Posted Today, 10:58 AM by Ralph Hanson
The cars would be Volt spinoffs, targeted at different segments of the market
General Motors' plans for the Volt are well known - even though the car is still almost two years away from production. The company has kept much tighter-lipped about possible Volt-alikes built on the same technology but packaged differently - until now.
The latest request for aid from the U.S. government - this time from the still-untapped DOE program for fuel-efficient vehicles - includes a bump by $2.6 billion to a total of $10.3 billion, with the extra money targeted for development of two Volt-based hybrids and a third hybrid of unknown configuration.
This is the first time GM has confirmed they have plans for production cars based on Volt technology aside from the Volt itself. Candidates for the Volt siblings include a Cadillac version based on the Converj concept, though its low-volume and high-cost positioning make it unlikely.
GM has already revealed its European Volt doppelganger, the Opel Ampera. The cars sought to be built under the DOE plan won't be rebadges like the Ampera, however, but separate models altogether.
Instead, expect to see the Volt hardware spread to mass-market cars, including mid-sized cars slightly larger than the Volt and possibly even full-size sedans. If GM can find a way to package the system into a small car while remaining profitable, that might be the best bet for a city car, but with the compact Volt's price tag already expected to settle somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000, that may not be possible.
General Motors' plans for the Volt are well known - even though the car is still almost two years away from production. The company has kept much tighter-lipped about possible Volt-alikes built on the same technology but packaged differently - until now.
The latest request for aid from the U.S. government - this time from the still-untapped DOE program for fuel-efficient vehicles - includes a bump by $2.6 billion to a total of $10.3 billion, with the extra money targeted for development of two Volt-based hybrids and a third hybrid of unknown configuration.
This is the first time GM has confirmed they have plans for production cars based on Volt technology aside from the Volt itself. Candidates for the Volt siblings include a Cadillac version based on the Converj concept, though its low-volume and high-cost positioning make it unlikely.
GM has already revealed its European Volt doppelganger, the Opel Ampera. The cars sought to be built under the DOE plan won't be rebadges like the Ampera, however, but separate models altogether.
Instead, expect to see the Volt hardware spread to mass-market cars, including mid-sized cars slightly larger than the Volt and possibly even full-size sedans. If GM can find a way to package the system into a small car while remaining profitable, that might be the best bet for a city car, but with the compact Volt's price tag already expected to settle somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000, that may not be possible.
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