First genuine Chevy Volt hits production on June 1st
By Ross Miller 
posted March 27th 2009 4:33PM
posted March 27th 2009 4:33PM
Read - Announcement (with glaring mistake)
Read - Corrections from GM exec Rob Peterson
posted March 27th 2009 4:33PM
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Even as a Chevy fan, I say:
Hope they make it to June 1st! :(
And the only reason I am cheering these A-Wipes on is because they gots ALL OUR MONEY!!!
-They took your money?
(gets into tesla-NYC-cab)
-FOLLOW THAT CAR!
dey terk er jerbs!
BigD145=Coach Z? interesting...
hahahaha BigD
They should be able to last till at least 1st of June but 2010....
@darkmax
Nope pretty sure he is referencing the South Park with the goobacked future people.
Lol at my fail
was supposed to be @Jay Voorhees
The CEO's were waiting for the Oil companies and Osama to OK the car...
As long as they don't produce too many and of high quality, they may continue to exist as long as for every volt they produce they make 3 Gas guzzling models...
please cite your sources, i'm interested in where these facts came from
It came from the Tin-Foil-Hat police, silly!
Where does Bin Laden come into this? Ohhh wait, I get it; you're one of those Obama haters. And to think that all you can do is make plays on his name. What, no valid criticism? Whodathunkit?
If you want to be taken the least-bit serious, you really ought to know that calling President Obama as "Osama" immediately tells your audience immediately that you're a biased piece of shit.
Just thought you should know.
I don't think he was referring to the President. He was making the connection between sending money to oil producing countries and terrorist acts carried out against the United States. He is not the first to make such a connection:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/bloilconnection.htm
I can hardly wait this is going to be a great car. As a Chevy fan I hope they make it through this mess.
They are ok as long there's tax player money on the project.
I'm not a tax player. More like tax-played :(
I wonder how much would be the resale value of this car....
Feeling the Tesla pressure eh?
I really want to like this car but at $40K it just does not make sense.
I bet it will be $35k with the $7,500 tax credit that the new Tesla sedan gets. That makes it around 28K for the ability to go without gasoline.
Let's look at the positives shall we?
After reading I meant to say 35k before the tax credits.
I still don't understand why American get the ugly volt but European can get the cool looking ampera.
The Ampera is ugly as sin. The front end looks like they got 1/2 way through assembly and ran out of pieces.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&um=1&sa=1&q=ampera+car&btnG=Search+Images
Mascara is running...
The Ampera does look way cooler. It's the Cylon of motor vehicles. It looks mean and its markings are not unlike a cheetah's around the eyes.
If you see running mascara I can only assume you've got an inner wife-beater dying to get out :)
This is unacceptable, they should have made better electric cars available long time ago, they don't deserve surviving and if our Government is NOT willing to shake the auto industry, we can do just that with our wallets. My money is going to Tesla. With the model S I can contribute towards the production of even cheaper better looking electric vehicles down the line. I'm investing in them now.
Tesla is a privately-held corporation. How exactly are you "investing" in them?
Fisker, OTOH, is partially owned by Quantum (QTWW), a publicly-traded company. It's a cheap stock right now, great time to get in on the ground floor...
Well gee I don't know, placing an order for the Tesla Model S perhaps? Fisker is all good and well, but it is not pure EV, lets say I'm somewhat of an idealist.
I can respect that... putting a $5000 deposit down on a car to be delivered three years from now. Good luck!
http://www.teslamotors.com/buy/resyourcar.php?locationmenu=US&model=ms
You can't expect to make cars out of thin air, now can you?
No need to get testy, you made a deposit, not an investment. That $5000 is to get your name on the list, not to provide capital to the company. That's why it's a refundable deposit, they might have to give it back.
Investment can mean a lot of things. What the OP means is that he is willing to pay a premium now so that he can invest in a long term future with clean energy.
Sorry to say but, major american automakers need to fail. maybe then the talented designers and independant thinking would thrive in the US made market.
Do you know what you're talking about at all?
10 per week?! uh...
its not going to STAY at 10 per week. dur.
i've worked in a GM plant before, and first runs of any model starts off slowly. Especially if its a model that's never had a previous version created.
When building hybrid tahoe/yukon/escalades. They'd start with 1-2 per shift a week, with full developmental teams following it step by step through manufacturing process. Take 5-10 minutes at each step which usually is accomplished in less than 60 seconds at normal run speed. This is their golden egg right now, one fail out the gate and it's goose egg for GM.
wow adam, thanks! see, this is why i love engadget!
