This could have been done long ago. Had
GM not discouraged production of the electric earlier, they would be in the catbird seat. The deserve what they get for that very poor business decision.

I pray to God that the Volt does not fail! I believe if the big 3 go under, America is not only in a recession but a depression.

My mother makes the plastics that go into GM cars, and my dad had a high paying job at GM. If it goes under, they both lose their jobs. He might be able to get a job at Toyota, but they pay their people half compared to the big 3.

Also if they go under, I bet the the foreing car makers will find it cheaper to make their cars in Mexico and China. This is not speculation-its a fact that Japan does not like paying American employees so much(an email from a Japanese board member was discovered several months ago that stated this)

the reason GM stopped working on their electric car in the 90s was that their was no market for it.
The American consumer decided to kill the electric car(not GM!!!)

If they would have started research on the electric car later--maybe they would have come up with it just in time for the Gas prices going up after 9-11-01!!

GM is 30 years late to the market place. Slick Rick worked for GM after the first oil shortage and saw Brazil move away from oil based fuel. Now he is the CEO and did not learn a thing. We are a country of FOOLS to think things will change until all oil based fuels are gone and only then will this country change. Big Money has always controlled POLITICS, MANUFACTURING, & WALL STREET. What makes you think four more years with TWO MAVERICK'S running the same show will change a thing? Ask yourself one thing. How far is it form the BREAD BOX to THE BOLLOT BOX?

My question is, what will be the difference in price from plugging it into your electric to paying at the pump?

You can't blame the consumer for the failure of GM's EV-1. GM never offered it to many consumers (CA and AZ only) and they never offered to sell the cars to anyone; it was lease only.
Yes, the market would be small in any case, but it would have been a market they had virtually to themselves, and it would have done wonders to offset the "Hummer" image that they ended up with instead.
And they would have been at the forefront as the technology matured, instead of now trying to learn everything in a hurry.
Another bad call by GM.

Hey Gangsta, Toyota doesn't pay its employees half what GM does. Try doing some research.

The real history is that California demanded that GM develop and electric car to reduce smog. They did build it and at great expense. The car (mid 90's) was called the EV1. But the car had a limited battery range of only 60 miles. This bad idea for development of a pure electric car was forced onto them by California's CARB . Forced to make a car that they knew no one would buy, being too impractical with such short range.

But GM went back to CARB (California air resources board) and GM said "if we added a small gas engine/generator to recharge it on the go, the mileage could be extended and the car would become practical. The modification proposed is very much like the coming VOLT. GM did not kill the electric car. It was killed by CARB. CARB killed GM's hybrid car long before Toyota came out with the Prius.

CARB is still daydreaming asking for a totally GREEN car. Hydrogen dreams are still wet! Nobody has come close for an econmical method of Hydrogen Production nor a way it can be effectively distributed. CA does a a experimental Hydrogen highway. The fuel is made on site. How wonderful. The power comes from the grid. And most of that energy is from coal.

This country's economy is being destroyed by the insane insistence that we "get off oil addiction." It sounds so good and there is an erroneous belief that if you throw enough money at the quest you can make it happen. Wrong! Example: The US government funded MIT to make an airplane at the turn of 1900's. They couldn't do it. It was done by the Wright brothers, self taught engineers who made bicycles. Henry Ford, Edison etc., created Industries without government money or intrusion. Now Government intrusion is destroying these industries.

We will always need oil. It is fundamental to our standard of living. We must drill on the mainland (much faster access) or we will lighting our homes with candles again. Most don't know that burning of candles is a major pollutant! (So "put that in your pipe but don't smoke it!")

Just drive through New England along 95 and see all the idle smoke stacks. "Oh! No Problem! We are just shifting from a manufacturing economy to a Service Economy." What Harvard genius figured that out? We need to export stuff to bring wealth back here again. What's left to export? How about some of our natural resources "like OIL!" That will bring money back here.
Al of our industry had been chased away with an overzealous EPA and politicians that don't understand business.

"Good Government Should Be Small and Funny!" Maybe from the pieces after the crash.

The buying public determines what vehicles the manufactures build. The buyers have demanded big SUVs and pick-ups for years. The only ones who got in too late was Toyota and Nissan. They will never recap the tooling costs for their large trucks. If our government had import tarriffs like Japan and the rest of the world has on our goods we wouldn't be in the shape we are now! All you GM,Ford, and Chrysler haters better hope they stay in business! Besides my 2003 V8 Cadillac SLS gives me 26-30 mpg at 70 mph on 87 octane. Not to mention the safety and comfort.

Why blame the auto makers when it is the public who is at fault. Just drive on any highway and see the lunatics going 75 to 90 mph in their big suv's. Who going to drive these little cars when the big 425 cubic in engines are available and get 9 mpg. We are and probably always will be speed crazy, always wanting the fastest car in the neighborhood.You can build it, but will they come ?

you people have no clue what you are talking about. They stopped electric because they made money off oil companies. The VOLT is not fully electric either. So look it up and how its been changed