you have to be kidding right? the car is a year away from market. you expect them to completely tool all the factories, start manufacturing and ordering parts, then train the workers, do runthroughs of the assembly to fine tune production and then start manufacturing and have 60,000 units ready and shipped for the launch in just a few weeks after these design phases?

seriously. look at all new cars released in the last 20 years or so (and not just ones simply getting facelifts and updates, totally new vehicles) and you can see most are production ready for 6m to a year before launch. most recently the hyundai genesis. production model was shown 9 months before it was available to buy.

transformers is not the first movie to use a car not released yet as a featured product and advertisement. GM paid big money to get the car in that movie. knowing full well there are hundrends of crew that could potentially leak photos. not to mention that its being filmed in public and not in a secured private location. im sure they would prefer not to have the pictures released but knew this would happen.

This is a visually boring exterior package. Very boring. Hopefully people will still buy it because they are excited by the technology, or want to boost American cars, or predict gas prices will shoot through the roof. But the visual design is hum-drum, and that seems like an unneccesary handicap to sales. What is the freaking deal with GM and car design? It seems like theres some kind of corporate-culture mojo that works to shave anything interesting off all new vehicle designs from about 1980 on. Too much committee think?
And what is the deal with the hysterical boosterism on this site concerning the cars appearance? Are you people hired shills for the company, trying desperately to manufacture positive buzz? I mean seriously, almost every interested citizen on this site hopes the volt will succeed, thats why we come to the site. Lying about its looks, whether you are hired shills or genuinely confused by your own enthusiasm for the project, just seems crazy to the outside world. The technology is spectacular. The appearance is dull. This will be immediately apparent to the general public, and fooling ourselves is simply dangerous to the effort.

As far as the car, I think it is the next generation of the Ford Focus. Looking at the rear and the fuzzy pictures in profile it does not look like the VOLT. Look at the fender vents, tail lights and grill, all look like Ford. Either way I like it.

It only has a battery for 40 miles, then uses GAS to recharge. Lame.

It costs $40,000? Buy a Hyundai for $8000 that gets +34mpg city, and better on the hwy. You will never, ever, ever, ever, ever save enough on gas over the [short] life of the Volt to ever, ever, ever, ever be worth $40k.

GM is delivering a marketing ploy here, not an electric car. They already delivered the electric car (EV-1 , aka – “Impact”) back in 1992, had their chance, and wasted it. Several hundred were produced, priced at $23-28k, and sold out immediately. They topped at 120mph, and went about 200 miles on a full charge, and were ALL 100% pure electric. They were all sold on leases, repossessed, and crushed.

Now 16 years later, with better batteries, better motors, better technology all around, how can anyone intelligent honestly believe that the Volt is the best they can do? NO!

Let Ford wither and die for their stupidity and failure to deliver a quality, competetive product. Let Chrysler wither and die for their stupidity and failure to deliver a quality, competetive product. Let GM wither and die for their stupidity and failure to deliver a quality, competetive product, and lieing, and selling out, and holding out.

The Volt is underdesigned and overpriced – have more respect for yourselves than falling for this spew from GM.

PS – you won’t save Detroit until you ban unions and reform healthcare. Workers earn $60-90 per HOUR (more than a doctor or pharmacist!) for unskilled labor. They spend about $1500 per car on worker healthcare insurance… Toyota spends $300.

Plastic can be recycled…burnt gasoline cannot be recovered. Also, peak oil is comming, so we’re going to stop using oil the easy way or the hard way. What does this mean? The stuff made cheap in China and shipped to the US will be more cheaply made by expensive labor in the US and distrubuted locally.

“Let me ask all of another hypothetical question. What if all of the oil is produced in US, would you still buy VOLT and why?”

Environmental benefits. Also, if all the oil were produced in the US it would STILL go on the global market and would STILL be the same price.

Like jman#348 said, paper instead of plasic, is one way to reduce oil use, driving a car that get 40 miles on electric is another.

If you want to reduce your dependancy on oil more, stop buying chinese made toys. Don’t use plastic bags, use paper or the reusable fabric ones. Find companies that make their products in the USA. When you buy things at the store look at the tag and see where it was made and ask yourself, “Do I need this cheaply made, low quality product or can I wait till I get home and find some made in the USA?”

I would like to help people who think using electric would make our dependency on mid-east oil go away. Thinking VOLT is going to solve the problems America faces with imported oil. Let us see, you drive the VOLT to target and make sure you buy Toys made in China(OIL), get some nice clothing which has some content of polyester(OIL) and pack them in plastic bags(OIL). Drive back to home and dump the bags in garbage(NIGHTMARE). All the stuff that you which says “Made in CHINA” did come on a ship that runs on oil.

Look around. USA’s infrastructure is dependent on OIL. The cube that you sitting in easliy would have used at least 10 gallons of oil, starting from computer case and monitor casings, phones, pens, coffee mugs, headphones, keyboards, mouse, staplers, marker pens, ups packages, shoes, socks, pants and list is going on and on.

Let me ask all of another hypothetical question. What if all of the oil is produced in US, would you still buy VOLT and why?

Excellent point. Time is not on GM’s side. IMO the VOLT needs to do 2 things for GM: 1. Come to market within the timeline promised while fulfilling the promise of 40-50 mile driving range and 2. Put a stake in the ground re-establishing GM as a technology leader and beginning to change U.S. consumer perception that the imports have some magical product edge.

We have to thank Lyle for having the foresight to start this site – and his persistance has given him access into the inner workings of the VOLT’s development. This process goes on constantly at every car manufacturer – including Toyota and Honda. But you just don’t get the same access to information.

For GM’s part, I sure hope they are reading these blog pages and really listening – not just to the words, but to the emotion, passion and insight they provide. Everyone (well…mostly everyone) is contributing valid perspective on what will make the VOLT successful and, most importantly, meaningful to themselves personally. Taken in total, this is invaluable insight into the minds and opinions of the core target market.