GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Hello and Happy Holidays to all my friends at GM-Volt.com!

Thursday had to be one of the most exciting days ever for me, I’ve taken many new car deliveries over the 46 years of my life but nothing ever like this, The first ever mass produced electric car. After learning that my Volt was scheduled to be delivered on December 14, 2010 from the shipper (due to my dealer’s geographical location it would be the very first stop) I also received these exact words in an email from Cassens Transport:

Thank you for contacting Cassens Transport.

It looks like this vehicle shipped yesterday (12/13) at 12:26.

It is on a load of 9 units with the first drop being in Dover, NJ.

It is 580 miles so, depending upon traffic and weather, I would hope it would be delivered today or maybe tomorrow.

Needless to say I almost passed out! I was to be the very first Chevrolet Volt customer to receive his car! I quickly notified my Sales person Roy Serif with this great news, a few hours later he told me that the media will be at Ayres Chevrolet to cover this historical event. On the mooring of December 15, 2010 we all know what happened Mr. Kaffee took delivery of his new Chevy Volt! Ok I will admit that my story may not be as exciting as Mr. Kaffee’s (no prius to trade in here just a 2002 Toyota Tacoma Pickup) anyway my car did arrive at Ayres Chevrolet Dover, NJ at about 11:50am just after the media blitz a few miles down the road. The driver was still gleaming with excitement from all of the media attention he received there. He did say he had received a call while on the road with orders to stop at Denville, NJ first and not Dover, NJ.

On Thursday, December 16th after picking my son up from school we headed to Ayres Chevrolet and at 4:41pm I took delivery of my 2011 Chevrolet Volt from Sales Consultant Roy Seif. I must say that this was one of the best Auto purchasing experiences I have ever had. The people at Ayres where top notch!

It’s a very cool car, and I noticed the refinement and attention to detail GM has put into this car. Yesterday I let a good friend of mine take it for a drive, he is an electrical engineer. After taking him for a drive I pulled over and let him take over, he asked If we could take it on the highway so we did (rt. 78). Then wile on the highway I said to him hey do you realize you are going 90mph! (speed limit is 65) he said sorry no I did not it felt more like 60-70 to me!. He couldn’t believe how quite the car is and said you better watch your speed in this car as you will be easily fooled on just how fast you are moving. After we got out of the car he said wow America finally got it together I want one.

The engine never came on at speeds up to 90mph

And hey after getting your hands on this car it won’t matter if you’re the very first or not you will be all smiles regardless.

Best of luck to all my GM-Volt.com friends with your Volt Deliveries

And so on this cold December day 47 months after first hearing about the concept car and starting GM-Volt.com I take delivery of my very own Chevrolet Volt.

Though I have been driving a test fleet car for the past month, there is something far more special about taking true possession of the car I have been promoting, following, studying, and writing about for the past four years.  This car is truly my car in more ways than one.

I have the honor of vehicle #8 off the assembly line, one that was shipped from the Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant the first day shipments went out.

My Cybergray metallic Volt with black leather and dark accents, standard wheels and no park assist was first spotted sitting atop the shipping truck when the first car in the nation to be delivered was dropped off in Denville NJ.  It arrived at my dealership late Wednesday night.

I am getting my car from Englewood Chevrolet in New Jersey, only blocks from my office, and have had an excellent experience working closely with owner Stephen DeScalzi.

I have decided to lease the car for three years with the option to buy it at the end, which I may do for posterity stake.  I usually only lease cars and like the simplicity of getting a brand new model every three years.  You may not agree, but that’s just me.

Admittedly, I do feel guilty about have two Volts at the same time, when many enthusiasts across the nation may have to wait months or years before they get their own.  I still have the customer advisory board (CAB) test car until mid-February.  I asked GM if they would let one of the regular GM-Volt.com readers take over my CAB car for the remaining time, but they said they could not allow it.  Thus I will continue to drive the CAB car and keep my own Volt carefully stored under wrap in my garage until the 90 day CAB term is over.

Excitingly Fox’s Good Morning New York came out to witness my delivery and interview me early Friday morning. You can watch the segment at the end of this post.

On this most momentous day I would like to express my deepest gratitude to General Motors and all the wonderful men and women I’ve met there along the way that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, chatting, emailing, and generally bugging all the time.  This list includes Bob Lutz, Rick Wagoner, Fritz  Henderson, Jon Lauckner, Denise Gray, Frank Weber, Tony DiSalle, Joel Ewanick, Mark Reuss, Tom Stephens, Micky Bly, Doug Parks, Andrew Farah, Greg Martin and Ed Whitacre.  Special thanks to those who have been the closest and have always answered my incessant emails; Tony Posawatz, Dave Darovitz, and Rob Peterson.

