GM VP Gives An Update On The Production Status of Chevy Volt

The Chevy Volt




Jon Lauckner, GM VP of Global Program Management, answered some questions relative to the production status and future plans for the Chevy Volt. The Volt appears to be on schedule and should hit showrooms late in 2010. Hopefully, GM will produce the cars in sufficient numbers to meet the demands. This is the greatest fear of all who are following the Volt, that there will not be enough supply at the outset.

The Chevy Volt qualifies for a $7,500 tax credit, which will make its $40,000 price tag more palatable.

From GM-Volt.com:

I recently had the chance to speak to Jon Lauckner. He co-conceived the Volt with Bob Lutz and is GM’s VP of global program management.

What is the current state of mule development?
Frankly, its complete. We’ve built all of the cars that we intended to, around 33 or 35, and we are done with the hardware building phase. The cars have all been delivered to the Milford proving grounds and testing and development is ongoing.

What we learn from that particular hardware phase will be used for the hardware phase that is upcoming. Around the middle of this year we’ll build our integration cars which not only feature the drivetrain components of the Chevy Volt which we’ve had in the mule cars. Those mule cars were built in Cruze-bodies. Our integration cars are where we integrate all of the pieces together whether they’re drivetrain related or the interior and exterior the car altogether in a series of prototypes. We’ll probably have the first ones completed when it gets warm here next summer.

These will look like Volts?
Yes they will be built off of prototype tools. Those will be tested for a short period of time and then we move to the plant. Then we’ll build our product and process validation vehicles. Those will be built in the plant, on the line using the real assembly documents and all the correct tools in a true production setting. Now it will be at a very low volume to start with but that is the final phase. You’re moving from the prototype production into the high volume production facility and getting that ramped up for start of production.

And that low level production will be at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant?
Correct. And when I say low volume production, keep in mind that’s a high volume plant, so the line rate when its running full production runs very high. We carve out some space in that line by leaving some empty slots and then we put a car in there and we send that down the line and people start to develop the skill to assemble that entire vehicle.

And that will start late in 2009?
No that starts in the beginning of 2010. Sometime around the first or second quarter.

Do you have some retooling to do now in D-HAM?
Sure we need to have all the machinery and equipment in place to build the Volt before we start our production and process validation vehicles. We have to go into that plant and take out equipment and bring in new equipment because its a different car than those that are built there to day. We have to reconfigure all the equipment that’s in the plant so we can build the Volt.

Are you still going to build others cars at that plant alongside the Volts?
I believe that’s still the plan but we continue to still refine what we’re going to do with our manufacturing footprint as we see how the volumes progress. So the plan is we’re still going to have another product or so in that plant, but I cant tell you that for sure.

If you were just building Volts there, what would that plants total annual production capacity be?
Well over 200,000 units.

So if the world demands over 200,000 Volts annually you’ll able to do it?
We would be able to do it in that facility or it may make more sense to put the Volt in another facility. We have to see when we get there exactly what makes the most amount of sense.