+1
Electric cars are just as bad as fuel cars, batteries produce just as much or more waste, and you still have to ship the batteries all around the world to get them made. We need hydrogen, electric cars are a waste of time, they will go away when hydrogen cars start to come out.
How about safety concerns? We all know how dangerous hydrogen gas can be, not to mention when under extremely high pressures. Safety protocols would have to be followed perfectly in order for there to be smooth, error-free maintenance of a hydrogen infrastructure, which would be necessary for such a vehicle.
Hydrogen is highly flammable, I don't know of any one who wants to drive around with a bomb in their back seat, well let me refrain, now I know of you lol. But really hydrogen is less efficient than pure EV, takes more energy to be produced, etc etc .. Enough of this hydrogen nonsense.
research the actual costs of producing hydrogen and you will find that if you make it the easy way (from fossil fuels) that you lose any perceived green benefit. If you make it from electrolysis of water you use a lot of electricity, and there is a lot of conversion loss.
Then once you've made it you still need to ship it, just like you would batteries or gasoline, but do to the fact that it is a gas you need to compress it, using more energy.
I'd rather just store the electricity used to generate the hydrogen in a battery and use it directly.
You guys crack me up.
"Hydrogen is highly flammable, I don't know of any one who wants to drive around with a bomb in their back seat..."
Last time I checked, gasoline is highly COMBUSTIBLE. That means it doesn't just burn, it EXPLODES. Think about the Hindenburg. When you watch videos of it, it was burning. Think about what would have happened if that were all gasoline.
I totally agree. Until we have enough good clean energy creation to start separating hydrogen from H2O, batteries are a step in the right direction.
What are you people advocating? That we do nothing in between the time it takes us to research and perfect hydrogen electrics? That we continue to use fossil fuels with reckless abandon until utopia arrives?
I want my butanol NOW.
As for the GM component of this thread. I can't say enough vicious things about that company.
Tesla took how many years and how much money to develop a completely futuristic and beautiful 300 electric mile vehicle with massive interior space? GM had how many years and how much money to develop a vehicle capable of 40 electric miles?
I'll support American manufacturing alright. I'll buy a Tesla Roadster.
@ Tohe - The public said the same thing about Gasoline when the car was built because, uh, it is highly flammable. Duh!
Yeah but there wasn't much of a choice back then, only horse and carriage I guess. Look I know there are plenty of daredevils out there. I just think hydrogen, doesn't make sense when pure EV is available to us.
I hope Chevy succeeds with this car, but I'd still rather have a Tesla.
i would too, however they are a little more expensive, and far less reliable then most chevy's, im all for supporting a new company, especially because they have the opportunity to be far more efficient than any other car company, but its still a lot more money. plus i would really like the sports car if i had the option. and no long distant trips.
i really cant wait for this car, i hope they do a good job.
honestly i think its really sad what is happening to the american car companies (ok maybe not chrysler) because GM and Ford have been making some seriously good cars over the past 10 years, and have slowly gotten better and better, to the point where if i had my choice today, many segments have cars where the top pick is an american car. not to mention that American cars have ALWAYS been more reliable than Euro cars, and that the most reliable car on the market today is a bloody Buick (this is not initial quality this is long term reliability) then yeah, i do feel bad for them. they are obviously trying, sure they fucked up, but that was 20-30 years ago, since then they have been trying to win us back, they will never make it back to where they were in the 50's/60's, but they deserve to at least be profitable and sell their cars (as they do make good ones)
lets not forget that the closest thing toyota has to something like this is the plug in prius, which can travel exactly 0 miles without using fuel (yes even the plug in version, as its not true to the modern definition of plug in hybrid) and real shocker, they havent even released that lame ass attempt at a plug in hybrid, so for those saying its taking too long, name another company that is willing to make a car like this at a price the every day joe can afford... tesla? 50 large is bit much... 40 is a bit easier to swallow, esspecialy when the car can also drive 600 or more miles on a single tank.
anyway, point is people are giving american companies too hard of a time, they constantly get COTY in both the US and in Europe and they make cars that are reliable and safe... makes me wonder how kia can stay in business... or toyota's scion brand, which has constantly rank near the bottom in reliability... the single thing people claim american cars arnt...