"Competitors who write this off as a PR exercise are going to be brutally surprised." That's GM's Bob Lutz giving reporters in Geneva an actual timetable for the Chevy Volt: running prototype by the end of 2007, with "an internal target of production in 2010."
When GM unveiled the Volt concept to ooohs and aaahs at the Detroit Auto Show in January, no timetable was forthcoming. The big question, says Lutz, has been the development of safe and economical lithium-ion batteries to power the Volt. It seems reasonable to suppose that GM's willingness to talk dates means things are going well. "We have set an internal target of production in 2010," he said. "Whether we can make that or not, this is still kind of an unpredictable program for us... We're sort of outside our comfort zone."
Lutz offered less exuberant thoughts about the Volt concept's design: "I know we cannot make the production car look like the concept. The whole shape of the car is going to have to be a little more traditional." And he left reporters with a caveat: "I would say there is still a 10 percent chance this will fail."
[Source: Reuters]
