OCT 01

To all those who said this was Vaporware, Told you So!

Now, the only question is when to replace my current car with this one.

Not to be a pessimist, but 2010? That seems like an awfully long way away. I'd imagine there will be some better offerings available by the time this thing rolls around.

Daniel, I agree that the 2010 timeline does seem a bit far away, but you have to take a couple things into consideration. First, Chevy probably has to rebuild and reconfigure a plant for the production of the vehicle, so that will take some time. Second, when a automotive company sets a year for release, they usually start putting those cars on lots 3-4 months before that year actually begins. In fact they've been offering 2008 lines since June where I live. So (hopefully) this means the Volts will actually be ready in August or September of 2009, which is only 2 years from now. Here's hoping anyway.

I don't think that's long at all in car production terms. I'm sure I'll be able to have one of these before Tesla makes a family car or Phoenix goes nationwide.

My hope is that Phoenix and Altairnano can do what they promise and then one of the big guys buys them to fast track a mass produced electric ZEV with good range and a quick charge.

WHY does it have to be so ugly? It looks like a muscle car, or something Batman would drive - doesn't seem to me to have the right feel at all.

That is IF they manage to stay in business.

Kudos to GM for doing this, but for under 30K? Probably just under, so they missed the boat again.

How about a vehicle for those of us that don't spend 30K on a car? There are a lot more of us out there then the 30K crowd. they wonder why they are having problems competing.

Several sites state the average price of a new car is about $28,000, so 'less than 30,000' is probably a good place to start. If you include fuel costs for a few years, a Volt could cost much less than an average car. If they had to, GM would probably sell at a loss if this car got them enough press and prestige, while they worked on lowering manufacturing costs.

It's nice to see more evidence of GM's commitment to this technology, but there is almost zero chance the car will be available in 2009. We would be lucky if more than hundreds were built before 2011. If this car, and all of its promises, really do come true, (let's all cross our fingers) there would probably be long wait lists for not many cars.

I hope some of you are aware enough to remember the auto revolution in America. The big three have always squashed innovation, at any cost! The technology is already there. Unfortunately, big bucks have a louder voice than those of the thoughtful. Too bad for all of us. Who is willing to stand up?

Concept cars never look like the final production cars, BKW, so I wouldn't worry about driving a 'Batman' car. But they do need to distinguish themselves from the Tesla. Another roadster is not what this category needs. Chevrolet needs to bring out a commuter-family hauler in order to appeal to it's current consumer base.

Hey, whats the matter with a muscle car?????

I'm concerned with how well it will perform. Most first year cars have problems so normally it's better to wait a few years to get one that you'll truly be happy with.

say what you will about "batman" or muscle cars, or the mainstream market, but look around; what's the real market? seems to me, when the hotrodders get into something, it really tends to sell; take recent Dodge designs for example. what do you want, an eco-friendly commuter, or for the technology to race into mainstream demand? you give me a sweet ride reminecent of an early Camaro, and i'll put it in my driveway, cruise it down the road, and certainly feel better than i would trying to "enjoy the ride" in any friggin Prius! hell yeah, bring on the "cool" factor!

Sorry folks, Cool car or not, i just can't get excited about it till it's actually out there. GM and Electric cars have a very sordid history. They created the Saturn EV1, then did everything they could to NOT sell it, then proceeded in saying that it wasn't in demand, then took it out of the hands of those who leased it (because GM never let anyone OWN it) and systematically crushed every single one of them out of existence. AND, they sold their battery technology ove to BIG OIL, so no car company can use it! In my eyes, GM hangs the volt out in front of the consumer like a flashy carrot, while they focus on changing regulations and legislation so that they never have to be challenged by environmentalists. I will be overjoyed WHEN and IF GM ever comes out with an electric car. In the meantime, I could just buy a TOYOTA hybrid and rig it up so I could plug it into my household current, making a plug-in hybrid car and helping out my environment right NOW, instead of in 2010!

