GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Volt in Jay Leno's Garage

GM is gearing up to announce the Chevy Volt’s first commercial markets at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Wednesday December 2nd.

Clearly, Southern California will be one of those places, which comes as no surprise considering the state’s long track record and interest in electric vehicles.  It was after all the same place where the EV-1 was leased.

In the days leading up to and beyond that announcement GM has orchestrated a blitz of Chevy Volt appearances in the area.  This author too, a life-long New Yorker, will be shipped out and in attendance for the festivities.

According to GM spokesperson Dave Darovitz, “the Volt will be popping up all over town, mingling with the stars and generally showing off to consumers and media alike.”

The Volt is on display at several car enthusiast locations such as it was at “Bob’s Big Boy” in Burbank last night, and ”Cars and Coffee” this morning.

Volt engineer Andrew Farah also took the car over to Jay Leno’s garage on Friday afternoon where the famed comedian and car enthusiast got to take it for a spin.

“What I like is that the Volt’s range isn’t limited like other electric vehicles,” Leno was quoted as saying.

It is also spent black Friday and is spending the weekend at the Century City Mall which is off Santa Monica blvd.

On Monday GM will stream a live webcasts of an assembly at a posh California middle school which will also be simulcast to interested participating classrooms across the nation, teaching students how electricity can be used to transform the way we drive.

Later that evening there will be a real time stream from an LA plug-in panel discussion.

Midday Tuesday there will be a consumer luncheon at which time the Volt paint color winner will be announced and given their well-deserved test drive.

Then on Wednesday morning during the opening hours of the LA Auto Show GM will announce the first Volt markets.  Thursday will bring a press conference from the Mayor of LA (hint).

I will be present for most of these activities and will try to capture as much as I can in real-time. Myself and several journalists will be getting our Volt test drives. These will take place in the Dodger’s stadium parking lot which GM has rented and closed for the day to turn it into a private track.

If you haven’t already get yourself a Twitter account, and follow me at twitter.com/gmvolt.  I’ll keep you up-to-date with real time tweets from my blackberry (as long as the battery lives and I’m not driving)  and will post all I can right here on GM-Volt.com.  Also use your new accounts to hit the Retweet button at the bottom of our posts, and help amplify the Volt signal.

We are bearing witness to the beginning of the last phase folks!

2011 Chevrolet Volt (pre-production model), 2011 Chevrolet Cruze

As many people are aware, GM plans to roll out a limited number of Chevy Volts for sale in late 2010.

Source have stated the exact number is likely to be around 2500.

Even though Nissan has already announced the five markets they plan to introduce the LEAF electric car, GM has remained silent on this issue.

They have previously said they would give special preference to places exhibiting plug-in readiness and have given Washington DC  and San Franciso as examples, but made no commitments.

That is all about to change.

GM has stated in a press release that it will “announce plans for initial retail markets where the Volt will be sold” at a press conference at the LA Auto Show on December 2nd.  Also the US version of the Chevy Cruze, expected to getup to 40 mpg on the highway will be debuted.

The fact that this announcement is coming in LA obviously indicates California will be among those initial places (no surprise there).

But will where you live? Or me?

We’ll have to wait to find out.

Source (GM)

Martin Lamonica of CNET had the chance to interview Tony Posawatz, the Volt’s vehilce line director about what GM’s expectations were for the car.

As to whether GM believes the Volt will be a commercial success Posawatz replied ominously “all bets are off if gas prices are under two bucks a gallon.”

“We don’t anticipate that in the long term, and because the launch volume in the first few months is relatively modest, I think we can do OK,” he said.

“I think the real question will be in the 2012 time frame,” said Posawatz. “Where will the economy be then and can we reach beyond the early adopters?”

Clearly GM knows it can count on us early adopters to suck up all the initial low volume production models, but another question posed to Pozawatz was whether GM believes it can one day reach a broad audience with the car.

“We think we can,” he said. “The intent is that in year two we will be making tens of thousands of vehicles.”

Posawatz feels the unique drivability will compel buyers. “You have a low center of gravity, and you have instantaneous torque–you can burn rubber on the car–and no transmission shifts… It will have a high “fun to drive” quotient,” he said.

Clearly price is an issue for mass market adoption, and GM has plans to get effective cost lower in addition to the $7500 tax credit available to initial buyers.

“We anticipate that some localities (could) give you preferred parking, HOV access, free electricity at place of work–all which will end up being positive,” said Posawatz.  “And there are some interesting business models as it relates to spreading the cost of the battery over time (such as leasing). We’re investigating a lot of this stuff.”

He was asked whether it was OK that projections for electric cars suggest they will only make up about 1 percent of sales in 5 years, considering all the attention the Volt is beig given.

“Like a lot of stuff, the gen one version is probably not the most important play,” he repled. “It’s ultimately what we do after that.”

He referred to new body styles and cost reductions on the manufacturing and supplier side.  “This is a much more of a longer-term game,” he said.

Finally the reporter asked him if he thought Toyota more conservative  approach was a mistake.

“Every company has to find what they think is their formula for winning,” he replied.  “We think the regular hybrid architecture is still an internal combustion engine. We now have the possibility of different variants for engine generators.”  Though he added “we have hybrids too.”

