Nice looking car, but I feel that they lost the initial feel and goal of this car. A nice looking and reasonably priced electric car with a fuel generator. this now looks like your run of the mill compact and from what I heard it's supposed to be well over 42K. Nice try chevy, but you failed to break the mold.

GM builds one car in the last 3 months at a cost of $33 billion dollars. ,, , Let,s see, gm We pay GM to build cars, we pay off GM debt, we run off GM creditors, GM burns thru Billions of dollars, and the workers are furlowed, plants are closed. We are going to loose so much money, time and then suffer even more after the next bankrutpcy minus our taxpayers money finally closes these bums GM down, Lots of people are out of jobs, who who would be glad to start a fresh car company, with new interest and designs, but what do we get, same cars, same workers, same managment plus politiciians. Please wake up someone somewhere and puit a stop to this madness.

GM builds one car in the last 3 months at a cost of $33 billion dollars. ,, , Let,s see, gm We pay GM to build cars, we pay off GM debt, we run off GM creditors, GM burns thru Billions of dollars, and the workers are furlowed, plants are closed. We are going to loose so much money, time and then suffer even more after the next bankrutpcy minus our taxpayers money finally closes these bums GM down, Lots of people are out of jobs, who who would be glad to start a fresh car company, with new interest and designs, but what do we get, same cars, same workers, same managment plus politiciians. Please wake up someone somewhere and puit a stop to this madness.

GM builds one car in 3 months for $33 billion dollars , ...........Let,s see, gm We pay GM to build cars, we pay off GM debt, we run off GM creditors, GM burns thru Billions of dollars, and the workers are furlowed, plants are closed. We are going to loose so much money, time and then suffer even more after the next bankrutpcy minus our taxpayers money finally closes these bums GM down, Lots of people are out of jobs, who who would be glad to start a fresh car company, with new interest and designs, but what do we get, same cars, same workers, same managment plus politiciians. Please wake up someone somewhere and puit a stop to this madness.

Nice car. Too bad electricity prices will skyrocket once the carbon tax passes which will prevent people from buying an electric car.

Fail. This car looks nothing like the Volt they've been trotting around for ages. Bland run of the mill make me bored.

The good thing is that Comrade Obama will warranty the warranty after the Unions finally bring Chevy down.

I guess I am a minority, but I like it! Way to go GM. It resembles a Malibu, which in my opinion is one of the best looking cars on the road. Even if they are currently living off the Government for now, it still shows that GM has what it takes to succede. I disagree with the one comment to "stop the maddness" It sure looks better than the Jap cars we may be forced to drive.

I guess I am a minority, but I like it! Way to go GM. It resembles a Malibu, which in my opinion is one of the best looking cars on the road. Even if they are currently living off the Government for now, it still shows that GM has what it takes to succede. I disagree with the one comment to "stop the maddness" It sure looks better than the Jap cars we may be forced to drive.

Do car companies still hire designers? I can't tell. Everything from every manufacturer looks the same. I can't stand the blandness of current business. Instead of money, why not worry about quality for a change and see how that works.

Do car companies still hire designers? I can't tell. Everything from every manufacturer looks the same. I can't stand the blandness of current business. Instead of money, why not worry about quality for a change and see how that works.

Another 4-door from Government Motors, gag.

What designer would want to live in Detroit? Or Michigan for that matter. Well... this is what we have to look forward to from Government Motors. It's like the USSR all over again.

Yea I'm going to stay away from any Government Motors car or truck. What's stupid is if Cap and Trade passes the cost to plug this bad boy in would be way higher than lets say a none-PHEV like a Prius. After Cap and Trade passes the price of gas and your electric bill will go way up. Making this car a double negative, and out of the price range for most Americans.

O yea does thing thing look like a cheap rip off of the new Prius? It looks like a cross between the Prius and the Malibu, it looks cheap, really cheap. Not, a bad body style, but cheap none the less. The "Japs^" were on to something with the new body style of the Prius. Why do you think Government Motors ripped them off?

