Texas Announced as Launch Market for Chevy Volt
7/1/10—The head honchos at Chevrolet were in Austin to announce that Austin would be among the initial launch markets in for the highly anticipated 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car. That market will then expand to the state of Texas early in the 2011 calendar year.
The announcement coincided with the kickoff of the “Freedom Drive,” covering 1776 miles from Austin, TX, to New York City, NY. In addition to the patriotic theme (the drive will conclude in NYC on July 4th), the publicity move adds an exclamation point to the range of the electric car.
“The Chevrolet Volt, with its extended range, has the capability to drive well beyond the battery-powered range, and you can drive the Volt wherever and whenever you want. And we felt [the Freedom Drive] was a great demonstration capability for the car itself,” explained Tony DiSalle, marketing director for the Chevy Volt.
Other news that came out of the Chevy’s day in Austin focused on production of the Volt. DiSalle announced that Chevy will manufacture 10,000 of the vehicles through the 2011 calendar year, and up that mark to 30,000 in 2012.
All big news for those of us tired of relying on oil to fuel our lifestyles.
In other electric car news…Tesla went public to much fanfare on June 30, opening on the NYSE at $17 a share. The luxury electric car maker closed at $23.89. The IPO generated $226.1 million for Tesla, which the company hopes to use to make it profitable in two years.
