No small amount of the excitement surrounding the Chevrolet plug-in electric gas hybrid Volt centers on the vehicle's design. GM has hyped this "car of tomorrow" look by withholding the final design and promoting the prototype as if that's it, there ya go. This despite the fact wind tunnel testing obviated the hyped sheetmetal early in the Volt's development. Anyway, The Detroit News reports that GM is about to show the world the "real" Volt's design. Well, not the world. "GM, which will mark its centennial on Sept. 16, will let employees take a peek at the extended range electric vehicle but not allow them to use any cameras because of concerns about the competition… No final decision has been made on when and where the Volt will be revealed to employees — and eventually the public, but spokeswoman Karla Coleman said, 'It's going to be soon.'" The DetN reckons that means November's LA Auto Show. Or January's Detroit auto show. Or next Independence Day [just kidding, I think]. And get this: "The automaker recently showed a near-production version of the Volt to a focus group in southern California. 'It was very positive,' Coleman said. 'It's not like we can change the design at this point, but we want to hear feedback about how we're doing.'" Yeah, that makes sense. [NB: TTAC will pay $1000 for exclusive rights to the first photo of the finished Chevy Volt.]
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Redink Rick Wagoner and crew are sure a set of ‘drama queens’ over this volt thing. I guess when your company is headed toward the toilet, you will say almost anything to keep the press’ attention from the coming ‘flush’. How much longer must we suffer the ‘volt’.
The car will look like shit. The only reason for not letting us see something is that there’s nothing to see. Compare the hype between the Volt prototype and the Camaro and the yet to bee seen productionalized Volt. Had there been something to see, GM would have promoted it like the best thing since Hydra-Matic.
I don’t think anybody really will care what it will look like. Which is why I predict a rather sedate design. Roughly 95% of the press about this thing is related to it’s propulsion. With so much money spend on battery research, I doubt that we’ll get much in terms of breakthrough exterior materials and components.
Robert if you want to see what the “real” Volt is going to look like just look at the Cobalt spy shots, squint your eyes a little, picture gussied up lights, a little exterior trim bling, some fat rims(of course these WONT be the ones in showrooms) and a slick metallic paint. I bet you guys could photochop something together using the future Cobalt and current Malibu styling and it would be damn close to what comes out in 2010 or 2011, or 2012.
The Volt is just going to be a slightly nicer looking Cobalt for $40,000 or $50,000, here’s my money GM that sounds like a great deal. Impresive looking this car will not be, and sales, yeah right people will remember the cool concept and then go into showrooms and say WTF this is not what they were advertising. People usually don’t buy your products if they feel lied to and decieved, car shoppers aren’t as stupid as they used to be GM.
Redbarchetta :
Robert if you want to see what the “real” Volt is going to look like just look at the Cobalt spy shots, squint your eyes a little, picture gussied up lights, a little exterior trim bling, some fat rims(of course these WONT be the ones in showrooms) and a slick metallic paint. I bet you guys could photochop something together using the future Cobalt and current Malibu styling and it would be damn close to what comes out in 2010 or 2011, or 2012.
I’ve asked our resident photochopper Andrei Avarvarii to have a go.
Didn’t I see some blurb from GM a week or so ago to the effect that they ‘might’ use such-an-such an engine in the Volt? Seems to me time is growing short, unless there’s a delay of course, for them to be dithering about the engine. Maybe decide on that before any more publicity stunts to keep this thing in the news. As for keeping it’s appearance secret, I can understand that though. Aero will obviously be very important for this car, and they wouldn’t want Honda to pick up any pointers that might enable them to continue to beat the shit out of GM in the MPG wars.
Nah man, time ain’t short. Haven’t you heard? They’ve already knocked it back to 2012.
I suspect you’ll be able to tell if they are still serious about the Volt by the new design.
If it looks like a fruity Prius rip-off, they still have hope. If it looks like Max Headroom’s Camaro, they’ve already given up and are just trying to milk it for publicity.
“We can’t change the design now, but what do you think of it?”
Huh? Let’s hear it for research that can be relevantly applied!
Money wasted, money gone.
“The automaker recently showed a near-production version of the Volt to a focus group in southern California. ‘It was very positive,’ Coleman said.”
Uh-Oh…
Didn’t the Aztek design come about from ‘focus’ groups?
“not like we can change the design at this point,”
Good to know that the powertrain isn’t finalized, but the bodywork is… Hey, GM! Try engineering a car from the ground up for a change!
@Redbarchetta: sounds about right, a melted Cruze with a battery in the back. Saw somewhere this AM that the Volt will also have the 1.4L inline 4 up front.
Here’s a pretty good photo-shop attempt at the gm-volt web site. The creator studied the 1/3 scale wind-tunnel model pretty closely, so the overall shape looks pretty accurate. Details are a question. The solar roof is purely speculative.
http://gm-volt.com/2008/07/01/artists-estimation-of-the-production-chevy-volt/
Here’s a more recent attempt on 3D modeling based on facts and scale models available; a bit less ambitious styling-wise:
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=997&highlight=dinosaurus
My guess is somewhere in between; the second attempt is too generic; Lutz said that the final version would be “recognizable” as the Volt. That hardly applies to this one.
Why does every new GM vehicle have to wear 22-inch rims. Who is the designer running this place? Jay-Z?!
I don’t see 22’s on the Prius. Wake up, GM! Contrary to all the research you’ve done, cool cars are NOT defined by chrome and rims. WTF!
They need to move their design center to NYC or Boston….or some educated city. Hell, move down the road to Ann Arbor. Even East Lansing would be an improvement at this point.
The Ren Cen has its head up its ass. I know I know…tell you something you don’t already know.
Paul Niedermeyer That computer model looks a lot like a Saab, a lot in the front. It could be because it’s so plain right now but the lights are Saab. From the other photos of the wind tunnel test I think I am going to be so right, the Volt will just be a badge engineered Cobalt/Cruze/Cavalier or whatever they are going to call it with a BIG battery.
The solar roof is pretty cool but I think too soon. I don’t think come out with a durable solar film that could survive being on a car. Maybe the solar paint will work when it comes out in 2011.
Hey, maybe they’ll let us see it in 2010. When we solve world hunger, wipe out terrorism and unite all people under a banner of hope for the future :D.
Oh wait…
“Why does every new GM vehicle have to wear 22-inch rims. Who is the designer running this place? Jay-Z?!”
Don’t hate on Jay-Z; his lyrics in Dirt Off Your Shoulder:
…
I paid a grip for the jeans, plus the slippers is clean
No chrome on the wheels, I’m a grown-up for real
…
Is anyone sure the Volt will ever actually be built? Could this all be a smoke screen and GM is really going to come out with a hydrogen car they are working on in secret?
So far the publicity for the Volt seems so silly (focus groups, pictures of a possible body design before anyone knows how big the gas engine/electric motor/solar panels/batteries will have to be).