Instead of worrying about fuel efficiency , why don't we cut waste ! For instance wasting about 100 Million gallons of fuel everyday to deliver Newspapers all over the World,just to read one page of it and throw it in the trash!When you can get your news,classifieds, coupons, and even Liberal Propaganda ONLINE !!Or TV or Radio.Or how about wasting fuel and resources on the Movie industry and how about sports teams that travel the globe every day to compete on each others turf for 2 games and then fly to their home to compete for 3 games and then fly back to the opposing teams turf to play the last 2 games ! HOW DUMB AND WHAT IS THEIR PRODUCT GOOD FOR? You can't eat it,you can't sleep on it,you cant wear it,and it doesn't protect you from the elements, it doesn't provide you medical care. IDIOTS WE ARE ALL IDIOTS !!While Gore and his Hollywood cronies fly all over preaching Global Warming in jets that use a swimming pool full of fuel an hour.And preaching to us that we need to feel bad and unplug our cell phone chargers to conserve energy... Hipocrites like I need never seen the like, who preach to the little person,while living in a house that uses more energy than 20 normal households.While Bush's house in Crawford is one of the most energy efficient in the world and he leads by example instead and doesnt go out talk the talk he goes out and walks the walk.

and just wait til we see the ground level ozone increase from the electric cars ( for you dumb people ,ozone is given off when electric motors run)not to mention the waste and eco problems batteries make . heck we don't even have a good way to dispose used flashlight batteries !!...............Think People !!!!!!

Way to go. Put those bleeding heart liberals in there place. I think it was in the 1950's or 60's that the liberals were claiming global cooling. Hmmm, could it change that much in 40 years. Wasn't the last ice age 12,000 years ago and the Earth has been steadily warming since then. Did they drive Cadillacs in Egypt and continue the global warming trend? The only reason there are people living in places like Ireland, Greenland and other extreme Northern locations is because of global warming. The Earth is going to do what it wants to do.

Now if you want to argue that we need to conserve oil and the use of oil for economic, political and resource conservation, then that argument has much more meaning.

By the way, what is wrong with making a car look good. Isn't that one of the reasons Yugo didn't make it.

I've been a GM hater for years (they should be drawn and quartered for the crap that they sold me during the 70's and 80's...not to mention that I was stupid enought to buy from them.) However, after years of (trouble free) Hondas and Toyotas, I tried a, '05 Vette. Totally trouble free after 2 1/2 years...and AVERAGES over 22 mpg (over 30 on highway). So, they can do it now that they've finally hired some engineers and dumped the MBAs and managers.

Why is this an innovation?

The Prius is a hybrid car, on the market, right now.

GM also had the EV-1 back in the mid 90s which could do over 100 miles on just electricity. In the film "Who Killed The Electric Car" it was shown that a battery was developed back then to allow the car to go 250 miles.

I'm not being sarcastic, what is so special about the Volt. It looks like just another hybrid.

It would have been nice to see how many MPG's it would have had for mileage over the 40 miles it can hold a charge. Would it get 45 or more miles an gallon after the charge died?

this cracks me up. "NEW" my foot. there have been electric cars around since the early days of the auto. they peaked and went out of fashion, i guess would you say, around 1913. New York at one time had a totally electric taxi service. gasoline cars were built after they started building better roads and interstates. they had a car on Modern Marvels last night that runs on compressed air. it will go about 125 miles on one tank of air. for just running errands this car would be great and the guy said he figures they will sell for about $7000. he is also working on the family size. and it comes with the compressor. the air tanks are carbon fiber so they will crack and release the air inside instead of blowing up in case of a wreck. there are all kinds of cool green cars overseas. they even build their parking lots with the charger plug-ins, so that you can charge up your totally electric car while you're shopping. unfortunately the car manufacturers and the oil companies have a death grip on our wallets so i doubt we will ever get any of these cars or their cheap price tags,

GM had a great electric car; the EV1. Would go almost a hundred miles on a charge. 0-60 in like 5 seconds. Super dependable to boot. They sued the state of CA that had made it a law that a certain percentage of the cars sold there had to be zero emissions because of all the pollution. GM won and promptly crushed every EV1. Then sold the battery technology they had developed to TEXACO !! GM doesn't give a shit about America and is 100% IN BED WITH THE OIL COMPANIES. I wouldn't buy anything made by GM because they want to keep us tied to foreign oil and thats unamerican.

