In a recent Wall Street Journal interview with GM exec Lutz, reporter John Stoll writes that he has “growing confidence” that 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.”
Other statements from Lutz, reported on the GM-Volt.com website, mention that GM is actually considering building a pure-EV Volt without the ICE and necessary associated controls and hardware and greater range. This could be a way for GM to meet California’s ZEV requirement. Lutz acknowledges that producing 100,000 Volts getting more than 100 mpg each will go along way to helping GM meet future CAFE regulations.
There is no confirmation that GM would actually build two different versions of the VOLT, but the good news is that the VOLT will be built in one form or another. This may be somewhat confirmed by President Bush’s speech this morning on the environment where he said, “We’re transitioning to a new era, by the way. A new era where we’re gonna have batteries in our cars that will power, you know, enable people to drive 40 miles on electricity.” A definite hint about the GM (Chevy) VOLT which is projected to have a 40 mile all-electric range before the gas motor kicks in to extend that range.
Now that gasoline has reached $4.00 per gallon, even for the cheap stuff in many areas, don’t you wish there was a VOLT plugged in to your garage right now?
SOURCES: Wall Street Journal, www.gm-volt.com
