My sentiments exactly. My current car is electric, but I’d like a better one. If I were GM, I’d have electrified an existing model and had EVs for sale by now. The more revolutionary the product, the more chance for failure. Personally, I’d rather have an adequate product now than the perfect one in the dim future. Current projections make it look like I have no reasonable expectation of really buying a Volt before 2015.

One could do the above without the VoltNation part, just by accepting deposits, but: Doing the above insures that the car is first in the hands of people who have more than average interest and knowledge.  Additionally, it’s a procedure that starts up the dealer network in a way that is cooperative factory-dealer-customer.  It will create buzz, because people from VoltNation like to talk about the car. Presumably the introduction will be a brief transient phase of just a few months, but in that critical phase the people involved will want the car to be a success and inclined to have a positive outlook as the initial kinks get worked out.