Chevrolet Volt nearer to reality

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General Motors has a lot of expectations riding on its upcoming Chevrolet Volt. GM execs have predicted the electrically driven sedan will vault them four years ahead of the competition in the high-tech vehicle race.

Now, the validation of the production process for the Volt has passed a major milestone.

On March 31, the first pre-production Volt rolled off the line at the Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant. Several pre-production Volts will be built to validate and fine-tune the production process. These pre-production versions of the Volt will not be sold at dealerships, but will be used to assure all steps in the production system will meet the quality targets set by the Volt engineering team.

Assembly workers will build more pre-production Volts in the coming months, before production begins in preparation for a late-year vehicle introduction. These vehicles will be examined by manufacturing engineers as the plant prepares to kick up full production of the innovative vehicle.

"We have a very experienced workforce at this plant, and through all of their preparation and training, workers here have been given the privilege to take GM into the future with this car," said Detroit-Hamtramck plant manager Teri Quigley.

The Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle with extended range delivers up to 40 miles of pure electric driving before an engine-generator kicks in to sustain the battery charge and extends the range to about 300 additional miles.

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