Leave it up to the US government to be innovate. The thing is a rip off. When GM was privately American owned the volt was innovate. Now its crap, because of the body design, and conflicting government policies. That is going to sky rocket the price of fuel, both gas and electric. Obama + GM + new policies = epic fail.

There is a reason he has never ran a business and it right here. They all don't have a clue on what they're doing. Their own policies is going to put their own business in jeopardy. I'm willing to bet that GM won't be in business by the time Obama is out of office. It's sad we let them get away with this.

@ pings

You know the body style hasn't changed at all since the major change a few months ago. They were not government owned back then. Or are you referring to the one that kinda looked like the new Camero?

hows that "CHANGE" working out for all of you? (I told you so)

For a large portion of people automobiles are becoming more about economical, reliable transportation. This puts function before form. Most of this new generation of car will look similar, perform similar and such because that is the way the equation works. If you want a more limited produced vehicle that is the reincarnation of the 60,s muscle car they will be available. You will pay the initial cost and the running costs. I do want a 40+ mpg sub 30K car that will run 250K. You can buy a Vette or Hummer. You can even take the mufflers off to anounce your individuallity. Don't foget SAE J2825

Nice looking! Can't wait to see it on the streets.

Very cool. Like with the hybrids and other plug-ins, we don't really know what the future for personal autos will be - but trying new things and moving forward is a step in the right direction. The next 20 years or so will be very interesting.

The point is 'electric'. Surely even with tax, the price of electricity is dramatically cheaper, more cost effective and will point the way to cleaner air. At the price point, all I can say is, you don't have to buy it, the other option is to turn that old classic or 'insert cool car name here' into an electric. What GM could offer is an electric conversion option for a range of cars. That removes the whole style problem(but honestly people isn't the environment more of an immediate concern than looking flash right now?).
As for those who declare there are still environmental impacts upon the environment by the power companies, all I can say is that the onus is on the power companies to correct there stations and not on the population who have no control over it. Furthermore with the carbon emissions taxes etc that the world now wants to incorporate, where does this money go? Simple. It has to go into offsetting the emissions footprint and the only way to do that is to put it into clean power which ultimately will benefit everyone long term.

So please, please, don't bag any electric cars. Myself I believe electric, compressed or electric compressed air hybrids will be the viable cars of the future.

The main issue with electrics and one I havn't heard much about is what are the batteries now made from(how toxic is the manufacturing process) and how recyclable are they?

With those two issues resolved it's simply an about time. The age of the combustion engine should have ended 20 years ago.

Way to go GM, I'll buy one if I can get it for under $30K Australian and I don't care if you have to make it look like a mini to do so, as long as it's environmentally friendly I'll support it 100%.

PS. What happend to the EV1 car design. That was totally sexy and the price comparable if not better than this Chevy Volt?

You can joke all you want about this latest rip-off from Government Motors, but YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR IT ANYWAY! After it becomes apparent that hardly anybody will buy this ugly overpriced crapmobile (darn that
freedom of choice!), the Socialist Obama regime will once again spew their "GM is too big to fail" and/or "We must save American jobs" and then they'll NAIL YOU with a tax increase to subsidize these crapmobiles.

"Pings" is exactly right about the "Cap and Tax". With energy prices about to double (or more) all in the name of the junk science that is "man made" global warming, these Obamamobiles will be even more expensive to buy/operate. And where are all those "alternate energy sources" that we were promised during the campaign? Can I attach a solar panel or a windmill to the roof
of my Volt? The fact is that all this additional electricity (to power these electric cars) must come from somewhere. This isn't like money,
where the gov't can just print more. Here's a reality check for all the "electric cars will clean the air and stop global warming" fanatics:

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50070

Nailing the power companies with a TAX (which will be passed down to the consumer) does NOT somehow magically create "clean energy sources". Buying carbon offsets does NOT somehow magically create "clean energy sources" (it'll fatten up Al Gore's bank account, though). Just because the gov't says "you WILL create clean energy sources OR ELSE" does NOT somehow magically create "clean energy sources". If that's how it works, I think
the gov't should tell the pharmaceutical companies "you WILL create a pill that cures cancer, or else we will tax you" and BINGO - we will have a pill that'll cure cancer!

