Get real, the "Volt" (which is a great vehicle name) won't appear in 2008. The big-3 tread lightly on alternative energy autos. Just consider how much money Ford loses on each Hybrid Escape produced. Probably the reason that the big-3 just begged the gov't for 1/2 billion alternative energy R&D handout.

It really depends on what UAW has to say in 2007 contract next summer. If UAW makes unreasonable demands, then the Volt will be shelved. We are not gonna reward UAW too much. GM has demonstrated that it can make hot cars but it has demonstrated that it can thwart UAW at every turn. Shareholders are fed up and tired of infightings between UAW and managements. It isnot easy to blame whose fault it was. I just wish that UAW go away. UAW are flush with too much goodies. Look at $100 billion pension fund for UAW retirees. Even the govt say that GM need to fluff upthe pension fund for UAW by another 20 billion bucks. Hey, what about shareholders??? We got cut and cut and cut off. We are shyingaway from GM. The best minds dont want towork at GM . What you got is Wagoneer . Is he the best guy GM can get? NO way , dude!! Now back to Volt, Wagoneer says that he needs to get safe ltihium ion batteries developed before he can give go ahead. Why wait for that? Why not go ahead withthe old fashioned andproved lead acid batteries for the time being?? I just dont understand. I like Volt because it is much simpler to operate. Less complex!! No need to warm up. Turn key on and GO !!! Or telepathy it on and GO!!

The Volt is simply a huge chuckle! GM has no option but to move ahead on development of more fuel efficient cars but dont count on them doing it in your lifetime. The US auto shops are running on fumes; they know it and the public refuses to give them a break because they run lousy businesses badly and build cars that do not appeal to our requirements. Yesterday we saw one news story about GM asking the feds for a subsidy on their fancy battery for the volt. Hawk! Did Toyota run whining to the Japanese Diet with cup-in-hand? Heck no, they worked with one of their suppliers to design, develop and manufacture it on their joint dime. No, GM and Ford are in deep trouble and need to move at warp speed on their own dimes if they are to bring a high mileage, environmentally capable car to market. It cannot be some whizzy speedster either; it must be a new "peoples car" like the VW was. Most folks are after transportation at a reasonable price.

The concept is sound, the problem is that GM is not a battery manufacturer. This country is great for innovation but the tax structure and the idiots in Washington don't care about anything but sucking the life out of any entity that makes money. We could devise a better battery that would make this work but the design will be stolen by off shore manufacturers that "our" government won't bother to stop.

To Moe, Toyota IS the Japanese government. Are you so foolish as to think that anything Japanese is perfect and anything American is flawed? Toyota is a result of protectionism and the proof that the term "free trade" is failure.

GM hasn't called the VOLT an electric car to my knowledge, probably for the simple reason that it's a serial hybrid. Ah, well, the general media can always be counted on to not know enough about new technologies even to know what to ask. So far 20 different media reports have shown plenty of discrepancies about this story, everyone wanting to tie this into the story of the piece of crap EV1, which died a deserved death in 2002, after being on life support for 5 years.
The VOLT is everything that the EV1 wasn't - it can
actually travel to destinations beyond 40 miles, but
then, that's because it's a HYBRID car.
No one here seems aware that the Japanese are apparently ahead of us in the race for a cheap effective battery. We lose that race and the UAW can fold up its shop and send its exorbitantly priced labor down to the unemployment office where they can
find a job in keeping with their talents - MacDonalds
is hiring these days, I believe. Also Wal-Mart.
Thanksto Chris Paine for his fictitious "Who Killed theElectric Car?" documentary that strangely left out the fact that both Touota and Honda build and then cancelled electric car prorams, Honda before GM and Toyota coincident with the EV1. Not so strange apparently, since it has come to light that Paine
extorted promises from Toyota in return for writing Toyota out of the history of the electric car. Paine's apparently not only a liar and a fool, but a sleazebag as well. Well, you get one, you usually get the other.

I like the volt, and I believe it will do very well when they launch. And, it is in everyones best interests to help with those batteries.

The individual complaining about government helping industry on something as critical as energy does not see the big picture. As we speak thousands of young americans are dieing, tens of thousands are being maimed for life, never mind the hundreds of billions spent and the reality is no small part of that is because someone wanted to do an oil grab in the mid east. Our nation seriously needs vehicles like the volt being built and purchased in very large quantities. Fortunately we put some people in congress who will help with that, and in 2008 the rest of the corrupt oil company bought and paid for republicans will be booted out so we can really make some progress.

I believe anyone that thanks a change is not in the air needs to look around. GM. has to change its mind set if not on there own GM. well be force to. and they have seem to have done just that, do to other motor companys braking ground. Its just the beginning. Just take a look WWW.Teslamotors.com Its flag ship is sold out. Remeber when we had to type with a typewritor, time as come to move up.

This car will be it! Heralding the next generation of hybrids..more electric than hybrid. The batteries will arrive the car will be produced and people will buy it, and maybe we'll help save the planet from frying.
There is a new GM volt enthusiast website:
http://www.gm-volt.com

If it has an ICE it's NOT an EV!!!!! There's NO reason it needs an ICE. It could recharge it's own batteries by numerous available technologies.
It's a pseudo-green machine. Get rid of the ICE!!!

Plug-in-hybrid-vehicles (PHEV) ARE THE FUTURE ! Don't you people get it ? Plug hybrids use existing infrastructure and existing fuel supplies. In the aftermath of an ice storm or hurricane a PHEV can power YOUR WHOLE HOUSE until the power companies can get things sorted out. Do you people want to continue sending our young people to die in oil wars. We need to yank the rug out from under the middle east by not needing and buying their oil. WE ARE FUNDING BOTH SIDES OF THE WAR ! If all passengers cars in America were hybrids and half of all hybrids were PHEV's our nations addiction would go from fourteen million barrels of oil a day to EIGHT. That's still too much but it's also more than half and believe that is HUGE. Anything we can do stop bowing down to the arabs I am all for.

If I dont see progress soon on EV cars by GM, I will personally start installing EV conversions on cars for people for just a little over the price of the components. We need to seriously need to force the car companies to do something so we can stop getting taken for a ride everytime we fill up, as well as to be able to gain our independence on foreign fuels.