This news is especially of interest to the Volt community, because both it and the Cruze ride on the Delta II platform, share parts and have many commonalities.

When GM first revealed the Cruze to the public, it looked to have a huge jump on the competition, boasting a bold new look and mileage per gallon numbers starting with a four…unseen anywhere else in the GM lineup.

Unfortunately, the Cruze program has been slow to reach fruition domestically, and the lead over next generation offerings such as the new Ford Focus and Honda Civic, is eroding quickly. The Cruze has been on sale in Europe for much of 2009.

The official reason for the delay was because GM wanted to “ensure a flawless launch and to go to market with full availability of high volume content,” however there was quickly speculation in the media that there was supplier issues at work behind the scenes, and maybe even difficulty sourcing the engine lineup in time for the original launch date.

If the Cruze has indeed run into complications with sourcing, it would not be unreasonable to expect the Volt could face the same challenges when attempting to get to market as expected in November of next year.

I spoke to Lesley Hettinger at Chevy Communications, who is unofficially ‘the point for all things Cruze’ at GM, and she happily put those rumors to rest and offered some good information on the program:

“There are no supplier issues. Initially we planned a pull-ahead on Cruze timing with a start of production in the second quarter of 2010 in our plant in Lordstown, OH, we have since revised our production schedule and decided not to compress the program timing to ensure a flawless launch and to go to market with full availability of high volume content. Assembly of pre-production builds will begin in the second quarter of 2010, followed by start of regular production with the full model year in third quarter of 2010.”

Closer to home, on the topic of the Volt, Rob Peterson offered the following reassurances to us here at GM-Volt, “The Volt remains on schedule for November 2010 production launch. The Cruze timing has no impact on the Volt.”

Still, given that this is the second of GM’s new cornerstone products to be delayed (Chevrolet Camaro), and with the added complexities of electric drive added into the mix, one has to wonder if a similar fate to ‘ensure a flawless launch’ might still be in store for the Volt…and that might not be a bad thing in the long run.

Jon Lauckner is GM’s VP of product development and along with Bob Lutz, co-inventor of the Chevy Volt.

“We’re closing one chapter and opening a new chapter,” he said. “This is really a defining moment for us. Its new future for the company. It going to let us solve problems that have been with us for many many years and really its a once in a lifetime opportunity to reinvent the company for the next 100 years.”

“We in product development really need to stay focused on the future,” said Lauckner. “We are moving valuable assets into the new GM, we’re going to have a more focused product portfolio, a smaller, nimbler, faster moving company; and that’s all part of the reinvention of GM. Over the next 60 to 90 days all of that will take place and we’ll emerge a faster leaner enterprise.”

“We are still open for business,” he said.  “We are out there to make sure that we satisfy customers and that we are backing all of our vehicles with warranty coverage and that we are working on our future portfolio.”

I asked the following questions of Mr. Lauckner.

Are you confident if everything goes to plan and made lean that GM will be able to be profitable even at 10 million SAAR?
Yes, because the viability plan has GM downsized to the point where we can break even at an industry volume of 10 million units, more or less where we are running today. That means as the economy recovers in the US, and industry volumes increase, that really sets the stage for us to generate significant profitability and cash flow. When you look at how the company is going to be resized and refocused we really have a tremendous opportunity to generate the kind of profitability the old company wouldn’t have been able to generate.

How will bankruptcy and government intervention affect the Volt program or will it in any way?
It won’t in any way impact the Volt program.

Production volume plans wont be affected?
Anything material that we’ve had as the plan for the Volt will not be changed. This does not change anything that we’ve set up in terms of the Volt.

The government questioned the Volt’s profitability at one point, does the government now support it fully?
I don’t know if it makes sense for me to speak for the government. The point is that everybody understands the Volt shows the way forward. You go back to the original introduction of the car in 2007 and you look at what’s taken place since then and every one agrees that the the question of electrification of the automobile is not a question of if, it has changed to a question of when.

It makes no sense for us to take a fundamentally different approach on the Volt as compared to where we were before today.

