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Channel 7 WXYZ, Detroit's ABC affiliate, managed to capture President Obama's auto task force driving the plug-in Chevy Volt mule during their visit to GM's suburban Detroit Technical Center today. More »
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President Obama's auto task force will drive a Chevy Volt test mule during a visit to GM's Technical Center in Detroit tomorrow to help decide if the company deserves more federal loans. [GM-Volt via AP] More »
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The Opel Ampera had its coming out party a wee bit early for the Geneva Motor Show. Don't fret, our European breathren, your emo-ecomobile is here and we've got all the photos, and details below. More »
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GM has officially unveiled the Opel Ampera, Europe's version of the Chevy Volt. In a reversal of usual practice, the Ampera is mechanically identical to its American cousin but is much better looking. More »
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Our friends over at World Car Fans managed to snag shots of the Opel Ampera Concept completely naked during a photo shoot prior to its official debut at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. More »
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We saw an ultra-dark teaser of the Volt-based Opel Ampera and now, thanks to the leaky European Union Patent Office, we get the full picture of this very Voltastic electric Opel. More »
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Most interest in the 2011 Chevy Volt has until now been directed at the battery and drivetrain. Now GM is looking to work with communities to make sure they're ready with plug-in power. More »
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When we showed you the first Chevy Volt pictures from the set of the new Transformers movie, we all wondered what character GM’s little earth-saving electric car would be. Well, his name is "Jolt." More »
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Rumors of tomorrow's "important changes" at GM have approached a fevered pace, but the latest one we've heard is coming directly from someone who's directly related to someone who could be directly affected if the rumor is true. So, it must be true, right? Anyway, we've just been told by the family of a Chevy Volt engineering team member that not only is the untouchable Volt program on hold, GM's even letting some of the engineering team, aka "the chosen people," go. Hit the jump for the full rumor. UPDATE: One PR source is telling us this morning that the Volt program is definitely not on hold and another is telling us all options are still on the table. We guess we'll find out later today. UPDATE #2: We're now being told, more vigorously this time, that there's no plan to cut the program. More »
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Ever wonder what the plug-in unit for the Chevy Volt looks like? Well now you know. Here at the Paris Motor Show the display car is tethered to the very slanted display stand by way of extension cord and locking plug-in mechanism. The power port is, as expected, hidden behind the "Volt" name plate ahead of the mirrors, though we expected it would flip up, apparently the plate slides forward. Pretty trick-looking if you ask us. More »
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Edmunds Inside Line is reporting the Chevy Volt apparently doesn't use the engine to recharge its batteries while driving, going against what every media outlet — CNBC, the buff books and every web site including this one — have reported as fact for the past two years. Confusion apparently stems from a press release issued when the concept version of the Chevy Volt was first revealed in 2007 indicating: More »
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Thanks to the folks at GM-Volt.com, you can now not only see the Chevy Volt slowly moving on a GM road course, you can see it with a soundtrack! Yes friends, a spaceship-like sedan apparently deserves Coldplay, as its spacey sprocket of an unofficial musical accompaniment. Check it out below the jump and tell us in the comments how long you were able to watch before the music became too annoying to bear any longer. We made it nine seconds. More »
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Yesterday's reveal of the production Chevy Volt got us thinking we should take a closer look at the design features, both inside and out, that make GM's plug-in hybrid unique. We've picked out five exterior and an equal number of interior design elements we feel are most important, and taken a little deeper look at each. Without further ado, hit the jump for our top ten key design elements that make the Volt so...eclectically electric. More »