Now you know why the gov't despises free markets and freedom of choice - They want
to FORCE you to live your life (in this case, buy a car) the "proper way" according to their Socialist utopia. Now that the idiot clueless Republicans have given the LIBs full power, the LIBs are going to use the FORCE of
government (in this case, with subsidies paid for by YOUR taxes) to make you "pay" for a car (whether you decide to buy it or not!) that THEY have deemed to be "the best car for everybody". Free markets, freedom of choice, and producing products that people want will be concepts of the past. Central Planning will take over, and you WILL live your life as determined by the planners. This is CHANGE, eh? For more information, see Orwell's "1984" or Hayek's "Road to Serfdom".

All you "socialism" spewing chowderheads get a clue... GM (and other Detroit automakers) got in this mess long before Obama came on the scene.

Focusing mostly on SUVs & trucks; bitching and moaning about any increase of CAFE standards; higher expenses due to health care costs and retirements, etc.

Oh... and please enlighten me how carbon offsets are going to make Al Gore wealthy?? LOL

Please people... stop using Fox "News" as your source of information!

Misc. Points
1. The real cost of the EV1 exceeded $100,000 each.

2. As aerodynamic reality applies to all designers equally, an optimum design will look similar regardless of who makes it.

3. As to economic viability, Toyota is currently losing $1,000+ per vehicle sold.

4. I am very interested to see what EPA mileage will be assigned to the Volt. Given higher official mileage numbers, GM will then be able to sell more lower mileage (SUVs & pickups) vehicles which, not coincidentally, sell at a higher profit margin.

5. I also like the looks and am seriously considering buying one (even though it will have an Obama Motors sticker on it)!

Cheers to all and I look forward to reading posts that are grammatically well constructed and have some intellectual thought behind them.

to "mojoniesen"
what you have there is an observation of the reason why we are in such a sad state economically, if everyone who sold something sold things with a mind for quality rather than profit alone do you think we would have such issues as we have now, everything in america is built around 3 principles bigger, faster/fatter, cheaper EVERYTHING sold in america save for the products of small buisinesses is sold for profit and profit alone, and its why foreign manufacturers have such an advantage in our marketplace, they build better products for cheaper and gm cries to the taxpayers for more money to spill into crappy cheap products, there's a reason this company is bleeding and I say we follow the old rules of time honored simple economics, let the company thats producing better products win, they deserve to. I don't understand why we keep pumping money into a company that simply will not comform to what the comsumer is asking for, and if they chose not to follow the rules of supply and demand, building and endless supply with no demand they deserve to tank.

Government Motors. I'll get a kick out of that for a lifetime. I'm guessing the change I have won't buy any of these cars.

I'm much more interested in a car that provides good mileage and clean air than in showing off its "body" as sensational, but then I'm just a girl! Neocons will complain at every opportunity about our new "socialist"government--the previous one did so well by us--hah! Socialist only for the rich and deluded.

You know I was excited about this car when it first came out. I'm still excited about the idea. However I don't want to spend money on an American Government produced car. Not that I could afford it anyway.

Now if Ford would come out with something similar I might consider it which is saying a lot as Ive been a Chevy man since I was a kid.

As for the environmental benefits I don't see this doing much to help. If we had been doing these things all along we would be this the current predicament . Many of the first cars were all electric and the diesel engine was designed to run on vegetable based fuel. Now its too late, it took us generations to get here and its going to take us many more before we see drastic change in the environment.

If we are going to do this lets get it right and not rush. Skip the carbon tax for now. Lets get products in production here in America creating the alternatives first. That means create cleaner running vehicles, fuels, wind, and solar farms.

Once its in place and running then we can start taxing the people that don't upgrade to the alternatives. The money is there for the government to grant to entrepreneurs creating this stuff. They just have to spend more wisely.

Once Private industry in America is producing goods that can be made stateside with more quality and a fair price then you can get overseas that when the economy will turn around.

