Driving an electric car might feel cool and environmentally friendly, but there’s an inherent worry involved: Cars that use only battery power have a limited range before they have to be charged.

To deal with this so-called “range anxiety,” auto makers have been developing mobile applications to ease consumers’ fears that their battery-powered car won’t have enough juice. Over a recent weekend, I decided to try one out. General Motors Co. let me borrow their new Chevy Volt and a Motroloa touch-screen phone using Android software to see for myself how their OnStar app interacts with the car.

The app lets you lets you check the charging status and initiate charging, and it tells you how many miles the car can travel before it runs out of battery power and gasoline. It also can unlock doors, check tire pressure and cool or heat the cabin from anywhere as long as your phone is getting service.

Made in America: Electric Charging System

It comes in a little box, it's not heavy at all, it installs in an hour or so... that's right it's your very own electric charging dock for your electric vehicle! Now you can go from discharged to full charge in three hours or less!

Forty-eight hours before the Super Bowl, Volkswagen's "Star Wars"-themed ad for its 2012 Passat was already all the rage.

In its Super Bowl ad, the Chevrolet Silverado replaces Lassie.
"OK, calm down. Don't get mad. Get even," Ewanick says he told his team. "If they've got a hot spot, then go wherever they go."

A team of Chevrolet marketers went into action, paying for links to Chevy's Super Bowl ads to appear as a top result when people Googled phrases such as "Darth Vader." On Sunday, the team did the same for the tag line "Imported from Detroit," when Chrysler's Eminem spot for the 200 sedan stole the show.

As a result, Chevrolet's ads got 55 million views online in the four days following the Super Bowl — far above expectations, Ewanick said. Despite the ongoing buzz around Chrysler, Chevrolet is one of several brands to run Super Bowl ads that worked to increase consumers' propensities to shop a vehicle the next time they're in the market.

General Motors is unveiling its version of an in-car connectivity system that uses a driver's smartphone -- and promises to make it better than Ford's competing system and others.

Like Ford Sync, it will allow you to use your smartphone, play music and other vehicle functions by voice command. It has a feature that displays the name of the musical artist and the song. It will also have the Pandora online music service.

"We're taking the infotainment system to the next level," Micky Bly, GM's chief engineer who is best known for successfully make Volt work, tells Drive on in an interview. "We've spent a lot of time on the human machine interface making sure customers do not have too many distractions." GM's system will be better, he says, because competitors don't have the OnStar communications link built into every GM vehicle.

The 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, named for the all-aluminum racing engine developed in the late 1960s and used in a handful of regular-production 1969 Camaros, made its debut at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show on February 9th.  Planned to launch at the beginning of 2012, it features a 6.2L supercharged V-8 LSA engine, a 6 speed manual transmission, and magnetic ride along with several other new features that makes it the highest performing and most technologically advanced car developed in its class.  Its estimated launch is set for early 2012.

Sporting beauty and brains, the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1’s design is entirely functional while providing an elegant and powerful display.  It uses electric power steering and Magnetic ride Control to combine the speed and precision needed to match top lap times on road-racing circuits with the safety and driving dynamics of a town car.

Chevrolet aired a number of ads during Super Bowl XLV, but one in particular stood out. According to Nielsen, Chevrolet’s “Miss Evelyn’s Wild Ride” spot for the Chevrolet Camaro was the most-watched television advertisement of all time.

Nielsen estimates that 119,638,000 people watched the Camaro spot. The previous most-watched ad was a Doritos commercial from 2010, with 116 million viewers.

“The Super Bowl is clearly a great opportunity to reach a large audience,” said Kevin Mayer, director, Chevrolet Advertising and Sales Promotion. “The challenge is to tell a story that captures their imaginations, and increases their consideration of your brand.  Based on the results we have seen, I think Chevrolet successfully met that challenge during Super Bowl XLV.”

If you weren’t among the millions of viewers that already watched the “Miss Evelyn’s Wild Ride” spot, you can watch it below.

Here are the preliminary details on this monster Camaro!

2012 CAMARO ZL1
6.2L Supercharged V8 LSA
6 Speed Manual Transmission
Heavy Duty Driveline
Magnetic Ride Control
Brembo Brakes
Electric Power Steering
Track Ready Cooling Systems
Aggressive bodywork, including vented hood, Transformers 3 style bumper, special wheels
New steering wheel and interior trim with nice silver accents throughout

The forthcoming 2012 Chevy Malibu should begin production late 2011. It looks to be a thorough re-visioning of the Malibu platform with new sheet metal and underpinned by a version of the Epsilon II platform currently used by the Buick Regal and Open Insignia.

The 2012 Malibu is also slated to drop the four-speed automatic and offer only a six-speed offering. This new Malibu should come with either the 3.6-liter V6, a base, but direct injection four-pot, and for drivers who want more power and more mpg, a turbo-charged direct-injection ECOTEC motor to hang with the new crop of Ecoboost Fords. A hybrid power train will also be offered.

A complete interior overhaul is also expected clearing the way for an optional navigation screen.

On one Sunday each year all the blood, sweat and tears culminates in an epic display. It's a battle between the best of our best. Crowds gather to watch, cheer and laugh hysterically.

Oh, there's also a football game if you're into that sort of thing.

Super Bowl commercials are as much a part of the day as the game itself, and this year Chevrolet got back in on the fun premiering six spots featuring a flavor of our vehicle line up.

We drew from American entertainment and possibly made you want to dance or sing. We poked fun at a fantastic viral video and made you remember how we all laughed together this past year and how nice it is to laugh together again. And we presented a portrait of America's enterprising and innovative spirit hopefully making you think about how far we've come, and how far we can go.

Whether it's humor, culture or history, there's a lot that goes into making us who we are. And when we can all come together on one day and share that common thread, well we call that a really good day.

And being happy to have been a part of it is just another reason why Chevy Runs Deep.

If you missed any of the spots to load that plate back up with potato skins, we've got them all right here. Watch the spots again then check out the vehicles that inspired them.

Brought to you by Courtesy Chevrolet.

• Call: 1-888-778-2877
• Click: www.CourtesySanDiego.com
• Visit: 750 Camino Del Rio, North San Diego, CA 92108

The Volt has won nearly every major award offered and stirred up tons of interest, but one criticism persists: The price is way too high.

Chevy cars -- including the Volt -- have always been intended for a mainstream market, but at $41,000, it seems GM is asking buyers to pay as they might for a Mercedes-Benz or BMW.


The next-generation Volt will almost certainly cost less, GM spokesman Rob Peterson said. And the same changes that make it cheaper should make it better, too.

So what's the sweet spot for the Volt, price wise? A $7,500 federal tax credit takes the cost down to around $30,000. That seems like a more viable price, but tax credits wont last forever.