General Motors on Track To Build Chevrolet Volt

In this latest chapter of the saga of the Chevrolet Volt, the project is still alive and well. Speaking to the Society of Automotive Engineers earlier this week, GM engineering chief Jim Queen said the automaker is planning to build its Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car in the future.

"We will get this into production," Queen said. "We are very, very serious about this."

However, Queen admitted that GM is still trying to figure out how to make the Volt provide "profit for the enterprise."

GM execs are making a considerable effort to reassure the public that the Volt is not being shelved. In a posting on the GM FastLane blog on March 24, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz insisted that "we're not unplugging anything," in reaction to the drumbeat in the media that the Volt is little more than an expensive science project.

"We are 100 percent committed to making this happen," Lutz wrote, adding that the Volt is "the toughest and most exciting effort GM has undertaken."

GM took the wraps off its plug-in electric concept in January at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, but noted that it needed to have suppliers more fully develop battery technology in order to make the Volt a reality.

"We are very optimistic about what we hear from the battery guys," said Elizabeth Lowery, GM's vice president of environment and energy in a recent interview with Inside Line. "We're doing architecture, while they're doing the batteries."