As for the claim of Aerodynamics dictating the look of new cars, especially the "Prius" look, you are way off. To see what a real "Aerodynamic " fully functioning car looks like, google "Probe IV" and take a look. Prius CD: .26. Ford Probe IV CD: .15. They look nothing alike. The Probe V was even cleaner, at CD .137. This is what the cars will look like soon I hope. The new Prius and all the other clones out there look like a bunch of awkward, conflicting angles. Give us diesel power in a compact car that doesn't leave us with a 900 pound toxic waste dump of a depleted battery. European Fiesta's get almost 50 city/70 highway. Stick that in your Hybrid pipe and smoke it! American know how will win in the end. Always has, always will (if the Government keeps their nose out of it).

A few things,
1) The car does not look like what was presented in car shows. I know they do not always turn out the way the designer envisioned due to production constraints, or simple minded "MBA"s who have not a clue of esthetics, but come-on, we we expecting some futuristic styling to match the concept of the technology, not another 4 door look alike.

2) Electricity, like everything else will never be cheaper, period! No matter how its produced, it’s always going to costs more. Nuclear, Wind, Solar, Microwave Beams from space to the earth (production plants), geo-thermal, oil, gas, coal, switch grass/corn, pig/cow excrements, “MR. Fusion” it does not matter, we will always pay more, year over year, and taxed on it.

3)Global warming, for the last time and read slowly so you get the message!
The earth has been here for several billion years.
What scientist in their right mind would take a few hundred years of measurement and draw the conclusion that the human race is pushing the planet closer to a cataclysmic end. Humans have only been here 20,000 years. We have only been industrialized the last 150 years. 150 years of 2 or 3 billion, you tell me the percentage of sampling the data points to climate change?
Now it starting to sink in. You cannot, draw the conclusion without making a grand summarization.
Now, I know you going to say they(scientist) have been studying polar ice, and ground water, and soil samples, etc. etc. etc. Try this one on for size, a typical volcano spews more green house gases into the atmosphere in 1 day than every vehicle on the planet does in one year. You’re going to find, this is a normal pattern for a planet, and here is the hard part to swallow, it’s okay. The planet has been producing greenhouse gasses long before us and will long after us.

WAKE UP!

As kids, we scribbled better looking cars in our notebooks when we were bored with the subject matter being taught. Where are all the ideas now?

OMG apparently you are not a scientist or an engineer. As such, you should not speculate about things you have not a clear understanding about. Time and time science has proved that things on a micro level can affect things on a macro level.

Wow, such conviction and feeling here. First, the planet has gotten hot and gotten cold without our help for hundreds of years. It will continue to do so, both by influences from within the geological structure of the planet and from outside sources such as the sun. And there are plenty of scientists who believe that the whole global warming thing is a political hoax - oddly enough they keep loosing their jobs. Coincidence?

As far as the Volt goes, if your still reading this and honestly have a desire for an electric car, check out the Aptera. It looks way better, performs way better, and costs way less. And its made in the USA. The down side: Not too many dealers around, so delivery could be an issue. Also, its new, so I am still waiting for the 4-seater hybrid version to come out. Hopefully later this year. But the electric version will kick the Volt's ass big time, and look good doing it.

Sadly, as another commenter already pointed out, I'm not sure how good a deal these electrics will be after Obama's proposed taxes go into effect effectively shutting down half our electricity production and sending the rates through the roof. Of course there is that huge oil shelf we have in the gulf, among other places, that we aren't allowed to drill - but thats okay, a small portion extends into Cuban waters, and they are letting the Chinese drill for it because they don't give a damn about the environment! So for every action you do thinking you are helping the environment, the Chinese have just canceled you out.

And if the environment is so important, why not start with not dumping your trash and broken bottles all over the place? Very hypocritical.

This is not the car Bob Lutz unveiled on Letterman's show a couple of months ago. That one was larger and actually had a trunk.

There is no way they are going to sell a "game changing" number of these small sized cars at $40,000; or $32,500 after the tax credit. In order to be game changing it had to get at least as good mileage and, most importantly, be significantly larger than the Toyota and Hondas it is competing against.

GM screws up for the last time.