Everyone is hearing the buzz around the new Chevrolet Volt. Countless news articles have been written about it, it is mentioned in dozens of blogs etc, but how good is it? Nobody seems to want to make any comments on how good the fuel economy is.

Stepping back slightly, for those who don’t know, the Chevrolet Volt is the newest offering from the motoring industry giants, GM. The Volt is powered by a Lithium-Ion battery combined with an internal combustion engine. Whilst the car is a plug-in hybrid, the combustion engine does still charge the battery.

It is always good news when a motor company embarks on an electric venture, but companies cannot seem to move out of the hybrid shadow. Each year companies reveal plans for new hybrids. Hybrids, hybrids hybrids, when are we going to hear the news of a fully electric powered Volt that can reach speeds of up to 150mph and only needs recharging every 100 miles. Well, for the time being, the technology has not yet been adapted.

Coming back to the Volt, set to arrive in 2010, the combustion engine does have a reasonable fuel economy, although the Toyota alternative, which has been available for some time now, has a better fuel economy. It just seems like GM are having some troubles trying to move away from their usual muscle cars, so they need a more powerful engine, with a less than amazing fuel economy rating.

 Daimler AG, the German car manufacturers and development section has released news that they have already begun creating lithium powered cars with the car giants Mercedes. This news was welcomed by German natives as well as the industry on a more international scale. The news was shortly followed by some even better news.

The company has joined up with it’s research and development section ‘RWE AG’ in the hope of developing and planting over five hundred electric car recharging points across Berlin. This means that anybody that owns a fully electric car could potentially recharge their car anywhere. The access points are going to be planted at private housing areas, public car parks, alongside gas stations and around heavy tourist areas.

This new initiative means that Berlin is going to be the first major city to follow in the footsteps of Tokyo, Japan, whos government has already kick-started plans to have the city filled with electric car charging ports by late 2009. In Berlin, the work is likely to be completely finished, and all ports will be fully operational by the year 2010, if everything goes to plan.

The financial side of things is looking good also, as the German government has stated that they will try to help in any way they can.