In 5 to 10 years what percentage of GM’s total portfolio will be Voltec vehicles?
That’s almost impossible for me to forecast with any certainty. We’re out there with the Volt and we are working on other potential applications of the Voltec propulsion system, and those studies continue. We’ll just have to see how the whole story develops. Its more fundamental than talking about what the Volt is going to do by itself, but more how the whole environment develops over the next few years.

Are you hopeful Voltec could become quickly a large segment of vehilce sales?
We see it as a very key technology going forward, and while we are in  the late stages of the development of the generation one Volt, we are already looking into generation two that would have technology that might  allow us to have better performance and lower cost.

This is something that we’re going to continue to work on. We know that no doubt as good as the Volt is in employing the very latest and greatest technology that’s out there, things will move forward in the next few years and there will be future developments that we will incorporate into the next generation of the car.

What is the time line of generation 2?
It depends on what you want to characterize as generation 2. There is the car and the technology and they may not line up. We have the propulsion system and it may make sense to make some interim improvements in some of the elements of the propulsion system within a year or two after start of production. And then longer term you talk about the lifecycle of the car itself. I don’t think you can make the evolutionary improvements that may take place in the propulsion system and just roll that up to the car level.

We have to take a look at it and we haven’t got all the work done, and we know we have to make cost reductions and that will involve changes and then of course you have the next generation of the complete car that we typically have on longer lifecycles than 1 to 2 years.

Will GM leapfrog to Volt and skip the small sedan hybrid?
We haven’t excluded any sort of hybrid propulsion systems from our thinking process in terms of what we might do in the future.

What about a pure EV without the generator?
We haven’t announced anything like that.

Is the Cadillac Converj greenlighted?
No the status of the Converj hasn’t changed.

I asked Volt chief engineer Andrew Farah why it will be another year and a half to bring the Volt to market.

“Most of it truly is the aesthetic side of it,” he said. “The mule cars aren’t pretty. We know that people want a vehicle that is distinctive.”

He admitted GM has “been working the basic powertrain and battery stuff for more than a year or two,” but added that the aesthetic features “only comes together in the final stages before you go.”

Producing a car “is a lot like fashion,” he said. “If you start too soon you’re selling something that’s already old.”

He concluded therefore “the things that are holding it up are really the typical new vehicle kinds of things,” and not in fact the high tech cutting edge battery and powertrain engineering which have so far proven very robust and successful.

In exactly thirteen days, GM will begin building the full true Volt interior and exterior integration vehicles. No major changes will likely occur between those and the final production vehicles, though Farah does note “we’ll do what we have to do to fix problems if any crop up.”

So far with the 30 or so mules he’s been working with for the past several months there were no problems that weren’t anticipated. “Nothing has come up that we haven’t had an answer for,” he said.

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 progressing well, he said "our optimism is building."

In his speech he suggested that oil prices were unlikely to retreat and admitted the recent consumer swing from SUVs to compacts cars is "rational."

Did he say $20,000 for the Volt?

Source (Reuters )

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 GM. He is quoted as saying, "At this point, we don’t know how important the Volt is going to be," and that one reason for the project is to "eliminate this perception of GM as the environmental antichrist."

Lutz acknowledges that producing 100,000 Volts getting more than 100 mpg each will go along way to helping GM meet future CAFE regulations and even indicates E-Flex technology could be put into a small pick-up truck should it be necessary (why wouldn’t it?)

Source (Wall Street Journal )

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 Volt produced in the U.S.,"

and

"So far, so good, but it’s going to be right down to the wire to meet the production deadline we’ve set."

He also said GM was moving closer to picking one of the two lithium-ion battery pack-making teams (CPI/LG vs Conti/A123), but indicated the production contract could be given to one side, while a development contract is maintained with the other.

GM representatives also apparently said China would be next to get the Volt after the North American market of U.S. and Canada.

Wagoner encouraged China to move away from oil and towards hydrogen derived from nuclear power. Last years’ Beijing auto show was indeed the location where the fuel-cell E-Flex variant, now considered on a production track, was unveiled.

Wagoner also acknowledged how financially important the China market was for GM, saying " it could be huge," and "the company that gets China right is going to be the dominant player for the next 25 years."

