mum on fuel economy — no one’s repeating that 230 mpg nonsense — in part because the feds haven’t decided how they’ll determine such things for cars like the Volt or the forthcoming Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid. GM says the car will go 300 miles with a full tank.

But as Ewanick notes, the biggest challenge with the Volt isn’t the engineering. It’s the marketing.

Any way you look at it, the Volt is expensive. The Volt is by far the priciest Chevrolet model that isn’t a Corvette. Chalk it up to the high cost of batteries. The $33,500 you’d spend on a Volt after the tax credit would put you in a nicely equipped Buick Lacrosse and leave you a few grand shy of an entry-level Cadillac CTS. A lease will cost $2,500 down and $350 a month for 36 months.

It also should be noted that the Leaf, a battery electric vehicle with a claimed range of 100 miles, will run $25,280 after the tax credit. GM says comparing the cars is like comparing apples to oranges, and remains confident consumers will embrace the practicality of an on-board generator to keep them going.

GM, perhaps sensing the price could make the car a tough sell, has packed the Volt with standard features.

It will be the first vehicle to include five years of OnStar’s top-tier “Directions and Connections” service and the OnStar smartphone app in addition to a Volt-specific app to control charging and other functions. There’s a 7-inch LCD navi screen and a Bose entertainment system with a 30-GB hard drive. Safety features include eight airbags, electronic stability control and traction control.

“The base model is heavily, heavily equipped,” said Tony DiSalle, director of marketing and communications for the Volt.

The only options are polished aluminum wheels, leather interior package (seats, steering wheel and door panel inserts), three premium paint colors (red, white and viridian joule) and a back-up camera with parking assist. A fully loaded Volt will cost $44,600 before the federal tax credit.

The General is making a big deal out of the warranty. In addition to eight years and 100,000 miles on the battery, the Volt is covered by a three-year/36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper and five-year/100,000-mile engine warranty.

GM touts gas savings as another incentive. If you drive 15,000 miles a year, you’ll save 500 gallons of gasoline and 4.4 metric tons of CO2 over a comparable car like the Chevrolet Cobalt, said Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the Volt. The electricity will run 2 or 3 cents a mile, but the car’s operating cost will depend upon how many miles are driven under battery power and how many are done with the engine driving the generator.

GM will offer the car in seven markets to start — California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan and Washington, D.C., thought it plans to roll the car out nationally beginning in 2012. GM has lined up more than 600 dealers in those first seven markets. You can find your nearest one at getmyvolt.com and call them to place an order.

Many will no doubt howl at the price, but GM expects demand to exceed supply in the first year. That raises the specter of price gouging. Although GM cannot require dealers to sell the Volt at the suggested retail price, Ewanick said it will “strongly suggest” they do so. Gouging is something the company is very much determined to prevent.

Ewanick also said there are so many dealerships lining up to sell the car in each market that “we feel they will maintain integrity.”

General Motors begins full production at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant early in the fourth quarter and says it will begin delivering cars by the end of the year.

Main photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Second photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

See Also:

• First Look: Chevrolet Volt in Red
• First Chevrolet Volt Rolls Off the Line Nov. 1
• Chevrolet Volt Gets a Bigger Brother
• OnStar Gets Smart (Phone)
• Chevrolet Volt Sure Drives Sweet

Team Agni made a strong showing in the second round of the British electric motorcycle grand prix series, finishing one-two after leaving the rest of the field well behind.

The crew from London found some mojo in the second round of the TTXGP UK Championship after finishing third and fourth during the season opener at Snetterton. Still, the same riders finished in the top four at each race, suggesting the rest of the field has some work to do for the remaining two races.

Sunday’s 14-lap race around the track in Anglesey, North Wales started strong with Pete Ward of Electric Hussar jumping off the line to take the lead from fourth on the grid. It didn’t last long.

Team Agni countered with a one-two punch as Rob Moon (pictured above) and Jenny Tinmouth made quick work of Ward to take the lead within a few turns on the track.

Tinmouth soon passed her teammate and never looked back, handily adding to her lead with every lap of the 1.55-mile Coastal Circuit. She posted a fastest lap of 1:20.922. All the excitement was behind the Agni bikes as Ward and Jim Lovell of Tork India mixed it up for several laps in a fight for third and fourth.

When the checkered flag fell, it was Tinmouth out front with an elapsed time of 19:10:241. Moon followed her across the line 21.918 seconds later. Ward took third with a time of 19:51.391 with Lovell 44.051 seconds behind him in fourth.

The entire show heads to Donnington Park on Aug. 21 for the third round.