Source (CNET)

UPDATE: If you are interested in asking questions of  exiting Volt vehilce line executive Frank Weber and his replacement Doug Parks, come here at 4PM EDT they will both be present in the chatbox below:

Fritz Henderson, the CEO of General Motors engaged in some Q&A with reporters and editors from the Washington Post while in the nation’s capital.

Some issues germane to us were discussed.

He was asked what he thought it would take for electric cars to truly gain a foothold in the marketplace.

He indicated cost to consumers was paramount.

“The three things you need are battery costs coming down, motor costs coming down, control costs coming down,” he said.

“The more companies that actually develop technologies around electric, the more the supply structure will develop, the better off we’ll be,” he said.  “We can’t carry the load ourselves. GM can’t. No way. We need to have more companies. We source most of these things. We don’t do them. We’re not in the chemistry business.”

He also believes range anxiety caused by driving pure EVs is a hindrance to mass adoption.

“Everybody is trying to solve the problem of range because we have range anxiety. The consumer doesn’t want to be strained,” he said. “We had the same problem with EV1, not enough range.”

Henderson said GM is hitting the brakes on hydrogen fuel cell car production.

“Are we putting resources into it? Not as much. We spent through the mid-part of this decade a reasonably high portion of our research and our development money on hydrogen fuel cells,” he said.

Henderson was asked yet again what the Volt’s MSRP will be.

“The price is still to be determined. I have a policy of pricing the vehicle when I get close to the market. I know the cost is close to 40 [thousand],” he said.

Finally, if anyone was wondering, he said GM would not go back to the government for more funding.

Under “any reasonable planning scenario,” he said.  “The amount of financing provided was sufficient.”  This is consistent with what he said when I interviewed him just days after GM declared bankruptcy.

“We’re not interested in doing this twice, we’re doing this once,” he had said.

Source (Washington Post) 

Besides the MRSP two other things about the Volt people are very interested in is whether they might be available prior to November 2010, and whether GM will in some way use, honor or work with our GM-Volt want list.

Though this list was never intended as a true pre-order list it has served as a long-standing symbolic beacon to GM illustrating the significant demand that exists for this type of vehicle.

As launch day draws nearer, GM has begun to publicly acknowledge these issues, albeit slightly.

Brent Dewar is the new head of Chevrolet, replacing Ed Peper.

In a recent webchat, Dewar was asked if there was a Volt waiting list.

Dewar replied:

We have not started a waiting list, because we don’t want anyone waiting at this time. Once we get closer to production, roll out across the States and regions, we will start taking a list. We do not have our roll out plans decided yet. More to come. In the meantime, stay connected with me.

CEO Fritz Henderson took a similar question in his web chat.

“Will there be an official wait list established for the Volt next year?” asked a participant named Aldo.  ” Will you work with the unofficial list at GM-Volt.com?”

“Work underway today to develop initial start up allocation plans,” replied Henderson.  “While we really appreciate the strong initial interest, we do not expect to work from the unofficial waiting list.”

Not looking to good straight from the top.

What about the chance of an earlier-than-expected Volt launch?  I asked Mr. Henderson that one myself.

What volume of Chevy Volts do you expect to build in year one, and is it possible the release could come sooner than November 2010?

Fritz Henderson: lyle- good to hear from you. we do expect a very controlled acceleration of volt start up beginning late next year. we are constantly evaluating and tweaking our plans, but do not look for a wholesale pull ahead.

This statement could be interpreted in different ways.  I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

We do know GM will only be building around 2500 Volts in calendar year 2010 and at least 10,000 in 2011.  I have recently discovered roll-out plans apparently have been determined though not yet made public.

“We won’t do a rollout in a way we typically do with a vehicle everybody understands,” GM VP Jon Lauckner told Wards Auto. “We’ll probably pick pockets to begin with, like the West and East Coast.

In the passing of another milestone, GM has finally announced the paint colors the Chevy Volt will be available in at the start of production: Black, Silver Ice Metallic, Cyber Gray Metallic, Crystal Red Metallic, a premium White Diamond Tri-Coat, and an unnamed Silver Emerald.

They have also announced a contest to name this signature exclusive Volt paint color which is the familiar silver with emerald hue shown in the photo above.

To enter the contest you create a unique name for the color and submit it at the link below. The contest starts today at 8:00 AM EDT and will run until November 4th at 8:00 AM .

From all of the submissions they receive, GM will choose three finalists “based equally on originality, creativity, and the ability to capture the innovation and spirit of the Volt.”  Then, a public consumer vote will take place and from the three finalists a winner will be chosen.  That vote will take place from November 16th at 8 AM to December 1 at 8AM also on this site.

The three finalists and their guests will get free all-expense-paid trips to the LA Auto Show on December 2nd. The paint color winner will be announced on December 1st and be given the exclusive opportunity to test drive a pre-production Chevy Volt.

Though not confirmed, it is possible that charge-sustaining (generator) mode will be included in the test drive.

“We want to invite consumers into the development process of the Chevy Volt and give people an opportunity to be part of our program,” said Maria Rohrer, director, global Volt and global marketing operations at Chevrolet. “We’re looking for a color name that captures the innovation and spirit of the Volt.”

As the Internet’s oldest and leading independent Chevy Volt fan site, right here on GM-Volt.com you have the opportunity to enter your name and the name you choose for the color by clicking the link that says ‘Submit Your Name Here‘ at the end of this post.

For what it’s worth, I have chosen Freedom Earth Silver, signifying freedom from oil.