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What’s Under The Volt’s Hood?

March 22nd, 2007 | Posted in: Public Opinion
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There’s been some recent rants on the web about what hardware is actually under the hood of the Volt concept car thats making its tour of World auto shows this year. The commentary has been promulgated by none other than Darryl Siry, VP of Marketing of Tesla Motorcars. He was able to obtain photo’s of the Volt’s open hood and shows that it is filled with among other things, 3 lead acid batteries, some kind of starter, and an empty bucket of laundry detergent. See the photos here.

Cute, but lets face it, this is a concept car, and not the real McCoy. When the real car is here we’ll be driving it!

Anyway, what this exercise, and all the interesting comments we’ve been getting here at gm-volt.com tells us is that people are different. We all see the world in different ways, shaped by our past experiences, motives, and desires. No one is ever really right. We just see different facets of same issues. Another thing is that humans have evolved to seek out what’s wrong about things, to try to make them better. By nature we are not satisfied by the status quo. We are programmed to find and complain about faults..thats how our tremendous technology has evolved.

Some, like me, are hopelessly optimistic. The E-flex revolution is genuine, and the Volt shall one day soon motor down our roads, without an empty bucket of laundry detergent under the hood!

Posted by: Lyle

6 Responses to “What’s Under The Volt’s Hood?”


  1. Darryl
    Vote -1 Vote +1Darryl     Says:
    March 22nd, 2007 at 8:31 pm

    I’m honored to be promoted to CEO! I am actually only the VP of marketing at Tesla. In my post of the photos on my personal blog I go out of my way to say that there really is no news there since it is a concept car. In other places I have written that I feel that GM is serious about the Volt and that I think it is a good thing (for the world and for Tesla) to see the leading automotive company serious about EVs (or PHEVs to be exact.) I am looking forward to progress of all kinds…


  2. chevyvolt
    Vote -1 Vote +1chevyvolt     Says:
    March 22nd, 2007 at 9:04 pm

    Hi Darryl , welcome!
    Sorry about the snafu..post changed to reflect your actual position.
    I thinks that competition is great, and will certainly fuel the changes underway, which will benefit us all.
    You have a great company and I look forward to the White Star..if it get here first who knows..


  3. Johnnie
    Vote -1 Vote +1Johnnie     Says:
    March 22nd, 2007 at 9:44 pm

    I agree, come one come all…Tesla, Phoenix, Hybrid-X, Scion and the Volt…the more the merrier I say. My heart is slated for the Volt, and when the day comes, I will no longer need the turmOIL from the East, or from the Chaves’s…I feel the timing is right!!


  4. Sky King
    Vote -1 Vote +1Sky King     Says:
    March 23rd, 2007 at 7:51 am

    Let\’s not forget that the race to produce a mass market PHEV is on and what GM is showing as systems in the Volt are probably nothing like what the actual production vehicle will look like \’under the hood\’. It\’s one thing to keep the public informed, and quite another thing to give away your production plans to the competition – especially the foreigners who are so adapt at reverse engineering and beating yoo to market with your ideas.


  5. majicmattyla
    Vote -1 Vote +1majicmattyla     Says:
    March 23rd, 2007 at 4:50 pm

    Rich Lannen http://www.podtech.net/nextgear/technology/1685/engineering-the-volt emailed me personally about this whole PR campaign that he felt Tesla might try to mount regarding the insides of the Volt–here is his message to me:

    ” expect you will see photos of the underhood of the Volt show car
    posted by Tesla…

    I wanted to give you the heads up…

    The Volt show car…is a fiberglass model with a golf cart electric
    motor and lead acid batteries…..

    Typical show car “styling” model….

    I hope people dont try to draw an analogy between
    the golf cart and production intent. Thats just silly!!!

    Our production intent activities are moving along
    nicely….

    We have several “milestones” set for 2007 and early 2008

    Lutz is speaking accurately in his latest quotes.

    Right now…we have no show stoppers…..”


  6. Fuelzilla
    Vote -1 Vote +1Fuelzilla     Says:
    November 26th, 2007 at 5:43 pm

    Hmm… did’t Lutz actually say that the Li-ion batteries ARE the show-stopper? Well, he did at the unveiling of Volt in 01/2007.

    Then a couple of months later he eluded (Green Car magazine) that GM may not, after all, be waiting for the batteries to be ready. That would mean that they would attempt to use NiMH instead. What will happen to the 40 mile range that’s been advertised so enthusiastically since January 2007? I think it’s bound to drop to 20-some miles.
    Looks like by the time it hits the road GM Volt is going to look like absolutely nothing like the prototype we are speculating about in 2007

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