The 60,000 Volt Question

If there is any doubt that GM is serious about PHEVs, here is one more story that indicates that they are indeed very serious.

GM Could Reportedly Produce 60,000 Plug-in Hybrids in 2010

Source: GreenBiz.com

by Jeff Green at Bloomberg

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 23, 2007 -- General Motors Corp. could reportedly produce up to 60,000 Volt electric cars in 2010, its first anticipated year on the market. Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, reported Wednesday that first year sales of the automaker's plug-in hybrid could quadruple that of the Toyota Prius' U.S. debut.

The car, expected to run 40 miles without recharging, will cost less than $30,000.

"If they were able to get 30,000 to 60,000 on the road in a year, it would be a huge leap in technology," Brett Smith, an alternative-fuel analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, told Bloomberg. "It will be difficult, though, because there are so many barriers to making this happen."

GM Product Chief Bob Lutz is quoted in various newspapers saying he wanted to get prototypes of the Volt ready for road tests next year, and ready for sale in 2010. Selling 60,000 hybrids would be a coup for GM, which lost nearly $2 billion in 2006. That would make the Volt its best selling high mileage car behind the Chevrolet Aveo.

It took about five years for the Prius, which sells for about $22,000, to reach annual sales of 60,000, Bloomberg reported. Toyota sold 5,562 Prius models in 2000, when it was on the market for part of the year. Sales tripled the following year and topped 60,000 for the first time in 2005. They totaled 110,565 units this year through July, making the Prius the 12th-most popular vehicle in the U.S., according to Audodata Corp., a Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, company that monitors the industry. Toyota has sold more than 1 million gasoline-electric vehicles since 1997. more

The Volt is charged at a household outlet and uses an on- board engine to generate electricity when the battery runs down during travel. The engine, powered by gasoline, diesel or a hydrogen fuel cell, only recharges the battery and doesn't drive the wheels. Its full range is about 640 miles on a tank of gasoline, about double the range of a typical car or truck.

Is the Plug In Car in your future?

Everyday, more businesses, more cities, more alternative fuel groups, more non profit organizations are joining Plug in Partners.

Join Plug In Partners today.

What's New

Sign the On Line Petition

News Summary I

HOME