2011 Chevrolet VOLT: Real Video of the Car in Action

This is going to be a BIG car for GM, and I for one, hope it's a success for them. Any new technology is recieved with a certain amount of scepticism, but I hope this car gets a fair shake (and here's to GM 'righting' the ship). Here's the first video footage of the car that I've ever seen. Enjoy, looks like it's going to be a nice car!
Check out these 2X videos at Carscoop in the middle of the page;

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2008/09/2011-chevrolet-volt-first-video-footage.html

And here's a post to GM's release article by Canwest News Service.

GM reveals production-ready, plug-in Volt
Celebrates 100th anniversary
Chris Vander Doelen, Canwest News Service

Published: Tuesday, September 16, 2008

General Motors unveiled the production model of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car Tuesday morning to celebrate its centennial, saying it had "reinvented the automobile" for the next 100 years.

The four-door Volt shown at GM's world headquarters in downtown Detroit on Tuesday bore little resemblance to the sporty, low-slung version of the hybrid first shown as a concept 20 months ago.

The Volt, which will be able to travel 480 km on electrical power alone, had to be redesigned from the ground up to accommodate the hybrid gasoline-electric propulsion system, as well as for aerodynamic reasons, pedestrian safety and other concerns, GM President Rick Wagoner said as the Volt made its much-anticipated debut.

GM intends to have the Volt on the road by the end of 2010, and says it will produce 10,000 units in 2011 from its Hamtramck assembly plant in inner Detroit, which it intends to retool to build hybrid-electric vehicles.

"General Motors' second century starts right now," Wagoner said as vice-chairman Bob Lutz drove a silent Volt on stage before several thousand cheering GM employees in the company's Wintergarden lobby, overlooking the Detroit River.

"We intend to lead the reinvention of the automobile" with the Volt, Wagoner said. "The Volt symbolizes General Motors' commitment to the future of the automobile."

While not as racey-looking as the low-roofed concept version which wowed crowds at the 2006 North American International Auto Show, the sleek production version of the Volt appears to be more practical - and saleable - with its higher roofline and seating for five.

Wagoner noted that GM's competitors and others claimed it was impossible to produce battery-powered car that travels as far as the Volt does on electrical power alone. Yet prototype versions of the car have been doing just that for the past year on the company's test track in Milford, Mich., virtually without a flaw.

GM had hoped the first generation of the compact car would be a mass-market car brought to market for under $30,000. But production challenges - particularly with the Volt's lithium-ion battery pack, which are rumoured to cost $10,000 each - have pushed the Volt's expected sticker price up to about $40,000.

Subsequent generations of the Volt are expected to be significantly lower in price as volume production brings unit costs down, company officials say. In the meantime, the Volt will serve as the world's introduction to having a plug-in electrical alternative to gasoline.

"The Volt is beautifully proportioned, nice and slick," Lutz said of the car during an hour-long broadcast that highlighted GM's worldwide operations, including its Canadian production facilities east of Toronto.

The look of the Volt will be crucial to the car's success, Lutz said, because design "is one of the last big differentiators left" between automotive products.

For the rest of the article including a nice read on how the Volt works, follow this link;

http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=ef2f899c-6554-410b-b77b-95d230209bf2&p=2