GM Looks for Buzz With Its Electric Volt

General Motors Corp. on Tuesday plans to officially unveil its most important model in decades — and possibly the key to its survival.

The Chevrolet Volt is a battery-powered compact car scheduled to hit the market by the end of 2010. It is designed to give GM the kind of highly fuel-efficient vehicle it needs to compete in an era of near $4-a-gallon gasoline.

But the car also has another, more-strategic purpose: to change minds.

GM is hoping the Volt will be such a technological leap forward that the many consumers who have turned their backs on Detroit will give the company and its cars a fresh look.

The auto maker also hopes the Volt will become its signature product, supplanting the big sport-utility vehicles like the Hummer and Chevrolet Suburban that now define its image.

On Tuesday, as part of its 100th anniversary celebration, GM will show off the version of the Volt it plans to put into production. And it looks like the increasing buzz about the car already is having an impact.

Some 40,800 people have put their names on an unofficial waiting list for the car, many of them former devotees of GM rivals like Toyota Motor Corp. or environmentalists, once among GM’s toughest critics. The waiting list is compiled by gm-volt.com, a Web site created by a New York neurologist named Lyle Dennis.

It isn’t clear how accurate an indicator the waiting list might be of eventual demand for the Volt. While GM watches the list closely, it hasn’t said it will honor it. Some Chevrolet dealers, meanwhile, are keeping waiting lists of their own.

Among those eager for the chance to buy a Volt is George Kalkas, a 61-year-old business owner who lives in suburban Chicago and owns two Toyotas — a Camry and a Prius hybrid. “There is no doubt I’m going to get a Volt,” says Mr. Kalkas, an enthusiast for fuel-saving technologies. “I wake up in the morning thinking about it.”

While the rising enthusiasm for the Volt offers GM an opportunity, it also poses some big risks. The biggest is that it isn’t yet certain that the car will arrive in dealer showrooms on time, or even work as advertised.

It is also unclear how well the Volt’s lithium-ion batteries will stand up to years of use. Lithium-ion cells can get very hot. Indeed, certain laptop computers were recalled in recent years after their lithium-ion batteries caught fire.

GM says fire isn’t a likely risk for the car batteries it is developing, thanks to the chemical formula it will use and a sophisticated cooling system.

If the Volt fails to work as GM has promised or its launch runs into significant delays, the company could lose credibility with some of its newly won fans, says Elizabeth Lowery, GM’s vice president for environmental and energy issues.

“We have to deliver,” she adds. The vehicle is “very important to our entire strategy.”

Source : Wall Street Jounal

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