Holden boss confirms Volt

General Motors' Volt electric car was the bombshell of the 2008 Australian International Motor Show. Not that the car wasn't familiar to most auto industry watchers -- rather, the highlight was the news that the electric vehicle is definitely coming Down Under.

In a shock move, GM Holden Chairman and CEO Mark Reuss confirmed the Volt would come to Australia in 2012. What the Holden boss couldn't do was confirm details. At this stage, Reuss said, pricing and the badge the car will wear are still to be decided.

The decision to announce Volt for the Australian market was made overnight, Holden insiders told the Carsales Network. An indication of the eleventh hour nature of the confirmation is the fact Holden had no prepared statement for the landmark decision. Nor did Holden include any Volt announcement in its embargoed press material. The announcement even caught some Holden regulars by surprise.

Speaking at today's announcement Reuss said the Volt decision had nonetheless been some time in the making.

"We've been working on it here for a while... We've been developing the car for worldwide capability but we've been trying to centralise the engineering exposure of the car [so] we'll roll it out in left-hand drive in the [United] States, and then we'll start looking at the global markets.

When asked on whether the car would be badged as a Holden or Chevrolet Reuss said simply: "I haven't made any of those calls... I've been very concentrated on getting the car, and the rest of the Ecoline strategy in place here with Holden, quite frankly. We're going to work on that with our dealer body to find what's best."

Such is the rate of development in the EV (electric vehicle) field, Reuss said the 2012 iteration of the Volt will differ from the pre-production examples circulating now.

"We know there will be [advances in the Volt's technological platform]... It is a test bed of new technology so anything we find we need to do from a technology and improvement standpoint we're going to do as we introduce the car."

Unlike existing hybrids which still provide motive power to the wheels from their combustion engines, the Volt's drivetrain is pure electric. Recharged from main electricity the current Volt's battery powers an electric drivetrain. The midsized four-door can travel up to 64km on battery power alone, with the onboard petrol internal combustion engine kicking in to top up the battery charge once that range has been exceeded.

According to GM, Volt's recharge time on 240 volts is as low as three hours and the power consumed over the course of a year is less than that of a "household refrigerator".

Reuss says the car Holden will introduce will be a "genuine production car with production volumes." He said the company had completed a business case for the Volt in Australia, but said he would not discuss the details of the business case. Nor would he speculate on price.

"What exchange rate would you like us to use," quipped another senior Holden exec.

Reuss would not confirm when production of a right-hand drive Volt would commence. GM sources have previously gone on record saying the car would be sold in other key right-hand drive markets like the UK and possibly Japan.

The Holden boss did leave the company some breathing room, however.

When the Carsales Network asked whether Reuss was confident, he would meet his self-imposed 2012 deadline, he commented: "Obviously we're leveraging a car that's going into production in the United States first.

"We're dependent on, just like everybody else, our core company and the capability of it to deliver the product to the timelines. Right now we're on track...

"This is a rolling technology and things happen and we have to react quickly. That's what development is."

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