DETROIT (Reuters)
- In a bid to show the demand for the upcoming all-electric Chevrolet
Volt, a proponent of the car has released details of an unofficial
waiting list for the vehicle with over 33,000 prospective buyers.
Lyle Dennis, a New York neurologist who has emerged as a prominent
enthusiast for the battery-powered car from General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), has been assembling a list of prospective Volt buyers for over a year through his Web site GM-Volt.com.
On Tuesday, Dennis released details gleaned from the list showing
that 33,411 people had signed up to show their intent to buy a Volt
when the rechargeable car is released in 2010.
The list shows the highest number of potential Volt buyers in
California, Texas, Florida and Michigan. It also includes potential
buyers from 46 countries outside the United States.
The average price buyers were willing to pay for the car was $31,261
-- substantially less than the $40,000 GM has said it will cost to
build the first-generation of the car equipped with a massive
lithium-ion battery pack.
GM has been racing to finish development of the Volt in time for the
planned launch as the centerpiece of its effort to break a costly
association with gas-guzzling vehicles at a time when truck sales are
tumbling and gas prices remain high.
Like most automakers, GM typically keeps its vehicle development programs under tight wraps and shuns publicity.
But with the Volt, GM has taken the opposite approach, actively
consulting enthusiasts like Dennis and featuring the concept version of
the Volt in high-profile advertising, including a television spot
broadcast during the Olympics.
Dennis, who organized a meeting between enthusiasts called the "Volt
Nation" and GM executives at the New York Auto Show earlier this year,
said he was motivated by a desire to show the Detroit-based automaker
that the Volt would have a wide base of buyers from the start.
"If everyone who wanted a Volt could get one, that would be the dream," said Dennis.
GM, which does not expect to make money on the first-generation of
the Volt, has said it will ramp up output slowly when production of the
plug-in hybrid starts at a Hamtramck, Michigan plant.
A GM spokesman said that the automaker expected an initial shortage
for the Volt, similar to the shortages for other hot-selling recent
models.
"I don't know if there is any other vehicle or any other technology
that has generated this kind of interest because of the state of the
market and gas prices," said GM spokesman Dave Darovitz. "We know the
demand is going to be there."
Darovitz declined to discuss pricing for the Volt
GM showed off a concept version of the Volt in January 2007 but has
retooled the look of the vehicle significantly since then, in part in
order to improve its aerodynamics, representatives of the automaker
have said.
GM is designing the Volt to run for 40 miles on a lithium-ion
battery pack that can be recharged at a standard outlet. The Volt will
also capture energy from braking, like a traditional hybrid, and
feature an on-board engine that will be used to send power to the
battery on longer trips.
GM is racing Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to bring the first mass-market, plug-in car to the marketplace.
(Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
/ 1 
Green Luxury 
Manufacturing 
