GM has announced that the Chevrolet Cruze’s introduction in North America has been delayed, moving from April of 2010 into the third quarter, namely August. In the meantime, the Cobalt will soldier on until the Cruze’s arrival.
This news is especially of interest to the Volt community, because both it and the Cruze [...]
GM’s bankruptcy filing doesn’t spell an end to the company but actually a new beginning. The Chevy Volt remains a critical element of GM’s future and therefore the program will not be affected in any way by the filing.
Jon Lauckner is GM’s VP of product development and along with Bob Lutz, co-inventor of the [...]
People often ask why will it take so much longer for GM to bring the Volt to market. Considering how much has been done already and the publicity from smaller carmakers, the casual observer often imagines the car should be ready sooner than November 2010.
I asked Volt chief engineer Andrew Farah why it will [...]
GM CEO Rick Wagoner spent some time with reporters today in San Francisco after giving a speech at the Commonwealth Club today.
In the not-too-distant past he had said the 2010 Volt launch was not guaranteed.
However today he said "so far we’re on schedule."
And in response to the fact that Volt battery development work was [...]
The Wall Street Journal has decided to redeem itself after the recent illogical Volt editorial , and has now published an interview with GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz.
Reporter John Stoll writes that Lutz has "growing confidence" the Volt will indeed be produced in 30 months. Lutz recognizes that the Volt is a "must-win" project for [...]
At the Beijing Auto Show, GM CEO Rick Wagoner announced plans to bring the Volt to market in China, as automakers are in increasing competition to grab market share of the rapidly growing Chinese auto market.
On the sideline of the show Wagoner told reporters:
"At this point the focus for us 100 percent is getting the [...]
The automotive lithium-ion battery industry is in it’s infancy. Aside for some relatively small companies making limited production prototypes, there will likely be no substantial lithium-ion powered EVs on the road until the Volt arrives in 2010.
Forbes has published a decent review of the current state of the technology. They compare GM and [...]
In a previous post about production roll-out, we heard from Bob Lutz that GM was considering an initial limited roll-out, first to California, next to Washington D.C., and finally Florida.
I for one, being a New Yorker, was little disappointed about that.
Mr Lutz, according to this excerpt from the Detroit Press seems to now have rolled [...]
One of the top questions people ask is, "When will the final production Volt design be shown?"
I just toured GM’s Chevy Volt E-Flex Design studio. First let me be clear, GM is not showing anyone what the final production vehicle fully looks like yet.
I also spent considerable time talking to Bob Boniface, the [...]
Soon after the Volt concept was first announced in January 2007 GM vice chairman Bob Lutz told the world he was 90% confident it would be built by 2010. This has become my favorite question to ask him each time I get the chance because it is a good gauge of the programs development [...]
To learn more about expected timing, location, and cadence of ramp-up for initial Chevy Volt production I turned to Jon Lauckner who is GM’s VP of global program management, considered a first deputy to Bob Lutz. Below are his answers to my questions.
When it comes to rolling out the car in the U.S., [...]
Bob Lutz just told reporters today that the first Chevy Volt prototype road tests with working lithium-ion battery packs have been moved to July. This is one month later than they were initially planned for in June.
The very first public plans were for media road tests on Easter. This was then changed to [...]