Audio for Green Rides

Get ready for an Innovation special. This week’s post will shift its focus away from the green home audio / visual world and into the automotive world. But, don’t worry; this post will still be very green and there might even be a touch of audio. Manufacturers of new energy efficient vehicles do everything they can to squeeze out every last mile of range possible. Improving aerodynamics and reducing weight usually accomplishes this. Hybrid cars that use both a gas engine and electric motors to power the wheels can manage good gas mileage and performance just by improving those two things. However, vehicles powered solely by electric motors (or they have a gas engine whose sole function is to charge the batteries; the electric motors only power the wheels to propel the car forward) need more than just low weight and good aerodynamics; they need to have energy efficient electronics and low drag auxiliary components (the air conditioning compressor is usually powered by an electric motor instead of the engine).

The Chevy Volt is an electric car that has a gasoline engine to charge its batteries when necessary. It’s capable of traveling up to 40 miles without the gas engine starting up. This means that an audio system that both conserves energy and sounds good is necessary. General Motors knew just who to call. Long time partner Bose provides the audio systems for a good portion of GM’s cars. Bose knew just how to design an audio system for the Volt. They created the Energy Efficient Series. Starting with proprietary speaker components, the speakers in the Volt are 40% lighter than comparable speakers. The amplifier that Bose designed for the system uses 50% less power than comparable systems. This is possible because the speakers require less power to drive them to high volumes. So, it’s possible to create a sound system that produces decent audio quality while conserving energy and weighing less. The Chevy Volt pushes the energy efficiency limit.