A few less amps in the Volt?

Published Jan. 28, 2009 at 3:23 p.m.
It'll be a winner, but when?

I'm a big fan of the Chevy Volt. I think it's one of GM's most interesting projects in decades. Unfortunately, that isn't necessarily saying much. Yet, while the Volt has great potential, I still cannot help but ask when will the Volt be a real game changer, because it certainly isn't in late 2010 when the vehicle launches.

GM has been pretty frank about the fact that the Volt isn't going to be rolling off production lines by the thousands every month in 2011. In fact, in 2011, GM might only make a few 1,000 Volts. 100,000 Volts per year is easily five years away, perhaps even much longer.

Yesterday, Frank Weber, a Flex Drive executive wrote "The Opel Ampera and Chevrolet Volt are production programs designed to meet the needs of thousands of customers, not a modified production vehicle for fleet or demo drives. "

Is the key word from that statement "thousands" of customers?

Without doubt, the Volt is an essential piece of GM's future, but is it really enough today if Obama's green revolution takes hold amidst stable gas prices? With California's EPA waiver?

The Volt should never have been an excuse not to challenge the Toyota Prius directly as soon as possible, and that decision, I bet, is going to come back and bite GM's bottom line - if it hasn't already.


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