Meanwhile, the FIM e-Power series made a stop at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where the scary-fast yellow bike of Lightning Motors held the lead until running out of juice within sight of the finish. Michael Czysz, who was 6.7 seconds behind at the start of the last lap, took the checkered flag aboard the MotoCzysz EP1C. Our friend Jeremy Korzeniewski of Autoblog has lots o’ pics.

Photos: Nick John Photography. More pix here.

Pete Ward (No 68) had a great start but soon fell to Rob Moon (No. 69) and then Jenny Tinmouth (No. 77). Tinmouth soon passed both of them to take the lead, leaving Moon in second and letting Ward and Jim Lovell (No 65) fight for third and fourth.

The action on the Coastal Circuit at Anglesey was exciting at the front of the grid, but with the same four riders finishing in the top four of the first two races in the UK series, the rest of the pack has its work cut out for it.

Wow. It’s already been more than a year since Azhar Hussain and his crew at TTXGP pretty much launched the electric motorcycle racing scene. To (belatedly) mark that anniversary, they’ve put together a cool highlights reel of action from different races.

It would be difficult to overstate what Hussain and the people racing in this series have accomplished. Electric motorcycle racing didn’t exist in any real sense when Hussain got this ball rolling two years ago. The TTXGP staged its first race, with some help from the Isle of Man, on June 12, 2009 and proved “electric motorcycle” and “grand prix” aren’t mutually exclusive.

That first race drew 13 teams. Some of the bikes were a little rough, and they were all pretty slow compared to anything with a gasoline engine. But the riders were so passionate that one pushed his dead bike across the finish line. Since then, the TTXGP has blossomed into a full-fledged series with 13 races in 5 countries on two continents. The two races we’ve seen this year have been marked by impressive machines in tight competition.

Despite the scale, the TTXGP remains a low-buck, run-what-you-brung cooperative by and for the racers. They’ve put up with no small amount of politics and b.s. along the way, but through it all they’ve shown the highest commitment to this new sport. Spend any amount of time talking to the people building and racing these bikes and you can’t help being infected by their enthusiasm. They truly believe they are pioneering the future of motorcycling.

You may not agree. But you have to respect them for what they’ve done.

Video: TTXGP

See Also:

• ESPN Picks Up Electric Motorcycle Racing
• Lightning (Motors) Strikes At Electric Motorcycle GP
• Watch the Entire Electric-Motorcycle Grand Prix Right Here …
• TTXGP Electric Motorcycle Race Becomes a Dogfight
• If Yamaha Went Electric, It Would Look Like This
• This Should Be Zero Motorcycle’s Next Electric Bike
• Electra Racing Goes Old-School With an Electric Norton

The KleenSpeed WX10 prototype, developed with West Racecars and drven by KleenSpeed founder and president Timothy Collins, averaged 94 mph over the 2.24-mile, 11-turn course at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. That topped last year’s record of 93 mph, also set by the WX10.

KleenSpeed attributed the improved performance to battery management system developed over the past year. Thanks scads of performance data from on-board computers, engineers refined the car’s performance by analyzing information gathered during different kinds of driving. The idea, says technology honcho Dante Zeviar, is to create tech we might see in commercial EVs.

The result is a 200-horsepower racer that sounds like it’d be a blast to drive. Collins says the WX10 delivers “instantaneous torque that creates a unique combination of explosive response and a smoother driving experience.” At least until the battery runs flat.

In addition to the prototype WX10, KleenSpeed develops EV components and does conversions. Company spokeswoman Lita Vallis said money raised from the sale of the WX10 prototype will finance R&D for future projects.

Photo: KleenSpeed

Volkswagen is diving into electric vehicles with the goal of selling 300,000 annually by 2018, and it has tapped an early pioneer of the modern EV to help hit that goal.

VW Group hopes to move 10 million vehicles a year worldwide by 2018, and company boss Martin Winterkorn says cars with cords could comprise 3 percent of that.

“In urban centers, this share could be a lot higher,” Winterkorn says, according to Reuters.

Volkswagen announced earlier this year that we’d see an EV by 2013. The Up! E-Motion electric city car and an electric Golf are the two vehicles under consideration. “One of the two will be the first all-electric VW in the U.S.,” Winterkorn said, according to Motor Trend.

Winterkorn says battery costs remain the biggest hurdle to widespread adoption of electric vehicles — a point he is hardly alone in making — and says lithium-ion packs cost 500 to 1,000 euros ($647 to $1,294) per kilowatt hour today. The upper end of that range is a bit high, but his figures are in the ballpark we hear others are playing in.

