Chevy Volt to test this spring

General Motors announced Thursday that it will begin testing for its electric rechargeable car, the Chevy Volt, in spring 2008.

The lithium-ion battery packs planned for the Chevy Volt should be ready as soon as October 2006, Bob Lutz, GM's global product chief, told Reuters.

The company still maintains that the Chevy Volt it introduced at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show will be ready for sale by late 2010.

The company also announced Monday it has signed another contract with battery manufacturer A123Systems to help it develop the lithium-ion battery cells for its E-Flex electric drive train.

GM already has contracts with other major battery technology companies and suppliers.

Korean-based LG Chem is working on battery packs with cells provided from its subsidiary Compact Power. Continental Automotive Systems is working on a battery pack using the cells developed by GM and A123Systems. All four of the companies are working toward the goal of making GM an affordable, powerful and long-range rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

It's unknown at this point which battery technology will ultimately make it into the Chevy Volt.

GM's electric competitors have already announced their testing plans. Toyota's household plug-in has been approved for public road testing in Japan with plans to apply for U.S. approval. And Ford has started a program to test hybrid plug-in vehicles with Southern California Edison in California, the company announced in early July.

[michael4658]

so. its an ugly camaro.

Looks like all the originality of Chevy has coughed up another
mediocre attempt to "WOW" us.

[angelfast]

On Cars

I know very well that car maintenance is the first concern for the car buyers. Whether you own a sedan car, SUV, sports car or a luxury vehicle you would normally seek assurance that car parts, its exterior and interior accessories, body kits, car spoilers, billet grilles, wheels, rims etc are freely available. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, General Motors, BMW, Ford and many car manufacturers have taken care of this need of their customers. While purchasing car parts price of the OEM car parts has always been as issue. High priced car parts scare away the car parts buyers in spite of the fact the OEM car parts offer reasonable duration of warranty and after sales service and replacement options. Buying of aftermarket car parts, on the hand, is a very good option. The low priced aftermarket car part,arp head bolts, billet grille; car spoilers or even Honda seat belt have extended ease to the buyers. They can no buy aftermarket car parts for the sake of maintaining their cars and obtaining a longer useful service.

[Unmindfulawe]

Psst. Candace

I think when you wrote "should be ready as soon as October 2006," you meant to write October 2007. Lol. Either that or Bob Lutz has lost his perception of time.

[theBike45]

I'm first in line

Street testing of two prototypes, each with different candidate battery pack, begins in October and offical GM acceptance testing begins in Spring. In June decision will be made as to battery supplier or suppliers (both companies may be tapped to supply batteries). Lutz proclaims 2010 launch date "firm" for both Chevy , Saturn and Opel versions of the E-Flex platform. Front wheels/suspension will be move rearward to avoid collision damages. Otherwise only minor changes to the styling of the VOLT, which has broken records for positive responses for a GM concept car - the public is demanding no changes.
GM website has received multi-million number of hits for the VOLT. They are expecting a million sales with a few years. Looks like no competition from any other automakers for awhile - Toyota todday did a 180 and now says that their Prius
plug-in won't arrive until 2011, if then. It's not known if it will ahve a proper plug-in desing (like the VOLT) , or be a cheap cobbling of their current Prius.

[flipper0548]

How do you get to test the Volt?

any idea how you apply to get a test version.

[lingsun]

It's a joke. Nobody will care.

It's a joke. Nobody will care. GM is just doing this to look good to the loony left.