Real Volts Now Under Construction

This is the first time the automaker has built a test mule Volt that actually looks like the real thing – inside and out. Before now, all Chevy Volt prototypes looked like the 2011 Cruz or old Malibus. Underneath, the mules carried the Voltec technology that will propel the plug-in hybrid up to 40 miles on just electricity.

The latest prototypes will help validate the Volt’s safety and performance capabilities. Building a complete Volt will also help GM decide how to effectively manufacture the plug-in hybrid to ensure that build quality is consistent and reliable.

The first Volts will take an average of two weeks to build, but by mid-July assembly will ramp up to 10 a week. By the fall, GM expects to have 80 on the streets.

After that, GM will build hundreds of pre-production Volts at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. That’s where the real Volt will be built, showing up at a Chevy dealership near you in the summer of 2010.

That will only happen, of course, if everything stays according to the automaker’s current plans, even amid a seemingly unavoidable bankruptcy filing.

GM Builds the First Chevrolet Volt (Autopia)