Tony DiSalle, the market director for the Chevrolet Volt, announced the production numbers for the first two years. He said the company plans to build 10,000 cars in 2011 and 30,000 in 2012
you'll find the article here http://www.auto-power-girl.com/cars-news/2010/07/03/chevrolet/4616/gm_planning_to_build_10000_volts_in_2011.html

If I can't afford to buy one, can I charge it? ;)

He'll be here all week ladies and gentlemen. :D

Ooh... another article about the Chevrolet Vapor.

They've been hyping this car for what, 4 years now, and still don't have it on dealer lots. It was originally slated to come out in 2009 as a 2010 Model, and has now been pushed back to coming out in 2011 as a 2012 model.

How long does it really take to attach a gasoline generator and a battery charger to a glorified golf cart?

My original prediction when they first started talking about this car was that GM would be bankrupt before it went into production... and I see that already happened. So, what's next?

My original prediction when they first started talking about this car was that GM would be bankrupt before it went into production... and I see that already happened. So, what's next?
So what's next you ask? I'll tell you whats next! GM is building so few of these cars that I predict within 5 or 6 years of the first production models the Volt will fade into a car oblivion.

Case in point, does anyone remember the Chevrolet EV1? In my opinion it was simply an utter failure as a car. It's production spanned 4 years(96-99) and then just faded away like it was never there. Now more than 10 years later GM is trying again............... Anyone else whiff a faint smell of failure looming in the distance?

Case in point, does anyone remember the Chevrolet EV1? In my opinion it was simply an utter failure as a car. It's production spanned 4 years(96-99) and then just faded away like it was never there. Now more than 10 years later GM is trying again............... Anyone else whiff a faint smell of failure looming in the distance?

Actually you totally incorrect. The cars were only meant to sell for a few years and you didn't own them, just lease them. They you had to give them back to GM. They were basically a customer based prototype system GM used to make the cars better for the future. Hence, the Volt. The EV was actually a very good car for what it was....

Let's not forget that Volt is supposed to sticker for $40,000 whenever it finally hits the market. So much for it being an electric car for every man.

The car is a great idea, don't get me wrong. Even charging $40,000 GM will sell every one of them that they can make (whenever that happens)... and the technology will eventually trickle down to cheaper vehicles and should revolutionize the way we think about Hybrids.

What really saddens me about this is that Toyota is now on the 3rd generation of Prius... and no other automaker, foreign or domestic, has come out with a vehicle that competes with it. Oh sure, there are other hybrids, but their performance (in the economy dept.) doesn't come close to touching Prius.

Let's not forget that Volt is supposed to sticker for $40,000 whenever it finally hits the market. So much for it being an electric car for every man.

The car is a great idea, don't get me wrong. Even charging $40,000 GM will sell every one of them that they can make (whenever that happens)... and the technology will eventually trickle down to cheaper vehicles and should revolutionize the way we think about Hybrids.

What really saddens me about this is that Toyota is now on the 3rd generation of Prius... and no other automaker, foreign or domestic, has come out with a vehicle that competes with it. Oh sure, there are other hybrids, but their performance (in the economy dept.) doesn't come close to touching Prius.

Don't forget you get like an $8000 tax break if you buy a Volt....

Don't forget you get like an $8000 tax break if you buy a Volt....

But it's not a rebate and it's not a discount. Sticker is still $40,000 and you are going to be paying monthly payments on $40,000. You'll get the $8000 6 months to a year later when tax time comes around.

Even if you put the entire tax refund towards the car, that's still $32,000. I'd rather buy a ~$25,000 Cruze that gets 40MPG and have $7000 left over. Even at $4/gal (which is where we're going again) $7000 will buy you 1750 gallons of gas. If the Cruze only gets 30MPG on your daily commute (a low estimate) that $7000 will take you 52,500mi. So, you would have to make 1312 40-mile electric only trips in the Volt to cover the difference in cost. See... Hybrids just don't pay off.

Plus... if Volt catches on you'd better believe the government is going to find some way to tax it. If you have a 30-mile round trip commute every day, which a lot of people do, you ideally wouldn't use a single drop of gas. Gas taxes pay for road maintenance... so you would be driving on the roads and not paying to maintain them, which Uncle Sam isn't going to let happen.

As high gas mileage or electric become more popular in the next 20 years be prepared to see a shift away from the gas tax and towards a mileage-based system instead. Your mileage will be assessed when the car is brought in for yearly safety/emissions inspections or when you renew your tag. It will save you around 50 cents a gallon on gas... but you'll have to cough up a couple thousand bucks to get your car legal again every year.

