I was really concerned, for a while, that the production Volt would end up being a ridiculous joke of a car - the kind of vehicle that, all to often, gets shown in spectacular concept form in auto shows but is produced in a watered down way.

After seeing these photos though, I have to say that I'm getting excited about the Chevy Volt.

Aside from some very basic changes (hoodline, charging port location, and driving lamps), the production car looks about the same as the concept car. Yet more spectacularly, there are eight cars now undergoing scaled down fleet testing.

Chevy Volt Fleet Goes on Extended Road Test | GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

I don't think I'm the target demographic for this car. Regardless, I am very, very excited to see this car come to market - in the same way I'm excited when I see a new McLaren supercar being designed. I just know that the world is going to be a better place when I see a great US car company like GM continue to make this car a reality.

Despite the arguments against the "practicality" and the "carbon neutrality" of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (which have been argued ad nauseum elsewhere), the very fact that this car is designed to drive 40 miles on electric-only and have a gas-extended range of 300+ miles means we're that much closer to a future where I can commute to work an entire month without having to fill up my gas tank once. Heck - if I just use it to go back and forth to and from work - I wouldn't have to fill up my tank in a year.

Just as I was amazed when Toyota and Honda pushed the first hybrids to market, I'm doubly proud that it's an American company that's pushing this technology to market. It may have taken considerable layoffs and injections of large amounts of government money, but if that's what it takes, then so be it.

When it comes time to replace my Corolla, I'd be glad to take one of these:

 

I think GM is way to little to late. way over priced and back by a company not known for getting it right the first time .The Nissan leaf a all electric car in the test market that will cost 10 to 15 thousand less and u recharge at home., why buy a 40,000 hybrid when you can buy a Ford, Toyota are Honda and which did not take our monies(goverment) out of our pockets to sell us a overpriced car. NO more new gm/chrysler for me Ford are something else.

 

Get a tesla model s. Its a lot better looking car than that thing. Its also a seats 7 people and does 0-60 in 5.6 seconds.

 

So that's what our tax dollars built.

 

The Volt will be a giant leap for the consumer and GM. You go 40 miles and use no gas or you go 300 or 400 miles and get good gas milage on the way. The future generations of this car should be better and cheaper. Remember, you don't have to plug in after your electric range is exhausted, a gas engine kicks in to charge the electric power supply and you keep going down the road. You can't do that with an electric vehicle only.

Say what you want about GM, they made lots of mistakes, but remember that they made money for decades and paid taxes for decades. The high fuel costs did their profit makers in, Suburban, Tahoe and Silvarado. Now their cars and trucks now are as good as any in the market. I support them and my next vehicle will probably be GM.

 

The tesla goes 300 miles and not a drop of gas because you dont put gas in it.

 

i don't think i would buy a new GM or Chrysler in the future.

before you get too excited about the Volt, it might be important to consider what Gubbermint Motors might do to make the vehicle viable. the link sonoronus provides pretty much spells it out. in order for the Volt to succeed, and more importantly for GM to be able to charge more for it, the price of gasoline has to rise to over $4! it looks like the gov/fed will do what they can through dollar devaluation to ensure that oil gets back to $140 before too long to get the $4 gas. that in itself is plenty reason to hope the volt fails.