Hold on to your hats, people, the roller coaster train is just leaving the station.

I'd bet anything that these and similar announcements by GM have already had a major impact on the plans at other car companies. Does anyone here think that Honda and Toyota, in particular, will sit on the sidelines and let GM have all the series plug-in hybrid fun?

I want GM to be successful. However, I'm skeptical. They've been promoting vaporware vehicles for decades now.

I hope they get this one. It doesn't have to be a home run, but it's got to be at least a single. Make some money, gain some market share, gain some credibility, and increase their expertise in this kind of market. You don't have to win the game in one swing, and most of the time the game is won by hitting singles in bunches, not home runs.

Let me be the first to say it... Why don't they just re-introduce the EV-1! (Apart from the embarrassment of going back to something they had ten years ago, they'd need to re-engineer it for today's safety standards and a wider climate range, but still!)

But seriously folks, I wish them luck with an all-electric car. My only reservation is that electric vehicles are not running without emitting GHG or other polutants, they just transfer it to the power plant. Yes, I understand all the arguments about off-peak generation but those are just hopeful assumptions and would be moot if EVs become mainstream and create significant electrical demand.

What is so hard about doing this? When did GM introduce the all-electric EV1 again? Granted it used Pb-acid batteries and delivered limited range- but it was a great starting point.

Now years later, GM promises to try to bring another all-electric vehicle "in 3 years."

This vaporeware reminds me of the 2-billion dollar US-taxpayer funded federal partnership with the Big 3 to create an 80mpg family sedan during the Clinton-Gore years. Each one of the Big 3 US automakers independently arrived at the same conclusion: diesel-electric hybrids. Here we are over a decade later with the Japanese leading the market with sub-optimal gasoline-electric hybrids- and Detroit left in the dust. GM, Ford, Chrysler: we want our 2 billion tax-dollars' worth of innovation today! Quit hussling your empty pipe dreams so you can continue the status quo.

I'll take a diesel-electric hybrid today (w/NiCad batteries to keep costs down) rather than the promise of something better "down the road."

Nicads are done. Nimh have better performance are arent toxic. As to bringing back the EV, at what price? do you think it would be profitable to make a car that has an 80 driving range and an overnight charge and sells for 60,000. why dont you buy one of those Teslas only 100k.
A lot of progress has been and is being made but the laws of physics still apply. The PENGV had the design we need today. Bush killed it immediately after taking office. Big Oil did not want an 80 mpg family sedan on the road. They only had a prototype, but where would we be today if it had been brought to fruition.

Lutz is GM's carnival barker. Step right up. See the amazing Electric car.

I truly hope the Volt can be accomplished. I think they are being wise in looking before they take the leap on this. One thing we all have to understand, if the Volt and even the Tesla are flops, the EV industry may be dealt a death blow. There is so much riding on the line here, therefore, we have to be patient and continue to hope that the end results are worth the wait. I don't think the Volt is "Vaporware".

This reminds me of the 70s when gas prices went through the roof and fuel efficient Japanese car sales took off. Detroit reacted with the Pinto, the Vega, the Gremlin and other such "wonderful" cars.
GM may have pulled its head out of the sand and realized that they won't survive another round of getting caught with their pants down around their ankles. Have they remembered their history lesson on time?
I'll bet (but not much) that they'll get the Volt to market. They have no choice if they are going to regain any market share or even survive. I'll also bet that the electric range will be 20 miles (Ok with me) and that it will look an Impala or a Vibe (i.e. nothing new). Oh, and it won't be out until 2011.

Vaporware? Lutz is a Carnival Barker?

One thing I can't understand by reading some posts is that there is still some out there who think the Volt is just a PR stunt. Even after numerous articles, interviews, and testimonies all saying that they are pursuing this vehicle for production, there's still a group of people claiming this to be PR garbage. Every indication I've seen and read seems to point that GM has come back to the EV table in earnest. If our collective goal is a greener world, then wouldn't it behoove all of us to encourage companies like GM, instead of rudely bashing them?

I like these GM promises.

It will prod Toyota, Honda, Nissan and others to market improved PHEVs by late 2008 or early 2009.

I'm in for a Toyota Prius PHEV as soon as it is out.

The black eye GM got when they "Killed the Electric Car" on top of the kick in the groin from the early Hybrid adopters (Toyota, Honda, and even Ford) means that they have to launch some kind of EV/ICE even if it is a money loser initially, a decade behind their major competitors. By 2010, fully electric vehicles from the likes of Tesla will be proven, reliable technology, if not yet on the roads in large numbers. With a series hybrid, people will choose a range of choices between large batteries no ICE, all the way to modest battery with ICE designed to do all the charging after 20-30 miles. The Li-ion MINI prototype with a 250cc gas engine to recharge the batteries is a good example. Why doesn't GM or some other major automaker just buy Tesla or Phoenix and get on with it? GM: good luck, you'll need it.

GM needs to put this into a heavy-duty truck as a premium option for contractors. I'd give good money for a plug-in 2500 series with a generator that could provide on-site power. All they'd have to do is advertise the greater torque, lowered fuel consumption, lowered emmissions, and lowered maintenance costs and the truck would sell itself.

The Post Office in France have decided to replace all of their 48000 vans and light trucks with electric models , after a trial of kangoo litium ion powered prototypes manufactuered by Cleanova , full scale production is starting now in France . If Gm had continued development of the EV 1 , and promoted it properly , news such as this would of happened 5 years ago !

John Ard:
I think you have a great idea there with the heavy pick-up hybrid scenario. Granted, that would be an expensive vehicle more than likely, however, there would be a market for it.