September 2008 Update: To see the production version of the Volt, click here.

For several months now rumors have been rampant about an electric vehicle that General Motors would unveil at the Detroit Auto Show. That vehicle is now real, in the form of the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is the first vehicle application of the GM's new E-Flex platform. Volt is a C-Class sized four door sedan roughly the size of a Cobalt.

In spite of the presence of an internal combustion engine, GM does not call this vehicle a hybrid. In fact, they consider it an EV with range extending capability. The engine is a turbocharged, 1.0L three cylinder engine with 71 hp that has no mechanical connection to the wheels. The ICE runs at about 1800 rpm and drives a 53 kW generator that charges the lithium ion battery pack. The engine starts and stops automatically as needed to charge the battery.

All the detailed information you've been waiting for on the Volt is after the jump. Click on the photo above of the small images below to enter the high-resolution gallery with 27 pics.

In conjunction with the Detroit Auto Show introduction of the Chevrolet Volt concept, General Motors is also unveiling an entirely new vehicle architecture that they've dubbed "E-Flex". As the name implies E-Flex is a platform for electrically driven vehicles. The key to this platform, though, is the inherent flexibility they've designed in. During the presentation of E-Flex Beth Lowery, GM Vice-President Energy and Environment talked about the future of energy supplies. GM sees diversity as one of the keys to energy independence.

General Motors has basically bifurcated their alternative fuel vehicles into two groups, those that have wheels driven by internal combustion engines and those that don't. The first group includes the hybrids like the mild hybrids sold today in the Saturn Vue and Aura. It also includes the upcoming two-mode hybrids in the 2008 Chevy Tahoe and other vehicles. The second group comprises vehicles that have no ICE mechanically connected to the wheels. E-Flex falls into the latter category. Find out lots more about E-Flex and see more images after the jump.

(Click here to see AutoblogGreen's high-resolution image gallery of the Chevy Volt and read all about the car here.)

[Source: General Motors]