GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Just kidding folks.

Graphic is courtesy of Matt of mJay Studios, who also by the way, has produced the two finalist bumper stickers we are presenting in our contest.

We have received some of your bumper sticker submissions..keep them coming. We’ll have a run off between your submission and the winner of Matt’s two.

Below is another speculative rendition made from the teaser photo about what the production Volt might look like, this one’s from GM-Volt.com community member mmc.

Enjoy the holiday season!

The next issue of Newsweek features a short article about GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz and the Chevy Volt, describing Lutz as “The Man Who Revived the Electric Car”.

We learn that Lutz was initially shunned by GM brass when he first proposed the electric car in 2003. At the time they were too focused on a future of hydrogen fuel cell cars.

In 2006 Tesla Motors announced it’s intentions to build a fast electric car.  With respect to this, Bob Lutz is quoted as saying:

That tore it for me. If some Silicon Valley start-up can solve this equation, no one is going to tell me anymore that it’s unfeasible.

After the announcement of the Chevy Volt concept in January 2007, well the rest is history..and it’s all archived right here, minute by minute! Of course, we are still in the early chapters, but Mr. Lutz tells us:

This is like JFK’s call for the moon shot. I want to stick around to see the Volt come to market. Then I’ll pack it in around 80.

Source (Newsweek)

In an effort to raise the public awareness about the Chevy Volt and the efforts of this site and our community, we have started a bumper sticker campaign.

Just imagine it, you are chugging along in your clunker, making it last until November 2010 when your Volt arrives. What better a way to announce your intentions to the world than by slapping on a sticker.

Also, the more people out there that learn about the Volt and decide to buy it, the better it is for all of us.

Below are two finalists for bumper sticker designs. Vote for your favorite. If you happen to be a graphic or commercial artist or expert slogan maker, feel more than free to submit your own design to us at CHEYVVOLT AT GMAIL DOT COM. If your own original sticker design gets chosen you will receive a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

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Tesla Motors chairman is Elon Musk, who founded PayPal, making billions there. Besides trying to launch the first commercial space rocket, he also funded Tesla Motors in the interest of producing electric cars.

In his post yesterday on the corporate blog, he tells us Tesla expects to begin Roadster production in earnest in the Spring of 2008. In case you don’t know, the Roadster is a two-seater sports car with about 250 miles range per charge.

He also assures potential customers that their plan to build a $50,000 sedan is still a go and that the car will be unveiled in the first half of next year. He notes they plan to build 10,000 of these “model 2’s” per year, whereas the $100,000 Roadster will be built at a rate of 2000 units per year.

Musk goes on further to note a 3rd even less expensive model will follow. He confirms that Tesla too plans to build an REEV (as opposed to GMs term E-REV) for “range-extended electric vehicle”, and mentions Tesla will eventually go IPO.

Will they be able to rise up and compete with the General? I don’t know, but at least they are based in the U.S.A.

Source (Tesla)

Dr. Yi Cui

Many of you have heard about the new breakthrough in lithium-ion battery storage. I had an interview with the scientist who discovered it, and hopes to bring it to market, Dr. Yi Cui, Assistant Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Stanford University.

Can you tell us what you have discovered?

The idea is to use silicon nanowires as the active lithium storage material for the battery electrode. Silicon can store a lot of lihtium but the volume expansion is too high, by using nanowires we are really solving the problem of this big volume expansion and we can achieve extremely high capacity, lithium storage capacity with multiple cycles. this is 10 times more than the current technology. So the implications of this discovery is very, very exciting, it means you can have a better battery.

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In our last post we heard about an interview with GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz in which he suggested a possible tempering of production date for the Volt. He didn’t exactly say that, for we have never really heard him quote confidence at hitting the 2010 delivery date, only his confidence on actually producing the car.

These statements nonetheless make us wonder whether something is going askew at team E-Flex. If felt it was necessary to reach out for their response.

Kindly, GM E-Flex spokesman Rob Peterson responded as follows:

Program timing has not changed, nor has the confidence level of the team. The team is driving toward late 2010 (assuming batteries are available) which is nearly three years from now. Our confidence grows each day, but there are still risks and unknowns that could alter the timing.