Volt all-electric, all the time?

The Chevy Volt remains the near-term holy grail for green-car enthusiasts. Its 40-mile, electric driving range combined with the convenience of an on-board battery charger seems to solve most of the problems that face electric vehicles.

While the car will, in the majority of applications, be 100% EV, it has the engine option for longer trips that pure-EVs just can't deliver.

But in a recent email exchange with PetroZero, Bob Lutz, VP of product development at GM, indicated that the Volt might actually have an all-EV version for the true enthusiasts. The car would be developed primarily for California to meet the state's zero-emissions vehicle mandate.

While the range-extending electric technology of the Volt will make it appealing to the mass-consumption of America, an EV option is a welcome thought to die-hard EcoGeeks. The pure EV version would remove the on-board generator and, instead, carry more battery packs, extending the range significantly.

Though the pure-EV isn't going to have anything like the 600-mile range of the range-extended version, it could easily triple the 40-mile all-electric range.

And now we all have one more reason to be excited about the Volt.

Via PetroZero and GM-Volt