These men and women have not only made this car possible but have helped in almost all the stories I have written on this site.  This site and this day attest to the power of the Internet that a group of like-minded people could come together on a website and help chart a new direction for their country.

Thus I most certainly want to thank you the reader whose continuous presence and input here has made this all worthwhile, and most of all my wife Jeanie and children William, Sean, and Kailee whose support and understanding have allowed me to keep this site going all this time.

The Volt is finally here and in the coming days, weeks, and months thousands of Americans will joyfully be driving them through the roads of America, collectively beginning the transformational process of weaning our country off of oil.

We have done it.  The journey has truly begun.  And remember this isn’t the end of our efforts but only the beginning.  Long live the Chevy Volt. Long live GM-Volt.com.

The Chevrolet Volt entered mass production on November 11th, the first 350 cars began shipping to customers on December 13th, and on December 15th the first owners began to take possession.

Sixteen consumers, including me, have been driving saleable Volts as part of an advisory panel for over a month.  These car are performing beautifully though some minor quirks have sometimes appeared.  Part of our job as advisers has been to help point these out.

It turns out some of things I have noticed and reported on here have been acknowledged and engineers have continued to tweak and improve.

For example, I noted early on the brakes seemed to be less intense when moving at low speeds such as when edging into  parking spot.  Last week engineers came out to my home and upgraded some of the car’s software responsible for controlling the brakes.

Vehicle line executive Doug Parks explained that GM has “tweaked the brake calibrations to smooth out the pedal feel throughout its travel.”

I had also noticed the charge port door didn’t seem to close as solidly as I would have liked.  Parks said the “charge door mechanism (has now been) improved on production cars for better latching.”  In fact he noted GM engineers have made significant changes from the test car I am driving.  ”We completed lots of little tweaks here and there and the production cars are even better,” he said.

Vehicle line director Tony Posawatz also advised me that the full production car people are now receiving will be noticeably improved and refined from the captured test fleet version I am driving now.  ”We still feel there is a lot of work to do,”  said Posawatz.  ”There’s always fine tuning of the process whether a physical change or a process change at the plant, that’s just the way things work.”

GM plans to be “very very responsive” to customer feedback says Posawatz, and in fact GM engineers will be “on-call” through the holidays to field any concerns from the first drivers.  ”If we do get feedback from the field we will look at it to see if we can address it,” he said. Change that could be implemented may include “software upgrades, physical changes, etc.”

Posawatz expressed gratitude for the 4-year marathon effort we’ve made here on GM-Volt to promote and contribute to the car, and admitted GM has monitored the site closely and incorporated many of the ideas expressed here into the car.

Thanks to all that have contributed, our car is finally in customers hands.

On December 13th at 3:30 PM the first truckload of Chevrolet Volts left the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant grounds headed for waiting customers around the nation.

And a dream four years in the making comes true.

The first batch of cars, of which nearly 400 have already been produced, began leaving Michigan for destinations around the country.

A five truckloads carrying 45 cars left Monday, and through the course of this week 350 cars will be delivered to dealerships.  These initial destinations will include California, Greater New York, and Washington DC.

“Today is a historic milestone for Chevrolet,” said Tony DiSalle, Volt marketing director. “We have redefined automotive transportation with the Volt, and soon the first customers will be able to experience gas-free commuting with the freedom to take an extended trip whenever or wherever they want.”

According to Volt director Tony Posawatz these batches of cars will be of mixed VIN number and not necessarily in order of construction.

“These are all people’s cars,” said Posawatz. “There are no fleet or demo cars.”

Rather than have a press conference about the first delivery as Nissan did with the LEAF, GM is simply announcing the beginning of steady Volt deliveries which will continue from here on out. The first customers should have their cars within the next day or two.

Posawatz confirmed GM plans to build 15,000 Volts in the 2011 calendar year. Mid-year they will change from 2011 to 2012 models. GM is actively studying how quickly they can ramp up production considering the intense demand.

“We’ll turn up production in 2011 and were determining if we can turn it up sooner,” added Posawatz.

And there shall be many a Happy Holiday this year.