The other alternative to falling gas tax revenues, which is already in place in some parts of Europe, is a tax paid at purchase based upon the displacement of the engine... somewhere in the line of $1000 per liter of displacement should be about right.

This places a larger burden on people who buy larger vehicles. We all know that larger vehicles consume much more fuel than smaller ones, so why shouldn't the people using more gas be paying more for it? Do you really need that Suburban with the 6.0L V8 to haul your 2 kids around to soccer practice? Well, you can pay an extra $6000 for it. After all, one of the reasons we are all paying $3+/gal right now for gas is all the trucks and SUVs driving around that get 20MPG or less.

It would also influence consumer spending, creating a large demand for vehicles with smaller (more efficient) engines. A perfect example of this can be illustrated with the Malibu. We have the 3.6L V6 producing 250hp and 250lb/ft. GM chooses to use this engine because it is inexpensive to produce. If they are suddenly looking at a $3600 price increase they could easily switch to the 2.0L LNF, which produces 260hp and 260lb/ft and lower the car's price by $1600. The car would have the same performance (probably even a little better) and I guarantee you the LNF does not cost GM $1600 more to make than the LY7.

But it's not a rebate and it's not a discount. Sticker is still $40,000 and you are going to be paying monthly payments on $40,000. You'll get the $8000 6 months to a year later when tax time comes around.

Even if you put the entire tax refund towards the car, that's still $32,000. I'd rather buy a ~$25,000 Cruze that gets 40MPG and have $7000 left over. Even at $4/gal (which is where we're going again) $7000 will buy you 1750 gallons of gas. If the Cruze only gets 30MPG on your daily commute (a low estimate) that $7000 will take you 52,500mi. So, you would have to make 1312 40-mile electric only trips in the Volt to cover the difference in cost. See... Hybrids just don't pay off.

Plus... if Volt catches on you'd better believe the government is going to find some way to tax it. If you have a 30-mile round trip commute every day, which a lot of people do, you ideally wouldn't use a single drop of gas. Gas taxes pay for road maintenance... so you would be driving on the roads and not paying to maintain them, which Uncle Sam isn't going to let happen.

As high gas mileage or electric become more popular in the next 20 years be prepared to see a shift away from the gas tax and towards a mileage-based system instead. Your mileage will be assessed when the car is brought in for yearly safety/emissions inspections or when you renew your tag. It will save you around 50 cents a gallon on gas... but you'll have to cough up a couple thousand bucks to get your car legal again every year.

The other alternative to falling gas tax revenues, which is already in place in some parts of Europe, is a tax paid at purchase based upon the displacement of the engine... somewhere in the line of $1000 per liter of displacement should be about right.

This places a larger burden on people who buy larger vehicles. We all know that larger vehicles consume much more fuel than smaller ones, so why shouldn't the people using more gas be paying more for it? Do you really need that Suburban with the 6.0L V8 to haul your 2 kids around to soccer practice? Well, you can pay an extra $6000 for it. After all, one of the reasons we are all paying $3+/gal right now for gas is all the trucks and SUVs driving around that get 20MPG or less.

It would also influence consumer spending, creating a large demand for vehicles with smaller (more efficient) engines. A perfect example of this can be illustrated with the Malibu. We have the 3.6L V6 producing 250hp and 250lb/ft. GM chooses to use this engine because it is inexpensive to produce. If they are suddenly looking at a $3600 price increase they could easily switch to the 2.0L LNF, which produces 260hp and 260lb/ft and lower the car's price by $1600. The car would have the same performance (probably even a little better) and I guarantee you the LNF does not cost GM $1600 more to make than the LY7.

Oh, I'm not arguing. You couldn't give me an electric car. ;)

I would really, really like to see a push to switch to CNG. It is actually catching on out west here... I see a surprising number of CNG cars, trucks, and vans on the roads and for sale. They have very similar performance to their gasoline counterparts and you can fill the tank with CNG for less than half the price of a tank of gasoline. America has some of the largest untapped Natural Gas reserves of any country in the world... we could be sufficient on the stuff for hundreds of years and not have to worry about our economy being controlled by countries who we are not on the best of terms with. After all, it was gas hitting $5/gal that set off the entire economic collapse anyways.

Ooh... another article about the Chevrolet Vapor.

They've been hyping this car for what, 4 years now, and still don't have it on dealer lots. It was originally slated to come out in 2009 as a 2010 Model, and has now been pushed back to coming out in 2011 as a 2012 model.

How long does it really take to attach a gasoline generator and a battery charger to a glorified golf cart?