VW, which is working with Chinese manufacturer BYD on battery tech and has opened a lab at its Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto, California. It is led by none other than Martin Eberhard, the co-founder and first CEO of Tesla Motors. Volkswagen quietly tapped him for the job 18 months ago, and he’s almost sold his bosses on using commodity cells in VW packs.

“They’re slowing coming around,” Eberhard told Motor Trend.

Using off-the-shelf lithium-ion batteries is the same approach Tom Gage and Alan Cocconi of AC Propulsion pioneered and Tesla Motors adopted to create the Roadster. Although VW is exploring a similar approach, the technology it is using is vastly different, Eberhard says.

The electric Golf concept unveiled earlier this year has a motor that produces 50 kilowatts (69 horsepower) continuous and 85 kilowatts (115 hp) peak. Top speed is 135 km/hr, or 84 mph. It’s common to govern the top speed of an EV to maximize range.

Speaking of range, VW says the 26.5 kilowatt-hour pack in the e-Golf is good for 150 kilometers, or 93 miles. The pack uses 180 cells and weighs 315 kilos, or 795 pounds. No word on the recharge time, but VW says the plug is in the logo on the grille even though the diagram shows it in the fuel filler door.

Price? Who knows.

Photos: Volkswagen

See Also:

• Honda Discovers Cars With Cords
• Toyota, Tesla Resurrect the Electric RAV4
• Nissan Leaf Electric Vehicle Is Surprisingly Affordable
• Here’s What an Electric VW Golf Looks Like
• VW Redefines ‘Car’ With A 170-MPG Diesel Hybrid

This just in from Tokyo: Honda plans to roll out a plug-in hybrid and a full EV within three years.

Honda honcho Takanobu Ito is expected to announce the company’s plans during a press conference Tuesday, Japan’s business daily Nikkei reports, according to Reuters. There are no details beyond Honda’s claim the plug-in will go 60 kilometers on a liter of gas, which is 141 mpg by our math. (Please let us know if we’ve screwed that up.)

The announcement shows Honda is hell-bent on going toe-to-toe with Toyota in the hybrid, plug-in and battery electric arena.

Honda’s released the Insight and CR-Z hybrids to compete against Toyota’s gas-electric lineup, and any plug-in it might be working on is almost surely a response to the plug-in Prius we’ll see in 2012. Ito has made it a mission to bring down the cost of hybrids, and the Honda Fit hybrid we keep hearing about could be the cheapest hybrid yet.

The electric is more interesting because Honda has so far bet the farm on hydrogen. Yes, Honda’s got experience with EVs — the EV Plus (pictured) was the first from a major manufacturer that didn’t use lead-acid batteries — and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are electric. But Honda’s kept quiet about any battery electrics it might be working on.

Although the EV surely has been in development for awhile, you have to wonder if Tuesday’s announcement is a response to Toyota’s announcement on Friday that it is working with Tesla to bring back the RAV4 EV…

Cutaway diagram of the 1997 EV Plus: Honda

Toyota and Tesla Motors are going back to the future to update the RAV4 EV, essentially resurrecting an excellent electric vehicle the Japanese company killed seven years ago.

The two companies announced today that they will develop the vehicle with a goal of producing it in 2012, bringing cheers from EV advocates thrilled by the return of a vehicle they adore. It’s a brilliant move for everyone involved. Toyota, which has so far been lukewarm about EVs, gets something on the road quickly and cheaply. And Tesla gets its drivetrain in more vehicles.

“Basically, for a net investment of $8 million, Toyota has gotten itself a ready-made EV program,” said Aaron Bragman, an auto industry analyst for IHS Global Insight. “Toyota is behind the ball when it comes to fully electric vehicles. This is them playing some serious catch-up and doing it for relatively little investment.”

Both companies also  get some good PR when they need it. Toyota’s been hit by yet another round of recalls, and Tesla’s stock price fell below its initial offering price earlier this month. The company’s stock rose almost 4 percent today on the announcement.

The Japanese giant took the Silicon Valley upstart under its wing in May when it gave Tesla the New United Motor Manufacturing factory for $42 million and agreed to buy $50 million in stock when Tesla went public. They said from the start that we’d see an electric vehicle born of the marriage, but neither side is breaking new ground here.

Toyota is essentially updating an electric vehicle it built in limited numbers between 1997 and 2003. The vehicle featured a 27.4-kilowatt-hour nickel-metal hydride battery that recharges in 5 hours at 240 volts. Toyota leased RAV4 EVs to utilities, businesses and cities through 2002 and sold 328 of them to private citizens in 2003. Unlike other automakers (cough GM cough Honda), Toyota didn’t crush the cars at the end of its EV program,  and most are still on the road.