Well Joe if you don't like GM you must drive an import which make YOU "unamerican" Everybody hates oil companies (especially Liberals ,except when Al Gore is a major player in Occidental Petroleum)).Put you your words into action and be the first to develop an american prototype ,like the air powered car. I would like to see what happens when all the oil companies go out of business. The price of fuel should be 7.47 a gallon adjusted for inflation .....we are getting a great price for gasoline and we still whine like little spoiled kids.Get out you bicycle or shut up..you whiner .............james (a mechanic on American made cars) like in my post several posts up you are focused on controlling the wrong thing you want real change....stop the press libs always call oil companies BIG OIL well it was their BILLY BEER CLINTON that deregulated the SEC and caused BIG OIL ...why doesnt anyone talk about BIG LAWYERS,BIG MEDIA,BIG TAXES,BIG WELFARE,BIG ENTITLEMENTS, BIG FEAR MONGERING ON GLOBAL WARMING,,,,AND MOST OF ALL BIG HOLLYWOOD

I remember being called many names in school by folks like Joe.

They called me Fag, bookworm, hippie, weirdo, you name it.

Now my employees call me Mr., my boyfriend calls me "babe" everyday and oh so sweetly, my educated friends and I talk about great books all the time, my household electricity bill was cut in half when I installed 4KW of solar cells and my strange choices in friends, food and vacation spots have brought so many opportunities my way that I most of my day is filled with a sense of gratitude toward my fellow humans. Except you, Joe.

My apologies Joe

So you talk about books yet you can't comprehend what you read.You have proven that you don't even know who the right person to address on a blog.You judge me and you don't even know me.I have friends and clients that are gay.You bigot, heterophobe, idiot. Sorry about the personal attack but you started it with your prejudice . "Hippie" ...My wife was at Woodstock .... you flake you. "Forgive me Joe. James is the terrified l" ...go learn something about your fellow man before you judge them you smuck.... look up the word bigot ...and remember you don't own it...

Instead of worrying about fuel efficiency , why don't we cut waste !... For instance wasting about 100 Million gallons of fuel everyday to deliver Newspapers all over the World, just to read as little as one page of it and throw it in the trash! When you can get your news, classifieds, coupons, and even Liberal Propaganda ONLINE !!Or TV or Radio. Or how about wasting fuel and resources on the Movie industry and how about Sports teams that travel the globe every day to compete on each others turf for 2 games and then fly to their home to compete for 3 games and then fly back to the opposing teams turf to play the last 2 games ! HOW DUMB AND WHAT IS THEIR PRODUCT GOOD FOR? You can't eat it,you can't sleep on it,you cant wear it,and it doesn't protect you from the elements, it doesn't provide you medical care. IDIOTS WE ARE ALL IDIOTS !! While Idiot Gore and his Hollywood cronies fly all over preaching Global Warming in jets that use a swimming pool full of fuel an hour.And preaching to us that we need to feel bad and unplug our cell phone chargers to conserve energy... Hipocrites like I need never seen the like, who preach to the little person,while living in a house that uses more energy than 20 normal households.While Bush's house in Crawford is one of the most energy efficient in the world and he leads by example instead and doesn't go out talk the talk he goes out and walks the walk.
And just wait until we see the ground level ozone increase from the electric cars ( for you dumb people ,ozone is given off when electric motors run )not to mention the waste and eco problems batteries make . Heck we don't even have a good way to dispose used flashlight batteries !!...............Think People !!!!!!

Sorry I killed the topic with my Logic.......yeah why worry about saving a world full of greedy energy wasting pigs.....take the politics out and there nothing left for the LEFT to argue about.....come on leftys hit me me with your retoric..........I dare you

come out come out where ever you are come out from under your global warming alarmist rock that you are hiding under so I can kick your green asses with facts.....fact is a scarey word huh where "al used up all the energy gore" maybe he can come to the rescue???charging in on his prius after getting off of a gulfstream that used 8700 pounds of fuel an hour and leaving behind his Tipper that flew on a fuel guzzler to nicaragia just to have her picture taken with a shovel acting like she was digging out victims of a mudslide after leaving the comfort of her carbon making home thats the size of a small town come out little hippycrits I want to kick your fuel guzzling asses

