I don't believe the Volt will beat the PHEV Pruis to market. In fact, I don't think GM has any intension of putting this car into production anywhere near the numbers they state (if any at all). The VOLT is simply the next excuse in GM's "see how green we are" marketing plan.

GM was forced to make EV1s, only until they could sue there way out of them. They used the promise of soon to arrive fuel cell cars as their excuse.

Another excuse was flex fuel. A few simple engine mods, a new trunk emblem and another round of self congratulations (let someone else figure out how to get E85 to the mass market without huge use of fossil fuels, or even if E85 really does make sense or not).

So now that we're suppose to have fuel cell vehicles by now, and since it's becoming common knowledge that we won't see them for a long time if ever as a mass market vehicle, GM needs a new excuse and the Volt is it. PHEVs are the latest buzz so out comes the Volt concept car with the slick marketing campaign with all its flash and dazzle to stun the masses. Of course, they already conveniently have their excuse ready to go, that pesky lithium battery tech just needs more tweaking. That'll give GM years (more) worth of marketing potential while they spend a few pennies tinkering and not having to put anything in the dealership showrooms.

So meanwhile Toyota continues to move forward with real Prius PHEV test vehicles, struggling with Lithium, tweaking NiMH and HSD, having successes and failures, but with real effort to succeed. They will be the first mass market PHEV.

Two climate control systems, one inside and the other at the tailpipe.

2007 Camry Hybrid (in service June 2006)
FE: 6.67L/100km or 35.3 mpg (6.11L/100km or 38.5 mpg in summer)