“I’m still getting 120 miles of range,” said Paul Scott, a founder of the advocacy group Plug-In America. He bought his in September 2003. “It still runs exactly the same as the day I bought it. There’s no degradation of the battery, no variation in the performance. It just runs.”

Scott, like other EV advocates, couldn’t be more excited to see the RAV4 EV return. The current generation RAV (pictured above) is roomier and more nicely appointed than the model Toyota electrified 13 years ago (pictured below), and using a lithium-ion battery should boost performance.

“Toyota did a great job with the original, and the new RAV4 will be even better,” he said.

Neither Tesla or Toyota offered any specs for the next-gen EV. But a small electric SUV makes a lot of sense because it provides more practicality than a compact.

“It will have a wider appeal than many EVs that will be on the market,” Bragman said. “This is one of  the things GM is thinking of with a crossover utility vehicle version of the Volt. This is what the next level will be.”

As for Tesla’s role in all of this, Toyota says “prototypes will be made combining the Toyota RAV4 model with a Tesla electric powertrain. Tesla plans to produce and deliver a fleet of prototypes to Toyota for evaluation within this year.” In other words, there’s no guarantee Tesla drivetrains will appear in production models. It’s similar to Tesla’s work with Daimler, which used Tesla batteries in the Smart ForTwo Electric drive prototypes but will use its own packs in production models slated for 2012.

“The RAV4 may be a reality in 2 to 3 years, but only if Toyota puts a lot more than their initial $50 million behind it,” said Mike Omotoso, an analyst with J.D. Power and Associates. “Tesla is not financially self-sufficient and will need more money to build a RAV4 and/or Model S.”

Toyota’s investment in Tesla gives the Japanese company a peek at some excellent technology and helps put Toyota’s EV program on a fast track quickly and cheaply. But to suggest, as many have, that Tesla is Toyota’s electric savior is ludicrous. Toyota dominates the hybrid market, so it clearly knows how how to build batteries and motors that work.

What’s more, the original RAV4 was, and remains, an impressive vehicle. Toyota could slap the original’s electric drivetrain in the current RAV4 and have a competitive EV. That’s a testament to the original’s technology and Toyota’s EV expertise.

UPDATED 4:10 p.m. Eastern.

Photos: Toyota

See Also:

• Toyota, Tesla Burnish Their Images by Teaming Up
• Toyota-Tesla Prototype Expected This Year
• Tesla IPO Raises $226.1M, Stock Surges 41 Percent
• Nissan Leaf Electric Vehicle Is Surprisingly Affordable
• Chevrolet Volt Sure Drives Sweet

Toyota built the RAV4 EV from 1997 until 2003, and most of them are still going strong. The cars are such solid performers and so highly sought after that they would routinely command prices of $40,000 to $50,000 on those rare occasions someone sells one.

Electric motorcycles appear to be on the steep part of the development curve these days. The latest model comes from Brammo, the small Oregon company that produced the Enertia a few years back. The company’s newest offering is called the Empulse and the electric motorcycle is a big step forward offering a top speed of over 100 miles per hour, and a range of up to 100 miles. And perhaps best of all, the increased performance comes at a reduced price.

We haven’t had a chance to ride the new bike yet (it’s just being debuted to the public today), but judging by the pictures, the Empulse looks more like a real motorcycle than just about any other electric offering out there. Where the Enertia was more of the 125cc kind of bike with a lighter weight not exactly optimized for freeway cruising, the Empulse is more of a 750cc type of bike with a full-size frame and tires that is easily capable of freeway speeds or canyon carving.

Brammo founder and CEO Craig Bramscher says the evolution of its product line followed its development of the technology. The Enertia was a chance to develop the battery and power system as well as the safety of building a motorcycle. But the Empulse was developed around the company’s racing efforts at last year’s TTxGP on the Isle of Man.

“[What] We were trying to do is find that perfect balance of power to weight, and handling,” Bramscher says of the racing heritage behind the Empulse. “Because at the end of the day, motorcycle fun is about handling and, of course, performance.”

To keep the weight to a minimum, Brammo ended up developing its own batteries for its racing bike. Bramscher says the lightweight batteries helped the company meet its goal of reaching 100 miles per hour for the race. Like any good motorsports program, the battery and powertrain technology developed for the racing team has found its way into the production bike.