No matter the politician or their party, all are just grandstanding. Left and Right both conspicuously place themselves in front of the camera or in print wherever they feel they will appeal to their respective base supporters. It is a lying and cheating game that has gone on for ions. As for the wasteful nature of sports teams, private jet users and the like, I totally agree with you. I was born in Germany and came to live in the US after WWII. My father worked in the early US rocket and jet propulsion program which he had worked on during the war years in Germany. My father was a very frugal man. He wasted nothing and bought nothing without careful planning. Whenever we went back to visit relatives in Germany, I discovered that most of them were of the same mindset as my dad. I grew up to be similar to my dad but not as strict on myself (that is, I did not turn off the shower to lather my body ,and then restart it to rinse-my father used to do that). I now have tried to raise my own children to be conscious of their financial decisions and their consumption. Most of the people I know and hang out with these days consume far too much of everything and waste a lot of everything too. You name it - Food, Gas, Lighting, Heating etc... I think the world has gone this way and it is up to each one of us to rein in ourselves and our families. Politicians will always have something to say about these things but only so much as that appeal favorably to their reelection possibilities.

whats wrong joe?? you sound a little angry, are you perhaps bothered you could be a lying bigot yourself??? Sure looks like you are from what you have written here. maybe you can duke your way out of it, sounds like trying to bully what your familiar with. get real loser, this isn't highschool!!

What is the matter with GM? Here we go again - let's make it look like a muscle car to hang on to the market we'll lose when we cut out the Hummer and the big honkin' SUVs. Duh! The reason you've cut production is because nobody wanted them anymore. After the debacle with the EV1 why would anyone trust GM? You're the ones who just shut down the most respected automotive assembly plant in your line - Janesville, WI, so don't tell me about what you're going to do. SHOW me what you're going to do. Put a line in that plant that'll be empty in 2010, and build EV1s, not Volts. I don't want a $30K plus car. I want a $15K car - one that I can afford that will get me back and forth to work, to the dog park, to the grocery store. You guys are always a day late and a dollar short - so busy trying to outwit the buying public that you're always looking for that last big score. Now you're trying to score the muscle car market when what you should be looking to is Everyman - the people you screwed the last time around. Bring back the EV1. It had everything anyone could want.

James Meyer has serious problems.

I think we get the message. You love Bush and you hate Gore. You're not interested in the environment, and everything is political to you.

Do you realise that Global warming denialists only exist in the US now?

What everyone else on here has been saying about GM's EV1 is completely true. Your "logic" doesn't exist. As for your argument about Gore, forget your Right Wing Extremism and do the sums. He has a big carbon footprint spreading a good message to millions. Compare it to Formula 1 Racing. Look at what it does for car technology in return.

Now look at Bush. He travels with 600 people and their vehicles, spreading an evil, ignorant message, and destroying everyone; even Americans.

Stick your Yee Haw "logic". This is about cars, and my guess is you make your living in oil.

GM & the Oil companies are traitors to their country. If they still had the EV1, the US would have been sitting pretty today - and opportunity lost! It would have been running on advanced Lithium Ion batteries today, and it would have perhaps evolved into a 5 seater by now. Instead GM & the Oil Companies have chosen to give away a century of wealth to the likes on Armadinejad. That's money that Mums & Dads could have put towards, paying off mortgages, home improvements, a family holiday, gifts for the grandchildren. The loss is too great! Bring back the Electric Car, & bring it back now! And make it affordable!

Interesting how many people want to turn every discussion about alt fuel vehicles into a political diatribe. I think of it this way. The US imports about 700 Billion Dollars a year in oil. We will soon import over a trillion dollars a year in oil. We will soon be importing wind generated electricity from Canada. Oil and hydroelectric make sense since Canada has more of both than we do. But wind? Come on, don't we have enough wind in the US? I think we need to develop alt fuels including wind to power our vehicles. Electric vehicles will cost the equivalent of 70 cents a gallon of gas to power. Why don't we generate that electricity here in the US and stop sending a trillion dollars a year to foreign countries, many with whom we don't have much in common. Think of the millions of jobs here in the US if we just have the resolve to become energy independent.

To this myth about electric car motors creating ozone gases (ahem: James)...

This is a myth. Ozone gases are not created unless the motor is an old brush-and-magnet type of motor, wherein sparks are being created, turning O2 into O3. The new motors on electric cars are not this type of motor.

Rather, they are brushless motors, and have no spark, thus no ozone emission.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor#DC_Motors

Get your facts straight before you start insulting people's intelligences.

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..and Johnny S.:

I'll begin to listen to your ideas about global warming being untrue when you retype the following sentence without an egregious spelling error:

"Put those bleeding heart liberals in there place."

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This is why GM and Ford are still in business. Enough tribalism and anti-intellectualism. You're both wrong.

Next generation, please! :)