March12
Although the planned production run of 2010 Chevrolet Volts has been reported to be as high as 60,000 units, it appears as though General Motors Chairman Bob Lutz might have been closer with his guesstimate of 10,000 initial Chevy Volts.
According to GM’s Vice President of R&D and Planning Larry Burns, the first batch of 2010 Volts will see extremely limited availability. “We’re not going to sell it in every city and we’re not going to sell it though every Chevrolet dealership,” Burns told just-auto. “You’d have to set up the service parts in all of those dealerships and train all of those dealers to service the vehicles.”
Burns continued by saying the Chevy Volt might only be available in five U.S. cities at launch.
But the outlook for a European E-flex vehicle — likely in the form of the Opel Flextreme — is even bleaker. Industry analysts say that the Opel variant wouldn’t bow until 2013, despite GM’s claim that Europe is “a very important market for this technology.”
Burns compared the Volt’s slow development to that of the company’s 12 year old OnStar system, citing lithium-ion battery technology as the biggest hurdle. “Today’s generation of OnStar costs radically less than the 1st generation and is dramatically more capable,” he said. “That’s what we’ve have to do with this plug-in electric technology.”
As for that 2010 launch date? “It’s a challenge,” Burns says.
As long as it happens when we expect it to happen.
They must be close to some real breakthrough in the Lithium-Ion battery. It’s almost as if they’re saying we know we have to get something out there to save face, but not too many in case we have to replace everything when we get it right.
the volt is going to show everyone what GM can really do.
johnny, great logic except I doubt there is a breakthrough and that is why GM is selling (or leasing like EVO) just a few, so they can yank it off the market or offer replacement when batteries will be available.
hey corvette, i hope your right coz GM is hyping the **** out of this car, and its technology, that everyones expectations are REALLY high right now.
Prius initial launch had alot of problems (some noise thing dont remember) but that was Toyota and there customers let it slide.
GM on the otherhand has to deliver something near perfection to, “show what GM can really do”. if they dont public perceptions gonna get alot worse than what it is. i hope they pull it off.
an car like that cant be lanuched at full capacity
Better to get it right from the start than just get greedy for numbers and profit. autonut I agree with what you said. As with computer processors, the battery engineers can probably project their progress enough to know that within 1 year, then 2 years and so on battery technology will make large strides. Would be easier to address any issues or upgrades in small numbers.
Lithium batteries scare the **** out of me. Now they’re talking about iPods shooting sparks.
At least there’s no gas tank to blow up Kaizen.
It will be delayed. Look how long it’s taken them to get the Camaro out. I see this coming out in 2012.
Just put the proven NiMH batteries in it and stop the delay. Lithium is not ready for automobile transport. Its highly unstable and likes to react with high heat results when shaken and treaked. Nice to have the low weight to energy ratio, but the safety cage they have to build around it to crash test properly outweighs the options they could use. NiMH is availiable now, and GM knows it…they used it in their EV-1 second generation and got over 100 miles per charge. This car only needs 40 miles or so per charge…so get going!! The real story is GM doesn’t want it to get off the ground. Electric cars don’t break! They don’t have oil bathed parts that wear out. They don’t need tune ups. They are quiet and don’t wear out brakes. The economies of scale will crash around EV’s if they get going, and the oil companies are fueling the scare **** out there like…where is the electricity going to come from??? Dust bowls will result from electric cars. Brownouts? At $4 a gallon they are making 100’s of billions of dollars annually, and will use the money to squash the progress. Thats why Chevron paid 200 million for the NiMH large format battery patent! Now, it is illegal to produce and sell large NiMh batteries. They say they are researching the batteries, but they won’t let Panasonic or anyone else to produce them…humm. A battery that is proven to go 100k+ miles without failure, and is light and powerful…safe and reliable…and an oil company owns the patent. What do they call this in any other words??? Don’t trust big oil and the economies that are affected by decreasing oil consumption. Parts companies, auto manufacterers, and petro distillers are all major players in the disinformation about electric drive cars and trucks. Bold moves are needed now as we move towards $5 gal gas and a decreasing dollar value…not excuses about the battery.
YOu people are reading this wrong. Limited availability is only mentioned because even a lean, efficient and fluid-like company like GM can only build so many to meet demand.
Look at how many Prius cars that are in the junkyard right now, what 90% of of them? Don’t you think those people who owned them are gonna want a truley reliable, quality piece from an American company like GM who can actually build one that is dependable? It is that abundance of people who are going to flock to the Volt. There will be waiting lists out the door for this car and most of all it will be GM leading the hybrid world once and for eva!