Three models of the Empulse will be available for delivery starting in 2011 and you will be able to purchase the motorcycle at participating Best Buy stores. The motorcycles are simply differentiated by their battery packs, and therefore range. With a 6.0-kilowatt-hour battery, the imaginatively named Empulse 6.0 has a range of 60 miles. Slide the decimal point over on the 8.0 and 10.0 and you can convert the battery size to range on the other two models as well.

“Range anxiety” was one of the biggest concerns just about every electric vehicle maker is facing. Bramscher points out when the red light appears on a gas gauge, there’s usually no problem finding a gas station. But finding a place where you can charge an electric motorcycle is a bit more complicated.

“There was clearly a demand for more range” Bramscher says of potential customers he talked with. “The Enertia wasn’t designed for long distances on the freeway.”

Brammo is keeping things simple when it comes time to recharge. With a plug in socket where the gas tank cap would normally be, an Empulse rider only needs to find a normal 110 outlet to charge the bike. Of course it can’t be filled as quickly as its gasoline cousins, but you knew that before you bought an electric motorcycle anyhow.

Topping off the tank on the Brammo Empulse

Each bike is powered by a 50-horsepower motor with 59 lb-ft of torque based on early production testing. With a weight of 390 pounds (I suppose dry weight is irrelevant here), the Empulse comes in about the same as other motorcycles such as the Ducati Monster 696. The electric bike doesn’t quite have the same power yet, but at least we’re talking about enough power to get into trouble.

With a price tag starting at $10,000 for the 6.0 model, the Monster comparison keeps going. But it looks like the batteries aren’t cheap. If you want the 100-mile range, the price jumps to $14,000. The good news for potential customers is that with tax incentives, the price could drop dramatically. Brammo claims the Empulse 10.0 could cost as little as $7,000 in some states.

Photos: Brammo

DETROIT, Michigan — General Motors says it will guarantee Chevrolet Volt batteries for 8 years and 100,000 miles, a move that could go a long way toward bolstering consumer confidence in the range-extended EV.

Yeah, yeah, that’s all well and good. But we got to see the range-extended EVs in red. Looks pretty hot, doesn’t it?

We were at Milford Proving Ground on Wednesday with the winners of the Wired Volt Challenge when the engineers rolled up in a pair of crystal red metallic Volts. Much oohing and aahing ensued and a GM flak casually remarked, “This is the first time anyone’s seen that color.” We did a quick Google search and didn’t find any pics, so here you are.

Now about that warranty…

GM says it will cover the 16 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery in the Chevrolet Volt for 8 years / 100,000 miles and transfer the warranty to the next guy if you sell your Volt. The guarantee covers each of the 161 battery components, the thermal management system, the charging system and the electric drivetrain.

The warranty is significant because it’s better than the 5 year / 100K mile guarantee GM offers on its conventional drivetrains, suggesting the General is supremely confident in the packs. It could set a precedent for other EV makers, particularly Nissan, which tells us it will be announcing its warranty for the Nissan Leaf soon.

During the past three years, GM’s engineers have racked up more than 1 million miles and 4 million hours of validation testing of Volt packs at its lab in Warren, Michigan. The lab features 160 test channels and 42 thermal chambers that subject batteries to real-world driving conditions and temperarture variations. It also has 32 battery cyclers, “treadmills” used to deplete and charge the packs repeatedly.

The engineers have checked packs for shorts, corrosion and crash impact as they’ve flooded, crushed and penetrated them. They’ve subjected them to temperatures ranging from 90 below zero to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. And they’ve shaken them nine ways from Sunday. Then they’ve done pretty much the same to Volt prototypes once the packs were in the cars and the cars were on the road.

“The Chevrolet Volt’s batteries have exceeded our performance targets and are ready to hit the road,” said Micky Bly, executive director of global electrical systems.

The Volt is slated to roll into showrooms in Austin, Texas; California; and Washington D.C. by the end of the year. They’ll arrive in New York City and the tri-state area, the rest of Texas and Michigan by March. The rest of the country will see them through 2011.

General Motors plans to build 10,000 Volts next year and 30,000 in 2012. Still no word on price — GM plans to announce that within a few weeks — but keep hearing it’ll be something less than $40,000 before the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.

Photo: Jon Snyder / Wired.com

See Also:

• And the Winners of the Wired Volt Challenge Are…
• Chevrolet Volt Sure Drives Sweet
• GM Invests $8 Million To Expand Its Battery Lab
• GM to Build Its Own Electric Motors
• Chevrolet Volt Looks Good in ‘Viridian Joule’