Source (GM)

Only about 10% of the traffic to GM-Volt.com comes from Canada, yet our friends to the north seem to be very vocal in the comments (you know who you are).  Earlier this week, GM released the news they have been waiting for.

The Chevrolet Volt will become available in Canada in the second half of 2011. The following seven cities will be the initial launch markets: Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Oshawa, Ottawa-Gatineau, Vancouver and Victoria.

“The Chevrolet Volt is a game-changer, offering consumers an electric vehicle without compromise,” said Kevin Williams, president and managing director of GM of Canada. “These seven cities represent some of our largest automotive markets in Canada, where customers and major fleet operators are known to be leaders in adopting groundbreaking environmental technologies.”

GM is also working closely with Canadian utility companies to prepare these markets for the arrival of the car.  It is expected the Volt will become available all across Canada by the end of the 2012 model year, but service locations will be broadly available from the point of launch.  Canadian pricing has not been determined and will be set closer towards launch.

In addition to the Canadian markets, GM has made some inroads towards getting the car into Asia.  It was previously announced that the car will be exported to China  in 2011, a market that could become quite large.

Apparently, the Volt has also been given the greenlight for a test fleet in Japan.  GM said it would introduce a limited number of Volts into Japan in 2011 for market test purposes.  If this goes successfully it could pave the way to wider export volumes

Furthermore, this week a new trade agreement was reached with South Korea which will remove import tariffs that slow down the purchasing of US-made cars in Korea.  In theory this could open the door to Volt sales in Korea as well.

GM spokesperson Rob Peterson however says currently there are no plans to export the Volt to Korea “at this time.”  Peterson admits in the future “anything’s possible,” but notes at this time “Korea is a unique market where we have a strong presence already.”  A test fleet of pure electric Cruzes are already on the roads there.

So not only will the Volt be able to help get the US off of oil, but has the potential to help to do so for the world, underscoring how the Volt may eventually become a very large volume product for GM.

Check out below a cool new two minute time lapse video of the Volt being built at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant:

Source (GM)

And so now we can finally say, the Chevrolet Volt has been officially launched.

GM celebrated this momentous occasion earlier today at the Detroit-Hamtramck event where the cars are being assembled.  We heard from several of the executive staff including CEO Dan Akerson,VP Tom Stephens, and President of NA Mark Reuss.

As a surprise the father of the Volt, former GM vice chairman Bob Lutz, came out and gave closing remarks.

All the remarks centered on the fantastic achievement the Volt represents, being completed against all odds.  From the early days when naysayers kept saying the batteries weren’t ready and the car couldn’t be built, through the economic meltdown that brought GM to bankruptcy, all the while the Volt program marched on and succeeded wildly.

Reuss described the Volt as a “moon-shot”, and called the car “the new soul,” of GM.

Lutz complimented Jon Lauckner, who also attended, the former GM VP who actually advised adding the range extender as opposed to the pure electric model Lutz initial envisioned.  Lauckner had to push the GM board to allow the car to be produced, something they were initially against.

Akerson announced that the first production Volt, which he drove out on stage, is being sent to GM’s Heritage Center for posterity. The second Volt ending in VIN# 00002 is being auctioned online on a special site called bidonthevolt.com.  The auction has begun and will end on December 14th at 6PM. It opened at $50,000.  All proceeds from the sale of that car will go to the Detroit public school system.

“Every aspect of the Volt – from its aerodynamic shape to its battery chemistry – is a testament to the importance of math and sciences,” said General Motors North America President Mark Reuss. “By encouraging Detroit-area students to pursue these topics, we hope to cultivate the next generation of engineers who will build upon the Volt’s innovative technologies.”

It was also announced that GM will be hiring an additional 1000 employees over the next two years specifically into GM’s vehicle electrification programs.  These jobs will specifically be in the areas of engineering and development and help GM expand its electric fleet beyond the Volt.

“GM is going to lead the industry in the adoption of various vehicle electrification technologies, whether its electric vehicles with extended-range capability, like the Chevrolet Volt, or the recently introduced eAssist technology that will debut on the 2012 Buick LaCrosse,” Akerson said. “We want to give our customers energy choices other than petroleum and to make the automobile part of the solution when it comes to the environment.”

GM will begin shipping the first consumer Volts in limited numbers to dealers next month.

“This is not the end, this is the beginning of the electrification of the car,” Akerson told CNBC. “I think 20, 30 years from now, we’ll look back at this car it will be something maybe like the model T was in the early 1900s. This is the first huge step.”