Until they figure out the batteries, the first batch of Volts will be sold with the Iron Duke 4 cylinder and a one-barrel carburetor

Of course they’ll sell more than the Prius. The Prius looks like a rubber doorstop. At least the Volt has some sort of mainstream design to it. Who knows, I might even buy one. If ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Of course, to offset my battery use, I’ll be dumping a Chevy V8 into my XTerra with a 3″ lift, Borla exhaust, and the knobbyest 32″ Swampers I can find.

hell yeah piablo i would drive one, and want to drop a turbo v8 in my frontier.

If Toyota can sell that many ugly cars I don’t see GM having any problems selling 60k of these!

I knew a guy who put a 350 in a pre-tacoma toyota.

Volt should meet its sales targets. The country’s gone prius-crazy, so this is the logical next step.

funny how making the prius causes more pollution then an average SUV during it’s lifetime. No one mentions that - i’ve asked people who own a prius if they know where their batteries come from - always no. Asked them did they know how much pollution is created making their cars and they defend it, yawn. treehuggers.

Very nice. I hope Prius sales fall apart…this is more advanced than the Toy after all. Basically, what Bullitt said - and the Volt is only about have as ugly, and twice as advanced in its technology. Good luck GM!

actually justkillin_time, i bet real “treehuggers” know where the batteries come from and thus don’t drive priuses. people who drive priuses are posers who try to look cool by “saving the environment.” that battery does horrible things to the ecosystem.

Justkillin_time - I’ve preached till my fingers hurt on here about how hypocritical hybrids are. It does not matter though when what fuels their desires is a “belief” as apposed to logic and fact. The funny thing is, the ones on here that love the Prius and preach the global warming word hate GM and won’t support the Volt. It’s more political than anything else. What more would anyone expect from a crowd that is considering the removal of the Moose as Norway’s offical state animal because they found it’s burping contributes as much global warming gasses as a car does in a year?

Piablo, great argument. But I think you underestimate some of their motivations. If the Volt becomes ‘the next big thing’, then the environmentalists will glue themselves to the car. If Al Gore buys one, you can bet his cult will too.

But I think people should start placing their orders with me now.

Are the volts batteries made of something different that isn’t as bad for the enviroment? Or is it just another car that makes the owner feel good, but actually do nothing to help the enviroment.

You anit-Prius/hybrid guys always want to talk about the evils of hybrids and the batteries. However, the only links I’ve ever seen are a College newspaper opinion piece on Sudbury and that horribly flawed CNW marketing report. Stop talking out your ass and provide some science to back yourself up.

Of course the Volt will sell better than the Prius initially did, the Prius CREATED the market for hybrids.

Chevrolet merely stands upon the shoulders of giants here. If they can get 40 miles off of batteries they should sell 60k units and I hope they do better than that. For myself, and I’m certain a huge portion of the population, that would mean a weeks worth of commuting without a single drop of gas pushed through the ICE.

hehe - ‘posers’ - ty - i will use that term instead.

piablo: y’all should read the piece on ethanol in the latest rolling stone.

You must mean this article:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/15635751/the_ethanol_scam_one_of_americas_biggest_political_boondoggles

Hah! I’ve read that. I’m not saying you do, but I don’t take opinions very seriously when the opinions are based on editorials in the Rolling Stone. That’s where political garbage is confused for fact.

byrce: of late, they’ve managed to sneak some JOURNALISM into Rolling Stone.

I get input from all over, an while I think M. savage is generally full of excrement, he’s on the ball in saying that the ROE in Iraq is crap. On the other hand, I miss Molly ivins — even when she was wrong, (collosally so) she was entertaining

We’ve got KKKFI here, and those idiots are both wrong and boring.

So, bryce, any thoughts on ethanol. I lived in nebraska and wrote about agribusiness sometimes, so i know how alluring ethanol is. I think brazil is smarter about it.

I have to agree that Brazil is going about it better than we are. But they also have the infrastructure. And I practically lived in Nebraska every summer for 10 years (and have plenty of family in the farmbelt). In my opinion, independent farmers are some of the hardest-working and most underpaid Americans. I think they have every right to make money. Anyways. I’ve been more concerned about ethanol as a net energy loser than anything else. However, I prefer it as a viable alternative to other energy sources (hybrids, mainly) available and proposed. I don’t buy the corn-price inflation argument as a means to stop using ethanol when the industry is still in it’s infancy. And I certainly don’t agree with the ‘lack of available lands’ for production argument when there are cellulosic ethanol plants built and under construction. But the root of the issue is fuel prices. Very few people are really environmentally conscious when the environment is put at odds with their finances. E85 is a great solution.

I’ll stop here because I just read the Letter to the Editor. Definitely a worthwhile read. It summarizes my arguments and with much more credibility.

Off-topic: I hate how these types of writers are so quick to spin in argument in their favor. On any other day he could be touting independence on foreign oil, supporting local farmers, and lowering emissions. But if politicans and Big Corporate Whatever is involved, OOOOOOOOOOOHHH BAAAAAAADDD.

an* argument

What matters is Amperes, not Volts.