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At GM's "blogger town hall" at the end of yesterday's Chevy Volt unveil, the General's Vice Chairman and product czar, "Maximum" Bob Lutz, made mention to a Volt feature we hadn't yet heard about, and is even more techie-cool than the iPod-like interface on the center stack. Apparently, the Volt will "know how far you are from home" using what we're assuming is an on-board GPS system. The plug-in electric extended range hybrid's computer will then use that distance, along with route information, to determine how long the car needs to run the gas engine to charge the on-board battery pack, allowing the vehicle to truly maximize fuel economy. Even if you're not drinking the GM Kool-Aid, you've got to be wow'ed by a system like that — as long as it actually works. Read the full quote from "The" Bob after the galleries and the jump below. More »
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The finale of GM's centennial celebration today was the official reveal of the production 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the first official plug-in hybrid production vehicle from a major auto manufacturer. Details are slim, but what we know is this — GM calls it an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV), it has a top speed of 100 mph and 40 miles on all-electric based on the EPA city cycle. The rest of what we know, plus the official press release, are below the jump. More »
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An aspiring designer at GMInsideNews has taken it upon himself to restyle the Chevy Volt, responding to criticism that the plug-in corporate savior is a bit on the bland side. Aside from applying a selection of questionable hues to the Volt, he sketched in "lightning bolt zigzag style headlights" in an effort to give the design some teeth. The beltline has also been jacked into a pseudo-G6 high-rise tribute, resulting in an effort that's arguably more derivative than the prevealed Volt we've already seen. What do you think? Full renderings in technicolor goodness after the jump. More »
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The Line on the Inside at Edmunds has cobbled together a series of quotes allowing them to say what they think without actually saying what they think: The 2010 Chevy Volt is ugly. Quoting Jane Nakagawa of their own Edmunds AutoObserver, they bust on the Volt pretty hard, calling it "a huge disappointment" and "completely unacceptable." Harsh. If the "leaked images of the Volt" with their recklessly unflattering photo angles are to be believed, the Volt may be ugly, but we'll reserve judgment until we see it in the flesh tomorrow morning during the live unveil at the Renaissance Center. [Edmunds InsideLine] More »
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Remember when the first shots of the Chevy Volt dropped yesterday? It was like a pinup calendar of hunky GM engineers; you could barely see the car itself for their chiseled features and toothy grins. Well here’s the Volt de-hunkified, courtesy of Edmunds Inside Line. We’re still waiting for Edmunds to call us back, so we don’t know if GM slid them this shot under the table or if they spent hours photoshopping all the man-on-Volt action out. Either way, this is the Volt as it will be when it’s officially unveiled later this week. More »
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Set to debut later this week, the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid electric vehicle has hit the web courtesy of some photos posted by The Car Connection. These images show what is said to be the production model posing with GM's hunkiest designers and executives, building on some teaser shots of the Volt already revealed. More information as it becomes available. More »
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Carscoop is reporting that inside sources tell them the production version of the Chevy Volt will join the Chevy Cruze, along with an unidentified Chevy concept vehicle, at the Paris Motor Show next month. That would mark the first show appearance for the Volt, which is expected to be revealed to the press on Tuesday, September 16. GM has been slowly revealing bits and pieces of the plug-in electric hybrid for months now; we recently told you about GM's plans to have at least 50 prototypes running around metro Detroit by the end of the year, so seeing a Volt up close shouldn't be too tough after Paris. [Carscoop] More »
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The video and images of a Chevy Volt on the set of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen showed a car very similar to the Volt that GM has been lifting the skirt on. But now GM is saying the dark-blue car is "not the final version at this stage." GM spokesman Rob Peterson told Inside Line that it is "representative of the production vehicle," which makes sense as we've now learned that this prop is just a re-bodied Malibu. Though it should be noted that he wasn't even aware the car was out in California on the movie set. More »
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This new video may not be the clearest shot we've seen of the 2010 Chevy Volt, Corvette Centennial Concept, or any of the other GM product-placement-bots on the set of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, but what it does bring to the table is behind-the-scenes commentary from real fanboys. The Transformers geeks inform us that Bumblebee, also known as "that muthafuka riiight there," is "the shiiit." You just can't get this kind of insight anywhere else. [via Transformers.MovieChronicles] More »
