there's an f-150 on a lot down the street for $11,500 (used but still...). Add in a PHEV conversion for $25,000 and you essentially have the volt for $36,500. No reason GM can't reach a price below 40k

This may have some fuzzy math, where the first 38 miles on electric is considered zero gallons. So you drive 76 miles and you get twice the miles per gallon. It should be miles per BTU and GGE calculating energy used to make the electricity and losses.

ot 37MPH maximun speed all electric the engine will kick in quite often... is there any room left in the truck once you have installed the 20KWh battery and electric engine ?

GreenPlease, seriously? Throwing a battery pack in the back of a pickup truck to allow the few hundred retrofit vehicles per year to achieve a top EV speed of 37mph is hardly comparable to a mass produced 4-seat vehicle that can hit 100mph and meet all other expected performance benchmarks on pure EV power. Not to mention the fact that Envia only warranties the battery for 3 years. Not even close to what GM is doing with the Volt.

I'm wondering what type of batteries are used. Anyone know?

Angelo - pragmatic logic not allowed. Think of something negative to say!

Well, on the volt, greenplease and angelo, isn't the volt still only offering a range of 40 miles?

Two totally different classes. A pickup, which can presumably still handle hauling and finally gets comparable mileage to economy cars..

and an economy commuter (assuming you can charge the thing once you get to the office) / around town subcompact.

They're both good work... s start anyways.. but do we really suspect the volt will approach $40k? Holy crap I should hope not. Telsa wants to offer a new luxury EV for $60k! And vw's clean diesel is less than $30k, with more than 40mpg, up to 60...

anyway, great to see an untapped market offering

If an aftermarket company can do conversions, then Ford is lying when they tell customers they cannot offer a hybrid.

As for the Chev Volt, so far this thing is a joke. "Order your volt now, take delivery in 2019"

GM, Ford and Chrysler are not serious about giving customers an option to go electric. I say we should look at other companies for leadership on the BEV. So far, it is backyard mechanics who are producing most of these.

Conversions are VERY VERY different from a factory made car. They were doing suv conversions of pickups waaay back in the 80s long before the first real suv came out. It took the big guys years to make an suv they could sell and that was just a freaking mutant pickup truck.

ITS TIME GOVERNMENT FORCES ALL AUTO COs TO PRODUCE AT LEAST 10% OF THEIR PRODUCTION TO BE ELECTRIC AND 10% HYBRID(WITH AT LEAST 40% FUEL SAVING). WIND CAHRGING STATION SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED ON ALL HIGHWAYS.

@ wintermane ... If aftermarket companies and backyard mechanics can make a hybrid conversion, then pretending the OEM manufacturers have any excuse for failing to achieve this technology is STUPID.

There is no technical reason that manufacturers don't have fuel efficient hybrids available for sale.

The technology is just not offered because of the huge amount of money being made off of oil.

We should all be furious about this manipulation of the market for crass greed, especially because oil is a leading cause of the high level of destructive pollutions in our world.

Let's see... you bought an F-150 for 40 grand and now it's worth half that and you don't have enough credit to buy a Honda to get to work affordably.

There just might be a market for this thing.