Bryce: independent farmers rule, and ADM can burn in hell..

i got 2 check that letter

JackJim - I have to agree with much of what he said, which as you said, is scary considering it’s from the aging hippie rag, Rolling Stone. He touches on one of the biggest arguments I have against all of these “alternatives”, and that’s the hype and panic from the other scam, global warming. I mentioned a couple times today the article regarding Norway and it’s national animal, the moose. So some study says that a moose’s burp contributes as much global warming gases as a car in one year. And that is from mother nature! And their reaction is “How alarming!” instead of a far more logical reaction, “Wow, maybe cars aren’t so bad!”. This alarmism over something that is still not understood is causing many boondoggles as he says. Money is being wasted world wide by the hundreds of billions every year. As I’ve said before, I don’t know anyone alive that is not to some extent environmentally conscious. However, we should be looking into environmental efficiencies for the right reasons, not global warming. Those billions of dollars could be spent much much better. The biggest farce is the idea that if we wean every vehicle off oil, we’ll be off foreign oil! ANNNGGG! 60% of a barrel of oil is used for plastics. Only 35% is used for fuels. 18% is used for gasoline. These facts are all quoted out of Car and Driver and Popular Mechanics.

So, against Random Jerk’s wishes, I do not support hybrids for the sake of feel good environmentalism. Batteries are NOT environmentally safe. And nobody can guarantee that those packs will not find their ways into junk yards, especially the ones which no longer work or hold a charge. You can’t even throw an AA battery into the garbage let alone a giant car pack. What about performance? My lithium ion cell phone battery certainly does not operate the same after a single year of use. How about a car? It’s feel good antics fueled by global warming hysteria. I would only consider a hybrid for it’s impact on my wallet.

Bryce, I agree, it will be a seller. I wouldn’t rule myself out buying one. I just don’t think of these cars as our savior for the future like some do.

Piablo, maybe it doesn’t get us off the oil hook, but if it means we send less money to those mideast whackjobs who are hellbent on killing us for their crappy beliefs, then I’m all for it. Say you’re stats are right and 35% of oil use is for fuels. Right now about 60% is imported, so that means our imports are more than cut in half. Add to that Jpn and Europe will flip for this also, and a ton of money wont be flowing to these psycho clerics and their dingleberry believers (in death). I’ll take that, and then when their people are all starving I’ll crack a beer in a large air-conditioned house and laugh my butt off when I seen their hungry oppressed butts on CNN.

60,000 units sounds tough to make, but throw in an SUV and a family sedan, and it might be quite doable.

Also, I’m getting quite tired of hearing nigh-sayers going on with their “if could be done somenoe would have done it by now” defeatism.

Encourage change or else change will never come. I intend to by a Volt when it comes out… maybe a year or two after… let them work the kinks out first.

Blakkarr, I don’t think 60k units is a tough number to hit if the final vehicle is of good quality and does 2 things:
1) Hits the efficiency targets they originally claimed, and
2) Looks close to the concept.

I don’t think the public buzz around the vehicle stems from it’s drivetrain, but rather from its cool and different appearance combined with a very innovative drivetrain. Let’s face it - not too many of us are a fan of hybrids, but their reputation and desirability are worsened by the fact that they are associated with the Prius, which is one of the most hideous-looking vehicles in the history of the world. People want the Volt because the concept looks awesome, but if GM ends up sticking that drivetrain in a Cobalt and calls it a Volt they will have trouble getting to 10k units over the lifespan of the vehicle. Pop it in that beautiful concept and build it well and 60k units/year is in the bag, I think.

Personally, I’d love a Solstice Coupe with a Volt drivetrain.

RicardoHead - If there is anything I loathe more than the far left whack jobs, it’s the Muslim Fundamentalist whack jobs. I would love to take away the hand that feeds them. But I don’t think it’s possible, not even considering the fact this country lacks the will power to do so. We actually import more refined oil than we refine here in the states. So it’s not only a matter of drilling on our own land or not, but actual refining capacity. And the government has made it clear there will be no new refineries, or new drilling. I bring up the issue of plastics because that is where we have the larger and easier impact. Many products that are made of plastic have other alternative materials that could be used as a replacement. We live in a disposable society. Unfortunately, the hypocrisy of this society is costing all of us alot of money. 99% of the oil focus is on cars, when cars represent less than 20% of the problem. Couple that with a recent study that says its actually better for the environment to drive to a nearby store than to walk because the human body coupled with all of the energy needed to sustain it, emits more global warming gases than the car would. There goes the neighboorhood! I applaud you for not being hypocritical. For myself though, it’s simply martyrdom.

I still think they need to implement a bean tax to stop people from eating beans and emitting global warming gasses. Also a fatass tax because fatasses not only consume more food, but get worse mileage, fart and burp more, breath heavily while exerting the energy to sit on a couch, and are drains on the environment. Fatasses are worse for the world than my F150.

R-head: those mideast whackos will still get their dough. If not from us, from China and India.
Do we want to drill alaska? It has to look like that. Putting it in a cobalt body makes it a loser.

actually fatasses save energy, when you don’t turn your head to look at them

RichardHead,

I’m glad to see someone else wants to see this thing happen. I do, too. I just tend to hedge my bets. Still expanding the drivetrain to include a SUV, a Family Sedan, and yes maybe even an adapted Kappa car, would be awesome.

And YES! The Volt will see gangbusters is they keep at least 80% of the styling. The Prius is the ultimate “green”. It’s great for making a statement but that’s about it. It is the second most boring new car on the road today.

Encourage change.

I’ll bite — what’s the most boring

Four times the initial sales of the Prius doesn’t sound hard to beat. When that thing came out, people were poking it with a stick and gawking at how stupid it looked. What did they sell, a thousand in the first year?

Besides, there’s no way the Prius is more desirable than the Volt, unless you use the vaccuum to suck off your ****-n-balls and are loyal to it.