DETROIT (Reuters)- In a bid to show the demand for the upcoming all-electric ChevroletVolt, a proponent of the car has released details of an unofficialwaiting list for the vehicle with over 33,000 prospective buyers.
Lyle Dennis, a New York neurologist who has emerged as a prominententhusiast 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 showingthat 33,411 people had signed up to show their intent to buy a Voltwhen the rechargeable car is released in 2010.
The list shows the highest number of potential Volt buyers inCalifornia, Texas, Florida and Michigan. It also includes potentialbuyers 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 tobuild the first-generation of the car equipped with a massivelithium-ion battery pack.
GM has been racing to finish development of the Volt in time for theplanned launch as the centerpiece of its effort to break a costlyassociation with gas-guzzling vehicles at a time when truck sales aretumbling 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, activelyconsulting enthusiasts like Dennis and featuring the concept version ofthe Volt in high-profile advertising, including a television spotbroadcast during the Olympics.
Dennis, who organized a meeting between enthusiasts called the "VoltNation" and GM executives at the New York Auto Show earlier this year,said he was motivated by a desire to show the Detroit-based automakerthat 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 ofthe Volt, has said it will ramp up output slowly when production of theplug-in hybrid starts at a Hamtramck, Michigan plant.
A GM spokesman said that the automaker expected an initial shortagefor the Volt, similar to the shortages for other hot-selling recentmodels.
"I don’t know if there is any other vehicle or any other technologythat has generated this kind of interest because of the state of themarket and gas prices," said GM spokesman Dave Darovitz. "We know thedemand 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 hasretooled the look of the vehicle significantly since then, in part inorder to improve its aerodynamics, representatives of the automakerhave said.
GM is designing the Volt to run for 40 miles on a lithium-ionbattery pack that can be recharged at a standard outlet. The Volt willalso capture energy from braking, like a traditional hybrid, andfeature an on-board engine that will be used to send power to thebattery 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)
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