The Chevrolet Volt has passed a major milestone with the first pre-production Volt rolling off the assembly line at the Hamtramck Assembly Plant in Detroit.
It is the first of several pre-production Volts that will be built in coming months as the company ramps up to build actual purchase ready models later this year.
These pre-production versions of the Chevrolet Volt will not be sold at dealerships, but will be used to assure all steps in the production system will meet the quality targets set by the Volt engineering team.
The electric car will arrive at GM dealerships in November. GM is still putting the final touches on it.
The price tag on the Chevy Volt is expected to be around $40,000 before the $7,500 credit.
Volt’s moment nearly coincides with rival Nissan announcing pricing Tuesday for its Leaf electric car. It was lower than expected — $33,600 before federal tax credit, $26,100 after the buyer gets the federal $7,500 credit on that year’s tax bill.
Volt carries a gasoline engine that kicks in to drive a generator that keeps the electric motor humming when the batteries are juiced-out. Leaf, on the other hand, is battery-only.[wzslider height=”400″ lightbox=”true”]
