General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner will drive a Chevrolet Volt prototype from GM’s offices in Washington D.C. to Capitol Hill for Thursday’s hearings on the proposed U.S. automaker bailout. Wagoner drove a Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid from Detroit to his Washington hotel.
Wagoner is expected to make a short public speech some time Thursday, and he’ll have the operational Volt mule on hand, as well as the production Volt show car introduced earlier this year.
Although the guts of the car Wagoner will be driving are straight from the Volt program, the body of the car will actually be that of the Chevy Cruze. The Volt is still under development, with a production-intent prototype yet to be built.
But despite its Cruze body work, the Volt will essentially perform as promised to us by GM, just a few years ahead of its 2010 launch date. That means Wagoner will be a showing Congress a car that can travel 40 miles on electric power alone, with a small gas engine extending that range by a few hundred miles.
