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WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A U.S. auto safety regulator said on Friday it is opening an investigation into 73,000 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid cars over reports of abrupt loss of power, failures to restart and other issues. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was opening the preliminary evaluation into the 2016 through 2019 model year Chevrolet Volt after 61 complaints tied to the battery energy control module (BECM). Some complaints reported there was little to no warning before the loss of operating power or reduced power mode occurred. General Motors (GM.N) previously issued a technical service bulletin...

Stewart, a fearless champion of racial integration in soul music, was described by the Stax Museum as ‘an architect of the Memphis Sound.’Jim Stewart, the co-founder of Stax Records, died yesterday (5) at the age of 92. His passing was confirmed by another storied member of the Stax family, hit songwriter David Porter. Stewart paved the way for, and presided over, the immense and worldwide popularity of Stax and its wealth of household soul names. His standing was reflected in his 2002 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, by representatives of two of the company’s most celebrated...

If you’ve ever heard anything on the Stax Records label, then you’ve probably heard Steve Cropper's masterful guitar playing. He might well have written and produced it too The guitarist with Booker T. & The M.G.’s, Stax Records’ house band, Steve Cropper backed scores of soul greats during the 60s as well as being a go-to producer. He’s also a songwriter whose compositions include classics such as Wilson Pickett’s In The Midnight Hour, Eddie Floyd’s Knock On Wood and Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay. He has also done studio work with John Lennon, Rod Stewart, Roy...

In roughly 15 months, Wilson Pickett helped shape the history of recording in America. In 1965 and 1966, Pickett, one of the most dynamic R&B singers of all time, traveled to Stax Records in Memphis and FAME Recording in Muscle Shoals where he cut a series of classic hits at each studio. In the process — between his supreme talent and pugnacious personality — Pickett helped determine the fate and future of each company, as they became twin pillars of Southern soul and pop music in the coming years. Stax’s success with Pickett validated and emboldened the small company as...

As their company was swirling around the financial drain in the early 2000s, General Motors executives came up with an idea to counter its gas-guzzling image and point the way to transportation of the future: an electric car with a gas-engine backup that could travel anywhere. […] … On Tuesday, the last (Chevrolet) Volt was built with little ceremony at a Detroit factory that’s now slated to close. Sales averaged less than 20,000 per year, not enough to sustain the costly undertaking. The Volt wasn’t the first electric car, but it was the first to conquer anxiety over range at...

General Motors Co on Monday pulled the plug on the Chevrolet Volt hybrid and the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant that builds it, both examples of a costly gamble that is not paying off. GM’s widely touted factory of the future, forced on a town desperate for jobs and hailed decades later by former resident Barack Obama, is set to wind down over the next few years, leaving beleaguered Hamtramck wondering what happened. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference Monday that he told GM chief executive Mary Barra Monday that “we moved thousands of people out of that neighborhood...

In February 2012, then-President Barack Obama promised he’d buy a Chevrolet Volt in five years when he’s out of office and that time is now. Inquiries to Obama’s representatives so far have gone unanswered whether arrangements to acquire the now-second generation extended-range EV are being made. And, the statement he made to 1,600 United Auto Workers in Detroit seemed sincere enough. “Five years from now when I’m not president anymore, I’ll buy one and drive it myself,” said Obama after saying the secret service allowed him to sit in it, but not take it anywhere for obvious reasons. “Yes, that’s...

Chevy's 102 Volt sales may have led the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle market in February, and bring its national total to 5,611 units. Up slightly from January's 94 sales, this was also the plug-in hybrid Volt's best-ever February in Canada, easily surpassing the 38 sold a year ago. With the refreshed Volt and a deeper field of battery-electric vehicle competitors, there's a risk the company could face its first year-over-year sales decline this year - though with only two months gone, it may be far too early to predict doom and gloom for the world's most popular electric car.

Production of the 2017 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid began earlier this year, and the first vehicles will be arriving at Chevy dealerships nationwide shortly, with as much as a $1,000 incentive to help juice sales, reports Cars Direct. Pricing for the 2017 Chevy Volt starts at $34,095, including destination, but does not account for the $7,500 federal tax rebate or any state or local incentives. The $1,000 incentive from GM is available to buyers in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The all-new 2016 Chevy Volt debuted last year with...

The 2016 Chevy Volt promises to be a much better hybrid than its predecessor, with a lower price and better performance... and unfortunately for GM, that improvement might be hurting sales of the outgoing model. The Detroit Free Press reports that there were roughly 6,000 unsold 2015 Volts as of April, or more than twice the 2,779 that sold in the first four months of the year. Sales are down 46 percent versus the same period a year ago, and dealers appear willing to make some serious concessions to clinch a deal.