He also notes the economy of scale benefit for the Volt via China, "the sales volume for E-Flex in China could be a huge factor over time for reducing cost’"

Source (Reuters )

Forbes has published a decent review of the current state of the technology. They compare GM and Toyota as the tortoise and the hare, with Toyota cautiously moving ahead, at best putting li-ion into a limited fleet of PHEVs in 2010, and with GM racing to mass produce the powerful battery-driven Volt.

Prabhakar Patil who is the CEO of Compact Power Inc., one of the two companies building prototype Volt battery packs, is quoted as saying, "What I worry about is a black eye–if somebody puts a battery on the road prematurely, it would hurt the entire industry."

The other battery pack team includes li-ion supplier A123 Systems, whose founder Ric Fulop said "Somebody lit a fire under [GM's] butt in 2006," and "I’ve never seen a large company move so fast and put so many resources behind something."

Source (Forbes )

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 the Big Apple into the mix:

"…the early plan for distribution of the Chevrolet Volt is to begin with California, followed by Washington, D.C.; Florida; New York and elsewhere on the East Coast."

Mr. Lutz went on to qualify this statement: "Of course, that’s only current thinking, and the plans could change".

While at GM’s tech center I was able to confirm that GM was indeed giving the roll-out plan some thought, but I was told that it was "way too early" to draw conclusions.

I know for a fact that some of the key Volt decision makers read this site regularly, so now may be the time to make your opinions known.

Source (Detroit Free Press )

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 director of Chevy Volt/ E-Flex design. I questioned him about the timing of appearance releases.

He explained to me that final car designs generally make their public appearance roughly two years before the car reaches production. He noted as an example that the Camaro design was actually revealed in December 2005, and will hit showrooms this fall. That’s a nearly 3 year interval which he felt was a too long. Bob says, "You want to time it so that the public and the media maintain their interest in the car, but you don’t want to show it too early because you don’t want to tip your hand to the competition."

Noting that the Volt is slated for production in 2 years and 7 months, he said "if you do the math, expect to see the car sooner rather than later"

He also said GM normally ties design releases to large public events. Some upcoming events to might be the media mule drives slated for July, or GM’s centennial celebration in the fall.

For those who have raised the concern here, Bob said "it can’t be a Cobalt with a battery..over my dead body."

About the design freeze, he said at this moment, "We’re tweaking some areas trying to get some last counts of drag out of it"…"we don’t have to start shipping data for feasibility just yet, so we’re going to keep working on it until the last minute, but if I showed you the car tomorrow, that’s what its going to look like."

In the design center Bob demonstrated the new front quarter panel, which we’ve seen before, but he also revealed a rear quarter panel. The rear has a harder edge than the show car.

What can be summarized about the production design compared to the show car is the following:

-it will look unmistakably like the Volt
-overall proportions have changed
-front end is much more rounded
-roof height has gone up
-low rear overhang stays
-dropped belt line is still there
-length is identical
-very sporty and athletic
-has a nice stance and rake

Bob said this about body color, "the car will be available in a lot of colors. Our color and trim studio has done lots of research on color and trim style. We have a board that shows a bunch of side views of the production car in different colors. In black it is wonderful. "

Regarding the show car’s transparent roof, "I wont comment on the appearance of the roof right now, there are still content decisions that have not yet been made."

I studied in person the 1/3 camouflage model seen in the picture above and I can say the theme is clearly futuristic and the car will make an electric statement and look like nothing else on the road.

Enjoy the high-def video below to see that same scene. And if you get a chance, check out my live interview Monday April 7th at 12:30 PM on the Fox Business News Network.

Production Chevy Volt Design from Lyle Dennis on Vimeo .

Having the spectacularly cool opportunity to share the stage with him at Volt Nation, and getting to be the last one to ask a question, guess what I asked?

This time he upped it to 94.5%. He also said there is a zero percent of it never getting built. Vehicle line executive Frank Weber chimed in the background “100%”, for his confidence level.

You will soon be able to see all of this, including the Q and A and other interviews beginning tonight on video. Our videographer’s having some “technical difficulties” but assures me progress is being made.