Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Chevy Volt to become widely available very soon
January 31st, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
There is much excitement - and frustration about Chevrolet's new electric car, the Volt. Consumer interest is very high, but there are far too few currently on the market. That's going to change very shortly as Chevy will be making the Volt available in all 50 states.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - There is much excitement - and frustration about Chevrolet's new electric car, the Volt. Consumer interest is very high, but there are far too few currently on the market. That's going to change very shortly as Chevy will be making the Volt available in all 50 states.
General Motors shipped the first 360 Volts to dealers last month. For the first quarter of this year, consumers could only buy a Volt in six states and Washington, D.C.
Chevrolet has since announced that it would make the Volt available in all 50 states by the end of this year, six months earlier than the original plan.
This is the second piece of news in less than a week that suggests General Motors is seeing greater demand for its plug-in than anticipated.
Sources have previously stated that GM wants to increase production of the Volt to 120,000 cars next year. To put that number in context, GM plans to build 10,000 Volts this year. GM's original 2012 target was 30,000 Volts; last July, they bumped that number to 45,000.
The 120,000 Volts is seen as a major jump, and we're particularly curious how LG Chem, the Korean company that builds the car's lithium-ion battery cells, will handle the demand.
The accelerated arrival of Volts - and this includes the Nissan Leaf, which is also rolling out nationwide by the end of the year, focuses attention on the current lack of public charging infrastructure.
Nissan, whose all-electric Leaf will also be available in all 50 states by the end of the year, likes to point out that while charging spots are scarce now, there should be some 13,000 public chargers installed nationwide in a year's time.
If not, cities dense with apartment dwellers will have much difficulty in charging these cars.