While Tesla Motors continues to fight it out on a state level with dealership groups—most recently gaining ground in Georgia but getting shut out in West Virginia—one thing is for sure about the automaker's product: The Tesla Model S is, again and by far, the most-loved vehicle in the U.S. The Tesla Model S, according to the market-research firm Strategic Vision, boasts figures of ‘love’ from their overall vehicle experience that handily top those for much-loved sports-car models like the Porsche Boxster and 911. A whopping 92 percent of owners of the Model S summed their experience in the top...

The new 2016 Chevrolet Volt is sleeker, has more electric range, higher gas mileage, a fifth seat, and should be both faster and quieter on the road. ... For the record, the new transmission and final drive unit is formally known as the 5ET40 Electrified Transaxle. The pair walked us through the five separate operating modes of the new Voltec system: two electric-only, and three blended.

People who own all-electric cars where coal generates the power may think they are helping the environment. But a new study finds their vehicles actually make the air dirtier, worsening global warming. Ethanol isn't so green, either. "It's kind of hard to beat gasoline" for public and environmental health, said study co-author Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. "A lot of the technologies that we think of as being clean ... are not better than gasoline."

For October, the results did improve somewhat however, as 1,439 Volts were sold, which was up 3% from last month, but still off 29% from the 2,022 sold last year at this time. For the year, 15,979 Volts have been sold, which is down 14.9% from the 18,782 sold through the first 10 months of 2013. General Motors now faces a couple problems trying to finish out 2014 strong: •Production – the Volt’s Hamtramck, Michigan facility has been idled since mid-August as part of a previously announced $384 million dollar investment into the facility that is currently seeing the Voltec...

The Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, meanwhile, logged sales of 2,511, its best performance since August 2013. The deliveries increased its year-to-date total to 13,146. A total of 67,698 Volts have been sold in the U.S. since the December 2010 introduction of the world's highest-production series hybrid vehicle.

The Chevrolet Volt isn't changing much for the 2015 model year. According to specifications uncovered by Inside EVs, though, the new Volt's battery does have a slightly larger capacity. According to the spec sheet, this doesn't translate to increased range. Real world driving, though, might tell a different story. The 2015 Volt's battery storage is slightly higher than the outgoing model's, up from 16.5 kilowatt-hours to 17.1 kWh. According to GM's manager of electrification technology communications, Kevin Kelly, speaking to Green Car Reports, the increased capacity is "a late change done in the cell... just another continuous improvement to surprise...

Sales of the Chevy Volt in the US have been fairly stable for the last few months (between a low of 1,478 and a high of 1,777 since March), but in Europe, the Opel Ampera (sister-vehicle of the Volt) has been trending downwards. The sales decline is prompting discussion that the vehicle will be killed off in Europe, according to Automotive News Europe. The car was a relative hit back in 2012, when it was named the European Car Of The Year and sales topped 5,200 units. Compared to 2012 numbers, which were good, Ampera sales dropped 40 percent to...

The Cadillac ELR has been on sale for just five months, but General Motors is now offering dealers a $5,000 incentive to offer test drives in the Chevrolet Volt-based plug-in hybrid. To receive the incentive, dealers have until June 2 to designate ELRs in their current inventory as test vehicles, after which each test car has to log a minimum of 750 test-drive miles. The incentives could be because 1,700 ELR coupes remained unsold in dealer inventories at the end of April. At current sales rates, that’s a 725-day supply, which is almost exactly two years’ worth of cars.

Sales of plug-in electric cars last month appear to be staying level with last month's, based on early figures from Nissan, Chevrolet, and Toyota. The Nissan Leaf battery-electric hatchback continued the stronger sales trend from March: 2,088 Leafs found new owners. And it widens the Leaf's lead over the Chevy Volt which logged 1,548 deliveries, bringing its total for the first four months of 2014 to 5,154. That's less than last year's 5,550 during the same period. Together, the 2014 sales figures so far may be an indicator that sales of the mainstream plug-in Chevy will remain flat again this...

Chevrolet Volt: For April 1,548 cars were sold, which bested April of 2013 by 17.5% when just 1,306 Volts were sold. For the year, Chevrolet has now sold 5,154 plug-ins, which is down 7.1% from 2013 when 5,550 were moved. April was mostly good news for the Chevrolet Volt. The month saw GM officially re-confirm its commitment to the next generation of Volt by holding a press conference to announce a new $449 million dollar investment into 2nd gen Volt production. The 2nd gen Chevrolet Volt will be a 2016 model and go on sale in the 2nd half of...