Chevy Volt passes key production milestone, US government buying first 100?
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 2nd 2010 5:38AM
posted April 2nd 2010 5:38AM
The Chevy Volt has already passed quite a few significant milestones on the long road to production, and it's now crossed another big hurdle, with the first pre-production vehicles rolling off the line at the Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Plant. Those won't actually be sold, of course, but they are necessary to ensure that all the points in the production line are up to standards before the retail models go into production later this year. That's not only Volt news of the day, however, as the Obama administration has also announced plans to buy "the first 100 plug-in electric vehicles to roll off American assembly lines" next year, which would seem to leave the Volt as the only option. It seems that's not quite a done deal just yet though, with GM saying that while it's "pleased to see that the Federal government is interested in the greening of their vehicle fleet," it currently has "no further details regarding these purchases."
@gittenlucky
Yeah it would be awesome to see the president rolling around in a Tata
I thought we were done with bailouts.
Bloke 1 with clipboard: It doesn't look quite right, u sure it's finished?
Bloke 2: Definatley, I've checked.. this one's ready to roll guv.
@OrsonX
I didn't know this was a British car.
@Hbishop
Which one Toyota or GM
/You do know the Japanese Gov bailed out Toyota plenty of times
//Google it
Its funny the government is buying the first 100. Don't they already own the company and hence... the cars?
As slow and cautious as GM is being with these, you'd think they'd never made a good car before, or one that they cared much about in terms of quality .
Let's hope this car lives up to THEIR expectations, or else.
Let's hope this car is well-made and reliable, or their "L" will grow even larger than it already is to my way of thinking.
It's dangerous to pull all ones eggs in one basket though. Just sayin', GM.
Caption: This is exactly how Obama ordered it. He'll put the 22" spinners on himself.
Meh....Only way I see this work is if they start adding charging poles next to the parking lots or right next to the meters on side streets. And I mean in mass construction of these charging poles.
@m3nphls
You're kinda right. I can't see an apartment dweller getting much use out of this thing. This is specifically for people that have a garage or a driveway in reach of an extension cord (or some smart fellow that hacked the street light in front of his apartment....).
"pleased to see"? What a bunch of arrogant, incompetent assholes - who do they think paid for all this AND the mess they made???
The title should be "Chevy Volt passes key production milestone, US government to be only buyer?"
I guess each Senators is getting a Volt. Number match 100.
100 cars isn't that many, but seriously? What sort of fleet vehicle gets used
@jakefoxe
Weird, my comment got cut off. What I meant to say:
100 cars isn't that many, but seriously? What sort of fleet vehicle gets used less than 40 miles per day?
Also, if Obama wants to buy the first "the first 100 plug-in electric vehicles to roll off American assembly lines" next year does that mean the Feds are getting Tesla Roadsters? :)
@jakefoxe
That's only 10 more than the joojoo pre-orders
Now maybe if the US Gov't bought more cars from GM, they could save GM!
...doesn't the gov't have a huge piece of GM, anyway?
Didn't they start making these in like 1996?
What took do long for V2?
Our Socialist ruling class are providing themselves with Zil limos... er... Chevy Volts, while the proletariats make due. It is rumored that our glorious Leader has pronounced, "Let them drive Cobalts!"
Is there a definitive breakdown of the cost of charging it up versus running on gas?
@BuzzMega, It is about $2.00 for one full charge if the rate for 1 kWh is at 10 cents. This equals a distance of about 40miles. To move the car 500 miles on electric power only you would spend about $25. Compared to about $50 for a gas powered 4 cylinder engine.
@SSD
Actually, the volt battery holds 16 KWH of electricity while being electronically limited to discharge/charge only half of that (8 or 9 KWH). At 10 cents a KWH, that equates to roughly 1 dollar per charge assuming some reasonable charging inefficiency.
@Hbishop, so lets see, you are not supporting your own investment. You obviously do know that your tax money is helping out GM and as better the company does as faster they pay it back. So why wouldn't you support GM? It's like buying stock from Intel and than going out to purchase a system with an AMD processor. Hello!
Title change: "...taxpayers buying first 100?" - I must have missed the shareholder's meeting. :\
The Feds are going to buy them? Cue the pro-Depression 2.0 moonbats in 3...2...
greener? seriously? do they not take into account the production process of the batteries that they stuff into these things? might as well drive a hummer.