Chevrolet Volt gets a charge

In the midst of the chaos that has engulfed General Motors in recent months, culminating in the current bankruptcy proceedings, a team of engineers and designers have stayed focused on building the future of the company. There is a lot riding on the Volt hybrid and this week the first pre-production model hit the road.

Built at GM's Pre-Production Operations building in Warren, Michigan, the new Volt test vehicles replace the previous Cruze-based prototype mules that have been testing the electric running gear up until now. According to Chief Engineer of the Volt project, Andrew Farah, the Volt pre-production models are a week ahead of schedule.

Farah was given the honour of taking the first drive in the new Volt around the Technical Centre at the Warren facility. After the drive Farah was able to complete the experience by recharging the car using production intended equipment.

"To this point, I've only experienced the Volt through the virtual world of computer aided-design and concepts, as pieces and components scattered about on tables during meetings, and as engineering development "mule" vehicles during test drives," Farah wrote on GM FastLane Blog.

"But yesterday, I was able to sit in, touch and drive an early version of the real thing. The mules demonstrated the potential drive experience of the Volt's chassis and powertrain, but the pre-production vehicles bring together the complete Volt experience into one dynamic vehicle."

Between now and October approximately 80 Volt pre-production cars will be built for testing and validation work as well as crash testing.

"By exceeding our own pre-production deadlines it allows us additional time to refine the vehicle. We've already discovered a few small tweaks we need to make, but nothing out of the ordinary for this stage of development," Farah said.

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