GM Announces Pricing for Chevrolet Volt

General Motors has released pricing and warranty information on its hybrid-electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt. Customers began pre-ordering the vehicle at select dealers on Tuesday.

Justin Meisinger: General Motors has announced pricing for it's much hyped Chevrolet Volt. Tuesday, Chevrolet dealers began taking orders for the vehicle due out in October. The Volt will start at $41,000 but is eligible for a $7,500 federal income tax credit. Bringing the car down to $33,500; that puts the vehicle at around $10,000 more than Toyota Prius, currently the most fuel efficient car in America. But the Volt is technologically different from a Prius, a distinction General Motors will have to make to clear to the buying public. Known as a serious parallel hybrid, Prius runs on electric at low speeds and switches over to a gasoline engine at higher speeds or when it's electric motor has run down. However GM's Volt is different. Known as a plug-in hybrid the Volt runs entirely off it's electric engine. Owners can plug the vehicle in at home and charge it overnight taking around 8 hours on a 120 volt outlet or around 3 hours on a higher 240 volt outlet. On a full charge the vehicle's battery pack will power the car for 40 miles, but unlike all electric vehicle such as Nissan's Leaf, the Volt has a gasoline range extender. The range extender is essential an onboard electric generator supplying power to the electric engine but never directly powering the wheels. GM says that this gives the Volt a range of around 340 miles in total, that means the vehicle may be refueled anywhere on a trip so large charge times don't need to be a concern for longer get aways. To allay fears over battery degradation with time, GM also announced that the Volt will have an 8-year, 100,000 mile warranty on the vehicle's 16 kilowatt hour lithium-ion battery pack. The Volt will initial be available to customers in California, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Washington DC. Reporting from Boston, I'm Justin Meisinger, IDG News Service.