My original prediction when they first started talking about this car was that GM would be bankrupt before it went into production... and I see that already happened. So, what's next?

What are you talking about? Job #1 is November 2010. Pre-production vehicles have been out on the roads for months now. Validation builds are rolling down the line at Hamtramck.

Please do some research before posting. It's fairly obvious you know little to nothing about engineering a vehicle, nor do you know much about this car.

So what's next you ask? I'll tell you whats next! GM is building so few of these cars that I predict within 5 or 6 years of the first production models the Volt will fade into a car oblivion.

Case in point, does anyone remember the Chevrolet EV1? In my opinion it was simply an utter failure as a car. It's production spanned 4 years(96-99) and then just faded away like it was never there. Now more than 10 years later GM is trying again............... Anyone else whiff a faint smell of failure looming in the distance?

First off, it was never badged a Chevrolet, in fact it was sold through select Saturn dealerships.

Secondly, it was never meant to be a mass-produced vehicle.

Third, it failed because it was completely impractical. Two seater, limited cargo capacity, limited EV range. The Volt solves all those problems.

Let's not forget that Volt is supposed to sticker for $40,000 whenever it finally hits the market. So much for it being an electric car for every man.

The car is a great idea, don't get me wrong. Even charging $40,000 GM will sell every one of them that they can make (whenever that happens)... and the technology will eventually trickle down to cheaper vehicles and should revolutionize the way we think about Hybrids.

What really saddens me about this is that Toyota is now on the 3rd generation of Prius... and no other automaker, foreign or domestic, has come out with a vehicle that competes with it. Oh sure, there are other hybrids, but their performance (in the economy dept.) doesn't come close to touching Prius.

$40k is nothing more than an estimate. I'm actually starting to hear $35k more and more now.

What are you talking about? Job #1 is November 2010. Pre-production vehicles have been out on the roads for months now. Validation builds are rolling down the line at Hamtramck.

Please do some research before posting. It's fairly obvious you know little to nothing about engineering a vehicle, nor do you know much about this car.

Sure... pre-production and test vehicles are running the streets, but that still doesn't mean I can buy one at the dealership.

I don't need to know anything about engineering to see that GM has totally blown their original announced schedule with Volt.

In 2007 GM announced to the press that Volt would be available to the public in 2010.

Then GM announced that the Volt will be sold initially only in California, Washington Metropolitan Area, Michigan, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut... with first cars available in Washington D.C., New York City, California, and Austin, TX.

During the first quarter of 2011 the market is supposed to expand to Michigan, the rest of Texas and to all of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Nationwide availability in the U.S. is scheduled to begin in late 2011 but in reality the rest of us won't see them until 2012.

So there... it will be 2012 before you can just roll down the street and buy one. Two years behind schedule, just like I said earlier.

Why don't you go do some research of your own before calling me on my facts?

The initial launch markets are in place for a reason. GM doesn't want to roll out a bunch of Volts all at the same time because A) Limited availability of parts and B) Gauging customer reception.

Nevertheless, Volt is ready to go. You are still incorrect in saying that it has been pushed back to a 2012 model because it IS a 2011 model that will be released in November of this year.

And this statement...

How long does it really take to attach a gasoline generator and a battery charger to a glorified golf cart?

...proves that you really don't know anything about engineering a vehicle for mass production, nor do you know much about the Volt.

...proves that you really don't know anything about engineering a vehicle for mass production, nor do you know much about the Volt.

I've been reading along and have noticed your posts as well as those of RaineMan. The two of you seem to be disagreeing quite a bit but it's also obvious that you could phrase your responses so that they're a little less offensive. You've twice insulted RM, calling his intelligence into question, and it seems all based on his response to your original post. Look up the definition of "hyperbole" and you'll see it applies to RM's comment:
How long does it really take to attach a gasoline generator and a battery charger to a glorified golf cart?

Even though I know nothing much about designing or manufacturing a car myself, I'm sure it doesn't take that level of schooling or experience to decide that a golf cart with a generator and battery charger is not something I'd buy! Nor would you, would you? And unless you're an actual designer yourself, then you don't have that specific training as well! If you ARE a designer, why the condescending attitude?

I think RM has been exercising a fair amount of restraint in not using the same level of demeaning language as you.

Now, for chiming in my 2 cents without being invited, I expect to get a shellacking, but if you don't then I'll certainly have a higher level of respect for you. But by the same token, you've posted in a public forum and as such, it's open to all who want to comment, and this is mine.

Summing up: Show more respect in your comments and impute a little more intelligence and forethought to the comments posted by others. It'll go a long way in your favor.

