The numbers keep changing, but General Motors says it's committed to producing the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid in sufficient numbers to sell it "around the world."
"We're not doing the Volt to sell 500 or 1,000 (vehicles)," said Jonathan Lauckner, GM's vice president for global program management. "We're talking about tens of thousands and more than that within the year."
Lauckner's figure isn't as lofty as the 100,000 or so Volts that Vice Chairman Bob Lutz cited a few months ago, but it is closer to the 60,000 figure that was bandied about late last summer. Whatever the figure, it certainly suggests GM is serious about the car. Lauckner reiterated the company's goal of having the Volt start rolling off assembly lines in late 2010.
We recently talked to Lauckner, Lutz and Bob Boniface, head of the E-Flex Design Studio working on the Volt, about the car's status. You can read that interview here. Lauckner confirmed for the Detroit News what we'd already told you in that piece - the Volt may be closer to $40,000 than the $30,000 GM had been hoping for, but federal tax incentives might help cut the cost for consumers.
By the way, we know we keep using that pic whenever we write about the Volt. It's the only shot of the production version GM's released.
