General Motors finally unveiled the long-anticipated production version of the Chevy Volt, the world’s most famous car that doesn’t exist yet.
Today, at 8:30AM Eastern Time, GM started its 100th birthday celebration. The Volt was officially unveiled at GM’s birthday party. You can watch the video of the anniversary at GMnext.com, a website dedicated to the carmakers anniversary celebration.
GM Chairman Rick Wagoner introduced the plug-in hybrid car in Detroit, a traditional looking 5-door compact sedan that has space for 4 passengers. The Chevy Volt is called and extended-range electric vehicle or E-REV, meaning the vehicle will run up to 40 miles on electricity from a 16-kWh lithium-ion battery pack that powers a 150-hp electric motor.
About 80 percent of Americans drive less than 40 miles per day, meaning a huge percentage of Volt buyers will hardly ever fill up the tank with gas, since they can just plug-in the car and recharge it every single night.
The Chevy Volt also features a 1.4-liter flex-fuel engine. The engine doesn’t drive the wheels, it only powers the generator that recharges the battery. GM estimates that it will cost about 2 cents per mile to drive while under battery power. By contrast, it calculates that people will pay approximately 12 cents per mile for gasoline at $3.60 a gallon. The Volt will also go up to 100 miles per hour, and reach 0-60 in about nine seconds.
The price of the Chvey Volt is not set yet. According to GM, the Volt will cost somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000. According to many, the price will be around $35,000 after tax rebates.
GM has plans on selling a few hundred Volt’s in the fourth quarter of 2010 and about 60,000 in 2012.
What do you think about the Chevy Volt? Do you think it’s worth the money? Please let us know in the comment section!
Thank you for the nice words!
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The problem with setting expectations so high is that when they aren’t met, the ‘fall’ often ends up being just as big as the hype.
I’m really sorry that Chevrolet don’t get it.The buyers or looking for a newer look
like the volt concept car not what we alreally have.
Sorry, I had great anticipation for this car and was so looking forward to it’s release because I just loved the one that they were showing on tv. Now that they have destroyed the looks of the car, by making it look like any other foreign car, I’m not interested anymore. Thanks but no thanks.
I think it’s ugly. The concept looked promising, but this looks like a Prius on steroids, and putting something that’s intended to look cute on steroids is not a good thing.
And the inside is just ridiculous. That shiny white dash will be reflective as hell, bad both in bright sunshine and darkness with reflections on it. It also looks like it was designed by someone who got fired from apple, and rightfully so.