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The 2010 Chevy Volt has been a landmark project not only for its daring powertrain and breakneck development cycle, but also for GMs general openness with the media during the process. Along the way we've been invited in to see the development first hand, even spending a whole day with the Chevy Volt. But despite the buddy-buddy, easy-publicity PR maneuvering, up until the wee hours of this morning, we still didn't know what it looked like. Now that we've seen it in all but minute detail, it's time to compare the concept against the reality. More »
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We all knew the Chevy Volt was going to be a big deal. We knew it was going to be very carefully designed. And, thanks to a well-placed camera, we now have 2010 Chevy Volt video and images. Though we care about the powertrain, powersource and performance, this thing has to look the part, too. And that's the question: does it look the part? More »
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UPDATE #2: Check out our shots of the new Chevy Volt from the live reveal today in Detroit! UPDATE: The Chevy Volt's been revealed — a little bit early — in living color and not just merely in the grainy cellphone camera video we've got in this post! Here it is kids: our first look at a 2010 Chevy Volt, complete and in-motion on the set of the still-in-production Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. We got a glimpse at the upper half of the Chevy Volt earlier this evening, but this is the whole enchilada: tail end, blacked-out roof, front end, and even the final Volt badge on the back. There happen to be other cars doing their thing, like the Corvette Centennial Design Concept, and of course the Chevy Camaro and Optimus Prime, but who cares? We finally get to see the skin of revolutionary car we can't get for at least another year and a half for an indeterminate price! Yay! Oh, wait... More »
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It appears the top half of the 2010 Chevy Volt has been photographed on-set at the filming of the new Transformers 2 movie, and it gives away a lot of the styling cues which have been hidden from view up until now. The front of the greenhouse on the production Chevy Volt bears little resemblance to the concept, with smooth A-pillars, and a sweeping roof line. The side glass gets a more traditional, and actually quite appealing, shape. The tail definitely takes inspiration from the original, though. More »
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These shots of a production Chevy Volt interior have leaked from a GM internal presentation. Immediately apparent is the glossy white iPod-esque IP with flip-up nav/charge status display. There’s also a prominent center-mounted computer-like on/off button, but we don’t know if this will start the car or just the computer system. The 2011 Chevy Volt will be GM's first plug-in hybrid and a huge risk for the company; so does this interior make the grade? More »
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GM's just sent us two new photos of the production version of the 2011 Chevy Volt. While the first of the two shots doesn't show much more than what we saw when ABC News lifted the skirt last weekend, the second one shows us the big bowtie on the rear end of the new gasoline-electric sled from GM's American Revolution. Check out the high-resolution shots in the gallery below. We're also being told GM will have 50 prototypes running around on the highways and byways of Metro Detroit doing testing by the end of the year. Hmm, maybe this whole Volt thing's actually going to happen. Update: We just got our hands on some images of the ongoing work at the Warren Tech Center at on the clay model and chassis of the Volt. More »
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We all know the story on the 2011 Chevy Volt by now — inline hybrid, electric motors, giant T-shaped lithium ion battery, 40 mile all-EV range, late 2010 debut date and "on-board range extender." Well, we didn't know so much about that last one until now. GM is confirming the same 1.4-liter in-line four-cylinder set for duty in the Chevy Cruze will be doing the electricity-generating duties for the Volt. More »
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The Financial Times brings news that GM is studying Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant on Merseyside as a European production base for what will be known stateside as the Chevy Volt. Easy jokes about an all-electric British-manufactured car aside, this news comes contrary to earlier reports that Volt production would be centered solely in Hamtramck, MI. So, how can Ellesmere Port lock down Volt production? Easy: Government subsidies! More »
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At this week's Plug-In 2008 convention (now that sounds hard-core) GM is working with 30 utility companies and consumer groups to develop a strategy for how the Chevy Volt will work in the real world. Among the high points are what kind of tax incentives early adopters will get, and how exactly plugging the cars in at night will work. With GM diligently working on the engineering details, efforts are now turning to the workings of the world into which they will birth their automotive messiah. More »
