The first pre-production Chevy Volt "Integration Vehicle" was completed this week ahead of schedule. Looks like GM's putative four-wheeled electrified savior is getting closer to reality.
The Chevy Cruze-based development mules will slowly be replaced by these close-to-production Volt bodied prototypes, marking a huge leap forward in the step to electrified propulsion. GM's says that it will build up to 80 Volt prototypes for testing out on public road over by October which will help engineers sort out all the little issues with the vehicle before it goes on sale to the public.
Andrew Farah, GM's Chevy Volt Vehicle Chief Engineer wrote in a Volt blog post;
We're producing a few Volts per week now, but we'll quickly ramp up to 10 per week and will have approximately 80 pre-production vehicles built by October. By exceeding our own pre-production deadlines it allows us additional time to refine the vehicle. We've already discovered a few small tweaks we need to make, but nothing out of the ordinary for this stage of development.
With pre-production Volts now running around Metro Detroit, who's up for a game of Volt-spotting?