Just yesterday, GM finally revealed the production version of one of the most anticipated cars of the decade, perhaps several decades — the Chevy Volt. Some information about the Volt has been available for a long time, but yesterday was the first time anyone outside of GM’s iron curtain laid eyes on what many hope will be the auto giant’s messiah.

The Volt will be different from popular hybrids available today (like the Prius) in that it will be a series hybrid instead of a parallel hybrid (read more about that distinction at Wikipedia, if you care). It’s quite simple: in parallel hybrids like the Prius, Civic hybrid, Camry hybrid, etc, a small electric motor and the traditional gas motor can both drive the wheels. In a series hybrid, only the electric motor can drive the wheels, and the gas engine is there purely as a backup generator to charge the batteries that drive the electric motor. This gives the series hybrid the ability to go a decent distance without burning a single drop of gasoline — in the Volt’s case, GM claims it will be 40 miles.

So 40 miles on just electricity, and since you can plug it into any electrical outlet to charge it (with a cost estimated at around $0.80 for a full charge) this thing will no doubt be very cheap to operate. Imagine how great it would be, if you live less than 20 miles from where you work, to be able to go to and from work all week without ever using any gas. Good for your wallet, good for the environment, everybody wins, right? This thing will be a revolution, won’t it? Ah, but you must be wondering what the Volt will cost.
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Hey, our lawmakers in Washington have done something decent this year! Following moves already made by the Australians and the EU, the US has passed an energy bill that, among other things, bans the ubiquitous but hugely inefficient incandescent light bulb from being sold after 2012. The bulbs that will most likely replace them for most consumers, the funny-looking spiral-shaped ones (available now but for substantially more than incandescent — although the price will obviously plummet once they’re the only option and are mass-produced in greater quantities) use only a quarter of the energy (and produce only a quarter of the heat) of incandescents and last 5 to 10 years — clearly a huge leap in terms of being friendly to our environment.

So hold onto those old bulbs — they’ll be antiques soon!