GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

One of the major missions of this site has been to spread the word about the Chevy Volt.  The idea is the more people that know about it, the more people will see it as a great solution.

Also the more people we can demonstrate to GM as wanting the car, the more likely they will be to build it in necessary volumes.

Early on the Volt was just a concept.  In June of this year, GM’s board of directors approved production.

A new television ad featuring the Volt has begun airing during the Olympics.  The ad is being shown regularly from 8/8 through 8/24, and is shown below.

Per GM the ad "combines Chevy’s key Fuel Solutions stories into a memorable 60-second commercial that demonstrates Chevy offers answers to America’s transportation energy needs. The upcoming Chevy Volt range-extended electric vehicle makes a brief appearance."

Considering 60% of all US households watch the Olympics it confirms how serious GM is about this car.

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ITuKHpWKlQ]

GM is about to launch a new corporate advertising campaign, beginning with a commercial to be aired on June 22 during NBCs Meet the Press.

The TV commercial will apparently begin with the following Dear John letter from GM:

“Dear Oil,
We’ve had this great relationship for many years. We think we will both be a lot happier and healthier if we see less of each other.”

It truly remarkable to see the changes that are underfoot. A massive industry, and a leading giant within it is beginning to swear off the stuff that made it all happen for the last 100 years.

Source (Automotive News, subscription required)

On a related note, GM has just announced a partnership with Clean Energy Fuels Corp to build a new hydrogen fueling station in Los Angeles near LAX. GM has been engineering hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for some time and already has a fleet of 100 fuel cell Equinoxes in consumers hands called Project Driveway (see my test drive video). The fuel cell generator Volt is also production intent (2012′ish), and now has Nick Zielinksi as its vehicle line director.

Despite GMs clear desire to bring fuel cells to the masses, they have been stymied by the lack of infrastructure. Apparently reluctant to wait for the infrastructure to build itself, and spurred by the latest gas and oil prices, GM has obviously decided to help do it themselves.

In the words of Mary Beth Stanek, director of energy and environmental policy & commercialization at GM, “Developing and growing hydrogen infrastructure is vital to GM’s efforts to bring larger volumes of fuel cell vehicles to the market.”

Source (GM)

Considering the current national gas and oil price crisis, media outlets can’t seem to discuss the topic enough. This has led to a break for GM and the Chevy Volt. As readers here have pointed out, the Volt was featured on a segment on tonight’s broadcast of the NBC Nightly news.

View it here.

Neilson ratings suggests that the audience for this broadcast is roughly 8 to 9 million viewers.

The segment kept the message clear with a little stock footage and an interview with GM exec Robert Kruse.

Anyone coming to this site from seeing the Volt on the news, welcome. This is the place where we who are extremely interested in getting this car on the road convene to analyze, discuss, and contribute to its development. Be sure to read our FAQ.

We review relevant topics on a daily basis, and if your very interested, join our waiting list.

Discovery Channel’s “Planet Green” is a 24-hour eco-lifestyle channel that is set to launch on June 4th. In their own word’s it aims to be “your user’s guide to living mindfully on this big blue marble we all call home.” Discovery plans it to be a television network with a “robust” online presence.

It turns out that GM will be the exclusive automotive sponsor for this venture.

As a result, the General will get to air a series of eight two-minute documentary style ads featuring their executives. At least one of these will feature our friend, the Volt’s vehicle line engineer Frank Weber.

The network will reach 50 million U.S. homes.

Now that sounds like it would be a good venue to unveil the production Chevy Volt to the world.

Source (MediaPost)

One of our readers pointed out an ad the other day in the April edition of Motor Trend in which the Saturn VUE plug-in, slated for production in 2010 is described as having a 34 mile all-electric range. That news certainly got that reader excited, and potentially many others.

This information although exiting did not match with what the vehicle’s chief engineer Bob Reuter told me in Detroit. There he noted the car could go 10 miles all electric, but that it was a blended 2-mode hybrid design, and would only intermittently run on EV only, lending overall to a roughly 50% improvement in mpg over the current VUE XR line. This is not an E-REV, it is a 2-mode hybrid with a large plug-in electric battery.

Seeking clarification from GM on the ad, spokesman Brain Corbett advised me of the following:

“We’ve officially said more than 10 miles.”

and

“The writer mistakenly used the figure for the all-electric range of the Flextreme concept that was introduced along side of the plug-in Vue.”

There’s no bigger a fan of the Volt than me, and I’m happy Chevy is advertising a car that doesn’t exist yet, but couldn’t GM spend their money better than on this commercial?

There certainly have been better ones before (see post).

[UPDATE - GM sources have confirmed that this is indeed an official Chevy Volt commercial.  The above picture is a still from the video.  If you do not see the YouTube video below, go to this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBXK4EE7Lg8]

 

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBXK4EE7Lg8]