GM cutting corners with Volt

GM is determined to keep its promise of delivering the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car by the end of the decade but unfortunately it will likely have to cut a few corners to get there. Already we’ve seen officials raise the car’s expected price tag, from an initial $30,000 to about $35,000, and even at this point there may have to be some major subsidies. Now officials are claiming that first-generation Volt models will be using redundant electronic systems because there’s not enough time to engineer new ones.

Some of the redundant features include things like windshield wipers and high-powered audio systems. The older systems will be eliminated later, probably in the second generation of the Volt, after engineers have had time to rework them for the new world of electric propulsion.
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M35MT - 2/13/2008 12:46:10 PM

+2 Boost

Everything is cyclical.

djrickp - 2/13/2008 1:28:59 PM

+2 Boost

Why I am not shocked by this? /pun

zairnaim - 2/13/2008 2:00:26 PM

+4 Boost

just when things were looking good for Gm they mess up again! Just send it out a year or 2 later instead of cutting corners and giving us a crappy car.

cbro980 - 2/14/2008 5:06:20 PM

+1 Boost

The reason is that - that is what GM does best, giving us crappy cars. They will only change when people quit buying their crappy cars.

S4cabriofoxone - 2/13/2008 6:29:26 PM

+1 Boost

I would rather they took a little longer to produce the highest quality product possible than cut corners to make a self-imposed deadline.

BigShow50 - 2/13/2008 6:48:31 PM

+1 Boost

I thought GM has been boasting for years thay they have been working on hybrids(mainly Buses and it does not matter wether its' a plug-in or not) Amazingly enough their engineers con't to be dumb founded of the process of buliding something. Maybe they should start reading the "Hybrids plug it or not for Dummies" instructions, before they decide to use the public as guinnea pigs and continue their streak of recalls...

Chaos29 - 2/14/2008 1:26:55 AM

0 Boost

Clutz would be proud...