Autocar - First for car news and reviews

Official pictures of the electric Chevrolet Volt have been leaked onto the internet.
The images show various key GM officials in front of the car, which has lost the concept’s blistered wheel arches, wrap-around windows and sharp lines in favour of a more subtle (and cheaper to produce) body shape.
However, plenty of the Volt’s key features have made it through to production. The narrow rear lights, aerodynamic wing mirrors and smooth, split front grille are all present, as is the high, c...Read the full article

The car looks great, but I'm not so impressed with the geeks-in-suits models they're using to promote it!! They should have stuck to the traditional 'girl-in-bikini-draped-across-bonnet'!

Yes, all kudos to the first electric car that I might actually consider going into a showroom and buying - but what is going on with the painted in windows? Takes me back to the 80s and the halcyon days of the matt black B pillar.

Trying to understand the thinking behind having the U.S. launch a whopping two years ahead of the Euro launch, when the latter is arguably more receptive to smaller, greener, generally more sensibly packaged cars. A 2012 release puts this thing way off most people's next car radars - certainly mine - and after launches like the Smart EV and Mitsubishi i-EV.

Anyone know what the mad Germans are developing to rival it? Quad supercharged 8.3 litre V12 knowing them. At least there'll always be a queue of second-division footballers lining up to buy one.

It's going to be very interesting to see the reviews on the Volt when the car is made available to the motoring press.  GM seems to be on quite a roll right now with fastest production car and saloon (Corvette ZR1* & Cadillac CTS-V) at Nürburgring.  Now Volt, the first electric car produced by a major car company.

*The true current record lap time at at Nürburgring is from another American company Chrysler, but the Dodge Viper SRT-10 ACR is really a pure race car.  How many normal sports car enthusiast's would drive around in a race car for every day driving?  I think the ZR1 still has to be considered the fastest for a proper production sports car.

Also, two years is a very long time to launch in Europe after it's American launch. I would assume that will be moved up depending on it's success in the States.