GM to launch Volt by end-2010 despite skepticism

By Jui Chakravorty

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to launch its electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, by the end of 2010 despite skepticism at GM about that target, its chief of global product development told Reuters on Tuesday.

As the race to bring a mass-market, rechargeable electric vehicle to the market heats up, GM's Bob Lutz said employees working on the Volt "are becoming increasingly nervous."

"There is a lot of skepticism within the company about the timeline," Lutz said at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit. "People are biting their nails, but those of us in a leadership position have said it has to be done."

Lutz said the Volt plug-in hybrid -- which GM plans to road-test early next year and produce by late 2010 -- is crucial to GM's efforts to snag the environmental technology crown from Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

"When people think of Toyota, their iconic brand is the Prius," Lutz said, referring to Toyota's popular hybrid car.

"When they think of GM, the iconic brand is, unfortunately, the Hummer," he added, referring to its gas-guzzling, military-inspired sport utility vehicles. "That perception needs to change."

GM is the only automaker to have provided a timeline on production even though other companies, such as Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Toyota, are working on similar technology.

"We have to reestablish GM's leadership and the Volt is, frankly, an effort to leapfrog anything that is done by any other competitor," Lutz said.

Unlike earlier gasoline-electric hybrids, which run on a system that twins battery power and a combustion engine, plug-ins are designed for short trips powered entirely by an electric motor and a battery charged through a socket at home.

Lutz said GM regrets its decision not to build a hybrid car when Toyota launched its game-changing Prius in 1997.

"We kind of lost the first couple of laps of the green car race," Lutz said, saying they couldn't go to GM's board "for a multihundred-million program that was going to lose money."

With the Prius, Toyota controls about 80 percent of the market for hybrids in the United States.

"We have since realized that letting Toyota gain that mantle of green respectability and technology leadership has really cost us dearly in the marketplace," Lutz said.

40 MILES ON BATTERY

GM is designing the Volt to run 40 miles on battery power alone, with an on-board gasoline-powered engine as a backup.  Continued...