The "Volt" is a joke...at best.

The all electric car GM put out 11 YEARS AGO; the EV1, was better than this projection for 2010!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSBykAngDpY

As far as the future goes; the Tesla framework is IT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOl_1S10jTk&feature=related

GM is utterly perversely insane in its policy of sabotaging efficient sensible transportation in order to maintain the delusion of a status quo that is objectively unsustainable.

Meanwhile; the Prius exists NOW! And it has CVT and it gets 60 MPG NOW! And it costs less than 25k NOW!!!

Popular Science has sold it's soul doing these Volt PR puff pieces for a few bucks of advertising space.

If/When GM ever REALLY decides to leapfrog the rest of the world; it'll use cutting edge tech and build a real plug-in electric that has a 200 mile range and that can re recharged in less than 10 minutes...and that car can be built "by the end of 2010" and mass produced within a year of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KizHjy4U2vs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Zv5RFgmWY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tySUZgV7cLE

America needs a crash program akin to what we did after Pearl Harbor so that we can ELIMINATE our need for ANY imported oil!!!

Further; American companies have the potential to take back the American market from the Japanese.

We can build better and cheaper cars HERE than shipping them across half the planet!

Robotics and AI can trump the de facto slave labor of places like China.

The tech is here now and only getting better!!!

Enough with the pathological stick in the mud stance GM!!! Do the right thing for America AND for your shareholders. Design and build cheap sustainable fuel efficient clean vehicles!!!

KICK ASS!!!

Wha? Thanks for the rant and the youtube references. Very trustworthy sources.

Okay, first of all, the EV1 and EV2 were prohibitively expensive for mass production. In 2003, I was a fast food worker in upstate New York. One of our regulars was a Saturn tech who drove an EV2. I had the chance to discuss the vehicle with him one evening. At the time, they were available for LEASE ONLY in Arizona and California. If they were for sale, the tech told me, they would cost well over $100,000 apiece. I asked him for a brochure (which I still have) which detailed the amazing amount of research and technology that went into these vehicles -- the shape of the vehicle, the weight-reducing measures, even custom tires that reduced drag. This kind of groundbreaking research costs money, LOTS of money, something that apparently most people think GM has an infinite supply of. Furthermore, the average person cannot be expected to pay the full cost of ownership for one of these advanced machines.

Secondly, the EV1 and EV2 were produced to show the world a fully electric car was possible, but at the time, it was not economically feasible. GM did not "kill" its electric car, and I can't believe so many smart people have bought into that propaganda. It will come back in another more realistic form that most people can afford, like the Chevy Volt. It's not a joke. It's the future. Let's support companies that dare to make such bold advances instead of deriding them.

Japanese companies did not capture the market with hybrid or green cars. They captured the market with high tech efficiencies and building to exact tolerances that increased the lifespan of its vehicles and this translated to a much better deal for the consumer. GM is bloated with union demands and financial baggage that undermine GM's ability to compete. Until then every car GM puts on the market, green or otherwise will be a poor excuse especially when compared to foreign manufactured cars. Do not expect anything earth shattering from GM.