Chevrolet Volt debuts in Japan amid warnings of short supply

Relaxnews
Thursday 19 May 2011 00:00 BST
Comments

The Chevrolet Volt has debuted in Japan, as General Motors prepares to up production for the extended-range electric vehicle.

Chevrolet debuted the Volt May 18, at an industry conference in Yokohama, saying that it also plans to demonstrate the model in Japan.

The vehicle, a battery-powered model which uses a small generator to increase the range when out of power, is currently only available in the US and Canada, although international rollouts are set to begin later this year.

The Volt will have tougher competition in Japan than most other markets, as the high-profile Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i-MiEV, built by domestic Japanese automakers, have been available for some time.

Nonetheless, GM Japan's Sumito Ishii said that the launch was "a great opportunity for General Motors to highlight our advanced technology leadership in front of the tech-savvy community in Japan."

Chevrolet also announced this week that it is to halt production of the Chevrolet Volt for a month in June, in order to perform upgrades on the Detroit plant that produces them.

While the shutdown is intended to improve the plant to boost capacity, General Motors warned that the number of models available for delivery to retail customers is likely to be further restricted in the coming three months.

When the plant reopens, it will be producing both the Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera, the Volt's European cousin, and is set to manufacture 16,000 of the models by the end of the year.

In 2012, General Motors predicts that 60,000 Volts will be produced.

http://www.chevrolet.com/volt/

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in