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Following word this morning the production version of the Chevy Volt will be shown in September, we hear the rocking-down-electric-avenue Lutz-mobile will also be featured in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. More »
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GM is accelerating development of the 2010 Chevy Volt in an attempt to ready the production version for a reveal as the company celebrates its 100th anniversary in September. Although we know GM desperately needs a cutting-edge Prius-killing success to stem the sales slide, given past RenCen rush jobs, we're not sure that setting a time deadline instead of a performance benchmark is the best way to move forward. A look at potential pitfalls after the jump. More »
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GM's design guru "Maximum" Bob Lutz lobbed out $40,000 as yet another price for the 2011 Chevy Volt. Lutz's comments, made when speaking to the Seattle Times were that the Volt would retail for about $40,000 and generate no profit for GM. Wow. Last we heard, the Volt would be selling for $30,000. Or course, since the car is still pretty far off, you've gotta expect some slight fluctuation in price. But who knew Bob would be keeping us abreast of every internal change — like some sort of weather vane of Volt pricing? More »
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We were beginning to think GM had developed a masterpiece of long-range marketing with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt program. Let reporters in every once in a while, strategically leak images while actually showing nothing, all the while keeping a late-2010 entry on the lips of every eco-dork in the motoring press. Let them build the buzz for you! Genius. However, with Slick Rick's statement that we'll be getting a look at the production sheetmetal for the Volt, we wonder if they've made a strategic error. What it looks like is practically the only thing we don't know about the car. More »
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While the 2011 Chevy Volt is proceeding down the path from vaporware to successful range testing to production ready, its price seems to remain stubbornly in the land of the lost. The original goal was to have it on the road for around $30,000, in April, Maximum Bob dropped the bomb saying the price may come in at $48k. Well, Minimum Rick seems to be following his "Wait a month and clean up after Bob" modus operandi yet again. Wagoner, who definitely gives a shit about global warming, is now saying the Volt may actually come in below the original target. More »
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UPDATE: The 2011 Chevy Volt's been officially UN-officially revealed! According to the General's vice-main-man and product czar "Maximum" Bob Lutz, the Chevy Volt's litihum-ion battery is no longer the biggest worry for the Volt program. While a decision hasn't yet been made on an official supplier for what they're terming the "T-Pack" — it's still a coin-flip away from being either Continental or CPI — the packs installed in the Malibu panel-covered Volt mule seem to be delivering the promised 40-mile all-EV range. Keep in mind, this is installed in a late-model Malibu test mule, without the correct drive unit doing the work. Given the November 2010 production target for making this a 2011 Chevy Volt isn't getting any further away, news like this is probably going to be dropped into the General's "Good" category. [GM-Volt.com] More »
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UPDATE: The Chevy Volt Forum's got pictures from inside the design studio of the interior and a GM artists render of the front. Hit the jump to see it in all of its graininess. - Second update: now with a front end picture!Something we didn't tell you yesterday was that while we were in attendance at the GM event yesterday, we pulled out our cell phone to check a text message we'd just received. Immediately, GM PR was on top of us, confiscating the phone because it had a camera on it. OK, we could deal with that — we understood they didn't want the scoop to get out that we'd just seen both the first test mule of the Chevy Volt electric car (dressed up in the skin of a late model Chevy Malibu) and a scale model of what the actual Volt will look like when it hits the road in two years. But apparently some pigs are more equal than other at these embargoed and supposedly confidential press events. WWJ Radio's Jeff Gilbert has posted video of the battery lab and the wind tunnel we described from yesterdays Chevy Volt event at GM. We don't know how he got out of there alive with it, we don't know why GM officials weren't all over him for filming this and we don't know what the ramifications will be. But seriously though, who knew a radio reporter could be so sneaky, anyway? Kudos to Jeff on his liberation of the video. However, although we won't be the first ones to break embargoes, we also won't be the third. Without further ado, the video above tells the story we saw better than the words out of our fingertips. More »
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