GM Won't Kill Volt Program

By Jennifer Knightstep

Jennifer Knightstep

Author BIO

I was born in Detroit but raised in California, which explains my love of cars in general, but my fascination with and excitement about electric... More

LATEST ARTICLE
Purdue Presents the evGrandPrix
Is there any better way to encourage innovation than a contest? Offer a prize for inventing or... Read More

• N/ALEADERBOARD RANK
• 127ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
• 0COMMENTS POSTED

554 views Jun 2, 2009

2011 Chevrolet Volt

After GM's Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing yesterday, some are concerned that GM may put their plans to mass-produce the Chevrolet Volt on hold. But according to Jon Lauckner, GM's Vice President of Product Development and co-creator of the Volt, that's not going to happen.

Here's an except of the interview GMVolt.com did with Lauckner yesterday:

How will bankruptcy and government intervention affect the Volt program, or will it in any way?
It won’t in any way impact the Volt program.

Production volume plans won't be affected?
Anything material that we’ve had as the plan for the Volt will not be changed. This does not change anything that we’ve set up in terms of the Volt.

The government questioned the Volt’s profitability at one point. Does the government now support it fully?
I don’t know if it makes sense for me to speak for the government. The point is that everybody understands the Volt shows the way forward. You go back to the original introduction of the car in 2007 and you look at what’s taken place since then and every one agrees that the the question of electrification of the automobile is not a question of if, it has changed to a question of when.

It makes no sense for us to take a fundamentally different approach on the Volt as compared to where we were before today.

In other words, the Volt is just too important to GM's recovery and sustainability plans to kill, or even drastically modify, the program.

Source: gmvolt.com