All About Japan Autos

Daily Auto News

2011 Chevy Volt Picture.

General Motors has unveiled the car it is depending on to save it from a growing crisis in the automotive industry. At its 100th anniversary celebration this morning, GM took the covers off of the production Chevy Volt for the first time.

Read all about the Volt in our extensive preview.

The Detroit Free Press reports, “Viewed as potentially industry-changing technology, GM calls the Volt a range-extended electric vehicle. It is expected to drive 40 miles on an electric charge alone and about 400 miles using an onboard gas-burning generator to recharge its lithium-ion battery. The electric motor alone drives the wheels.” The car “will go into production at Detroit-Hamtramck in November 2010,” but only “If GM and its partners can develop strong enough lithium-ion batteries.”

GM Vice President Bob Lutz drove a silver Volt onto a stage in front of a group of reporters this morning — though it wasn’t clear that the car he drove had a working version of the Volt’s electric drivetrain, which is still in development. GM officials answered no questions about the car and provided few details.

Jalopnik reports, “Details are slim, but what we know is this — GM calls it an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV), it has a top speed of 100 mph and 40 miles on all-electric based on the EPA city cycle.”

Edmunds Inside Line reports, “In August, GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said that the Volt will likely cost in the mid-to-high-$30,000 range.”

The stakes for the vehicle are high. Blogging live from GM’s press reveal, the Ann Arbor Business Review comments, “Today will be remembered as either a historic day marking a technological and visionary turning point for the automotive industry – or the day the corporate giant revealed the vehicle that doomed its pursuit of a fuel-efficient image for years.”

The car’s design has already split the press.

Edmunds Inside Line calls it “electrifyingly bland.” Jane Nakagawa, a former Nissan planning official, tells Edmunds the Volts is “a huge disappointment.”

But Autoblog cautions, “Anyone who spends time photographing cars knows how hard it can be to make them look good and how easy it is to make them look really awful.” They add, “The car that GM rolled out this morning as part of its centennial …while different from the concept is still very attractive.”

Perhaps the most crucial question for consumers, however, is about the Volt’s cost to own. While the final price hasn’t been revealed, a GM press release claims, “The Volt will cost about two cents per mile to drive while under battery power compared to 12 cents per mile using gasoline priced at $3.60 per gallon. For an average driver who drives 40 miles per day (or 15,000 miles per year), this amounts to a cost savings of $1,500 annually. Using peak electric rates, GM estimates that an electrically driven mile in a Chevy Volt will be about one-sixth of the cost of a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle. The cost savings are even greater when charging during off-peak hours, when electric rates are cheaper.”

Research the latest in green cars with U.S. News’ car rankings and reviews.