Special Coverage
New York Int’l Auto Show
NEW YORK – As General Motors Co. launches pre-production assembly of the Volt extended-range electric vehicle at its Hamtramck, MI, plant, Chevrolet announces a partnership with Con Edison, exclusive supplier of electricity to the Big Apple to promote electric transportation here at the New York auto show.
Previously, Chevrolet announced the Volt will go on sale at the end of this year in California, Michigan and Washington.
Chevrolet plans to deliver more than 100 Volts to 10 U.S. utilities, including Con Edison, as part of a demonstration program. A grant of more than $30 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds administered by the U.S. Department of Energy finances the program.
The first 80 Volts were hand-built in a Warren, MI, development facility. GM starting shifting the tooling from Warren to the Hamtramck plant in order to build several hundred Volts on a real assembly line, a spokesman says.
“We will ramp up to build several hundred before we get to production,” he says. The pre-production units will be used to fine tune the Volt's suspension, validate production tooling and generally get all the bugs out before production of customer cars starts.
The Volt's Job One date has yet to be announced, but the first production units are scheduled to be in dealer showrooms by the end of 2010.
