It is hard to believe its been nearly two years since I started this blog, and better yet less than two years until the Chevy Volt reaches production.

As you might have noticed I am an optimist, and remain optimistic the Volt will be our first big step in getting this country and the world off of oil.

I am looking forward to heading out to Detroit for the press days of the Auto Show (NAIAS), and I will be there on January 11th. I’m hoping there might be a few surprises from GM, and you know I will be asking many questions of the Volt executives.

I greatly appreciate all the visitors that have come and continue to come to this site, and my deepest gratitude to all of the over 9,000 wonderful commentators who keep the posts lively and teach me so much. Thank you. In 2008 we had 1,266,923 unique visitors paying  2,525,834 visits to this site reading a total of 7,392,755 pages.

You can count on this site being here right up to the day the Volt launches and beyond. Do your best to spread the word. Lets reach a few more million in 2009.

And if you’re particularly adventuresome you might want to check out our new sister site, AllCarsElectric.com

All the best
Lyle

I will be joining Dan on his show as a guest tonight Wednesday July 9th from 9PM – 10PM EST. For those who don’t know, it is a talk show that takes callers and reaches an audience of over 250,000 people in 38 states.

Hopefully this will be another great way to spread the word about the Volt.

If you don’t pick up the radio signal, the show can be heard live on the internet here: WBZ SITE .

Should anyone out there in Volt Nation want to call in, do so at 617-254-1030 during the show.

You can read his blog post here .

The event was indeed unprecedented in that a social media resource (this site) was able to gain the attention of, recognition by, and direct access to a major automaker. Also unprecedented is the intense enthusiasm and sheer size of a group of enthusiasts (us) for a car that doesn’t even exist yet.

We wish to thank you Mr. Lutz, for making the event possible, for directly meeting with us and taking our questions, and most of all for envisioning and giving rise to the Chevy Volt and making it a reality for the world.

Some of the premier green blogs gathered some great new information from our Volt Nation event and have posted it for the world to see. We had in attendance AutoBlogGreen, GreenCarCongress, and Treehugger.com.

GreenCarCongress was told by Frank Weber that GM actually possesses a total of 10 battery pack from both teams. We also heard from Frank that those packs will be in mules within weeks.

Treehugger video producer George Spyros caught some hi-def footage of Bob Lutz holding up special pictures just for the Volt Nation attendees of the CPI/A123 pack, which is shown above.

That’s what I call spreading the word! And to any new readers coming from those sites, welcome, and join us in the Volt revolution.

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.

First up, Katie Merx at the Detroit Free press wrote this article on how the Volt fans are energized.

She noted how Bob Lutz sensed our energy, and how chief engineer Tony Posawatz hopes to learn from us. I got called a cult leader again..oh well.

Next there is a piece from ABCnews.com. This one showcased Mr.Lutz’ answer to one of our readers questions, about how GM was wrong in not producing a hybrid at the earlier time as Toyota did, he conceded that GM already had the technology to do so but did not want to take the financial risk at the time. They do plan to take that risk now on the Volt, which is the headline of the third article from The Detroit News. They also reported that GM hopes one day to build a million Volts. Unfortunately that report didn’t mention this site.

Welcome to any and all new readers of the site…please join us in the discussion, the debate, and the revolution.

Video is forthcoming.

Hats off to nasaman, Tagamet, and GeorgeK who all were interviewed in these articles.

I just got back from the Volt Nation event at the Jacob Javits Center and I believe it was a smashing success. Over 200 people braved the rains and traveled by car bus and plane from as far away as Chicago, Arizona, Minnesota, and California to take part in this historic event.

It was truly a pleasure and honor to meet you all in person and thanks again for coming.

We got to check out the car and had the chance to ask the executive Volt development team questions both in a town hall setting as well as mix and mingle one on one sessions. I would like to ask people who were there to please record anything your heard or discussed, in the Volt Nation section of the forum. You can also post pictures and video there.

E-Flex Vehicle Line Director Frank Weber showed us some new pictures of the two LG Chem packs undergoing testing and some shots of the early mules being tested, and we discussed everything from drivetrain and batteries to pricing.

We even got a special guest appearance and Q and A with none other than GM vice chairman Bob Lutz himself, pictured above with me on the stage.

It is clear that we are on to something here. The grassroots development of the site has become too large and loud for GM to ignore, so it seems we are now guests at their house. We are making a difference here, this type of direct access to regular folks like us to high level execs is unprecedented.

Look forward to other Volt Nation events like this and more opportunities for direct access to the engineers behind the car and ability to give direct feedback to them through this site

Also, the entire event was video recorded and as soon as I get access to the video it will be shown here for all to see.

Oh yeah if anyone knows someone who is a php and wordpress expert send them my way..need some help here (remember the recent crash).

I’ll roll out all the news I can over the next few days, hopefully along with a lot of the mainstream media helping us get the word out.

Here’s the first mention of us.

For more than a year I have striven to connect the public to the GM team responsible for building the Chevy Volt.

Today we have achieved a milestone. For the first time in history a major U.S. automaker will hold a conference, not for the press, not for the goverment, not for the stakeholders, but for you and me.

In the world of the Web 2.0 anyone can make a difference.

We will end our dependenace on oil.

Stay tuned for all the happenings.