You're right of course, and I apologize.

You're right of course, and I apologize.

That was WAY more than I had hoped for. Very considerate. Thank you very much! I personally look forward to more posts from you.

Being a GM fan for so long, sometimes I do get a tad overzealous in setting facts straight. Just a lot of misinformation out there.

I truly understand the zeal!

However the criticism of the Volt is out there, I think it's still a good effort. Even if it's too expensive now it's good R&D that the industry needs. The Volt effort has been underway for 3+ years now, so it looks like it will be actually a well worked through platform.

Volt will remain a niche vehicle, just like all the other Hybrids. It will serve as an interesting technology demonstrator but I don't think it will ever take off. There are too many advances in economy being made by the newest batch of small cars. Cruze is supposed to get around 40MPG and honestly the difference between 40MPG and 60MPG (or whatever it is actually going to get) isn't great enough to justify the extra expenditure.

The truck & SUV market is the one place that Hybrids could really make a difference, but that is the one market they aren't being developed for.

To show the math.

Let's say you drive 20,000mi per year.

Your new car gets 40MPG. So you will use 500 gallons of gas. If gas is $4/gal you will spend $2000.

A Hybrid gets 60MPG. So you will use 334 gallons of gas, spending $1336. A savings of $664 over the regular car.

Your truck gets 18MPG. That is 1112 gallons of gas, or $4448.

A Hybrid truck gets 25MPG, That is 800 gallons of gas, or $3200. You save $1248 over the regular truck.

That is practically twice the savings of the car vs Hybrid car comparison... yet the Hybrid truck only gets 7MPG more than a traditional one where the Hybrid car gets 20MPG more than a traditional car.

Simply it is this... if you aren't using much gas in the first place you have to use a ton less for any savings to be apparent. If you use a lot of gas even a small difference can mean big $$$.

If all the Tahoes sold were Hybrids that would be a savings of around 1500 gallons of gas over a 100,000mi vehicle lifetime. There were 102,665 Tahoes sold in 2009. If they were all Hybrids that would have saved the USA over 153 million gallons of gas... and that is only a single model. What if we added all the Suburbans, Yukons, Escalades, Silverados, Sierras and Avalanches? The number would quickly jump into hundreds of billions of gallons saved.

Volt only truly makes sense when you don't use the onboard ICE. I believe, 60 mpg is the mileage when you run out of battery and the ICE has to charge the battery on the fly. But if you are within the battery range, which covers commute distances of a huge portion of the population, then you are purely electric. Which is very different from hybrids. Ans yes, those do not make financial sense unless driven a lot, such as taxis or other commercial vehicles.

But the ICE is the one part of Volt that matters. It is ultra-efficient b/c there is zero power loss to the wheels. We've been using the same concept in trains for years... I'm just amazed that it has taken until now for someone to apply it to a car.

I think the original reasoning behind volt is that most people can recharge it at night and commute without the ICE use. The ICE is a safety net for longer trips needed to address the range limit that is a common issue with purely electric platforms.

I think the original reasoning behind volt is that most people can recharge it at night and commute without the ICE use. The ICE is a safety net for longer trips needed to address the range limit that is a common issue with purely electric platforms.

Exactly. It's not meant to be driven like a regular car, you just have the capability to drive it like a regular car if need be. Most owners will use it to go to work, pick up the kids, and then charge up upon returning home.

Exactly. It's not meant to be driven like a regular car, you just have the capability to drive it like a regular car if need be. Most owners will use it to go to work, pick up the kids, and then charge up upon returning home.

Well, yes and no.

The advantage to Volt is that it can be driven like a regular car instead of an electric "glorified golf cart".

A lot of electric cars are meant to be commuter vehicles for rich greenies. They can buzz around on their daily commute and not use a drop of gas, but they've got a regular car if they decide to take the family to the lake house for the weekend.

However with Volt you don't need to have another car because it can handle long-range trips.

I am still concerned about the unaddressed taxation issue with purely electric vehicles. If you aren't using any gas you aren't paying gas taxes, which go to fund road maintenance. I don't believe it is right for the rest of the public to pay taxes on roads that everyone drives while a certain percentage of people get to dodge them. Believe me when I say the government will get their money one way or another... and as fuel economy standards and the use of electric vehicles rise over the next 20 years a new taxation system will be put into place to compensate for dwindling gasoline tax revenues. Y'all better watch who you vote for very carefully or we could all end up with a big bill at the end of every year when big brother decides to put a tracking device in our cars and charge us by the mile.