General Motors is currently working on the production of the Chevrolet Volt so that the vehicle would be ready by the year 2010. The Volt is an all-electric car which will be the answer of the world’s largest car manufacturer to the growing demand for cleaner cars. Reuters reported that GM is already working on plans to produce a working prototype by the end of this year. Bob Lutz, the product chief and Vice Chairman for GM, said that the car maker has already set a target for production of the Chevrolet Volt in 2010.
The soon to be mass produced electric car will be based on the concept vehicle that General Motors unveiled in January of this year. While the auto maker has already set a target for the production of the vehicle, there are still some problems in the design that they need to work on. Lutz said that they are more corned about whether lithium-ion batteries can be developed while keeping the cost of production down so as to make it affordable for car buyers. Another concern that Lutz pointed out is whether these lithium-ion batteries can power a vehicle safely. The car maker is already taking steps to address the said issues. General Motors will take an unusual step with regards to the development process of the Volt – they will open the development process to the media.
Aside from the aforementioned issue that needs to be addressed, Lutz is still not certain that the company will be able to attain their goal. “We’ve set an integral target production in 2010. Whether we can make that or not, this is still kind of an unpredictable program for us”, Lutz said.
It can be remembered that the concept car was showcased in the Detroit Auto Show last January this year. At the said event, General Motors made known to the public their plans for the all-electric vehicle. During that motor show though, GM did not announce a set production timeline. As a result, critics questioned the effort of GM to produce an electric car. Some went on to say that General Motors is not really going to mass produce the vehicle and is only interested in the amount of attention that the concept vehicle has generated.
In response to these allegations, Lutz said that: “Competitors who writes this of as a PR exercise are going to be brutally surprised.” It is well documented that cleaner cars have had strong acceptance and support from the public, and that is reason enough for an auto maker to produce an all-electric vehicle. If and when the Volt hit showrooms, we can only expect that it will have the same high quality performance of other GM cars.
