I agree that the for at least first few years, the Volt will “sell out”. I’d love to know, however, about “THE LIST” you mention.

LG Chem was up 3.5% overnight, on the speculation of the news.

http://in.reuters.com/money/quotes/quote?symbol=051910.KS

“Maxwell announced last month that Continental AG, one of the world’s leading automotive electronics and mechatronics suppliers, has designed BOOSTCAP ultracapacitors into a major automaker’s electrical system stabilization system that is expected to go into full-scale production in the second half of 2009 for a 2010 model. Last year, the company announced
ultracapacitor supply relationships with Valeo, another leading global Tier 1 automotive supplier, and Mercedes Car Group, for their respective hybrid auto development programs.”

http://www.maxwell.com/news-events/release.asp?PRID=263

http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINSEO17955220080609

http://in.reuters.com/money/quotes/quote?symbol=051910.KS

As for leasing… I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, there is no way in Hades I’ll lease an electric car from GM!! But the battery… Hmmm… I might be willing to lease the battery…
Things to consider:
Being able to get out of the lease. I know there’s going to be at least one other vendor who knows how to make the battery pack which might be willing to sell them to the public! Having leases people can get out of will be necessary if there’s going to be a market for alternate batteries.
Will GM publish the interface specification for the battery pack? If they truly want to just sell the cars and make the batteries standard items like, well, car batteries, then that would be a good indicator of their intentions.
And there’d better be a purchase option at the end of the lease.
If that is true, then you can just add the total lease cost to the cost of the car and there’s your real price for the car, it’s not really a big deal in that case.

I guess it all depends on the terms of that lease.

The difference is Raw Materials (RM), and nothing better to halt or threaten production than this. I’ve stated before that cells produced in S. Korea can be counted on much more than China. Sorry, but the facts are what they are. So when I hear Lutz say “there is less risk with one company” I can’t help but think that this is exactly what we’re talking about for the initial release. Note he didn’t say less risk with “one pack” or “one chemistry”, he said “one company”.

Regardless, GM will make the RIGHT decisions and the Volt will be a success!

I don’t necessarily disagree since LG is a behemoth compared to A123, but Conti is just as large is comparison to CPI. A123 does have proven production and their chemistry is proven in the market, plus GE and other deep pockets are investers. I don’t think they will have problems meeting the production and GM folks at Voltnation expressed extreme confidence this would not be an issue.

Either way, were just speculating at this point and time will tell.

Should have been “To summarize my GUESS: LG Chem/CPI…”

Where is the EDIT button everybody is praising?