Once you realize that pretty much everything around you, no matter how seemingly small and insignificant, has a story behind it, the world becomes much more interesting. Your car is packed full of parts with good stories behind them (the tragic tale of Sir Nathan Airfilter comes to mind) but the one I'd like to talk…

The Cadillac ELR, Caddy's more upmarket version of the Chevy Volt, will be officially debuting mid-January at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show. Of course, they couldn't resist leaking a little teaser image.

Yesterday we reported on a Reuters story that suggested that GM was losing about $40,000 on every Volt sold. But that number is pretty deceptive, and doesn't take into account the overall picture.

The Electra King was a line of electric city cars made in Long Beach, CA from 1963-1980 something. There's one in my neighborhood I've always admired, and I finally got the chance to drive it. It's not a "good" car, by any standard, and the score reflects that. But I sure as hell like it. A lot.

WXYZ, the local Detroit ABC affiliate, reports that there has been an explosion at a battery lab facility on the campus of GM's Technical Center in Warren. Two people have been injured and were taken to nearby hospitals and all employees have been evacuated from that building.

Sales of the Chevy Volt remain so weak that even with higher gas prices, GM had to shut production down for five weeks. Compare that to the brand new compact Toyota Prius C, which outsold a month's worth of Volts and Nissan Leafs in just three days. Beware the Ides of March.

Chevy's new ad for the Volt plug-in hybrid does something that might be a first in a national car commercial: It uses the word "crap."

General Motors has told 1,300 employees at the automaker's Detroit Hamtramck plant they will be temporarily laid off for five weeks as the company halts production of the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera.

One gun-totin' Chevy Volt owner responded to Newt Gingrich's claim that "you can't put a gun rack in a Volt" in the best way possible. He built a gun rack and put it in his own Volt, just to prove Gingrich wrong.

With NHTSA's closure of the investigation into the Chevy Volt, General Motors is now trying to rebuild the plug-in hybrid's image. But a new stumbling block has appeared on the road to higher sales — dealers turning down Volts from GM.