Volt Birth Watch 140: Aesthetic Holdups

The Freep‘s Mark Phelan has a new paean to the Chevy Volt mule’s electric grunt, saying the Cruze bodied tech-tester has “immediate torque for acceleration most sporty small cars would envy.” As GM prepares to build the first run of Volt-bodied test mules starting in mid-June, it’s bumping up the media presence of its last best hope by offering flacks like Phelan another test drive. And this time around the Volt’s “sporty acceleration” tops the talking points. “The test vehicle ran with smooth, quiet power,” reports Phelan, “but driving it felt reassuringly like getting behind the wheel of any new car.” Which conveniently is “a key goal for the Volt program,” according to GM EV Maestro Frank Weber. Another “key goal?” Making it look good enough to draw interest at its $35K price point.

GM-volt.com‘s Lyle Dennis wonders “why GM still needs more time to bring the Volt to market.” After all, they’ve been working on it for what, two years now? It’s just an expensive Chevy with an unproven power system. What’s the big holdup? Looks, apparently.

“Most of it truly is the aesthetic side of it,” Volt Chief Engineer Andrew Farah tells Dennis. “The mule cars aren’t pretty. We know that people want a vehicle that is distinctive.”

In other words, not the Chevy Cruze. That thing is fugly. Or, “not distinctive,” anyway. Do I smell a marketing tagline in the making? Introducing Chevy Cruze: Not Distinctive. At all. Please spend twice as much on the Volt.

And the Volt was distinctive at one point. But then GM took its model to the wind tunnel and found that it was more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards. Since its Prian makeover last fall, we’ve known essentially what the Volt would look like, and distinctive it ain’t. But, according to Farah, the aesthetic features “only comes together in the final stages.”

Building a car “is a lot like fashion,” says Farah. “If you start too soon you’re selling something that’s already old.”

So why have we already seen two different Volts being pimped in GM ads for years now? Is the Volt going to receive another refresh before it heads into production? Farah isn’t forthcoming with the details, but if this line of questioning misses the point as far he’s concerned.

The real upshot? “The things that are holding it up are really the typical new vehicle kinds of things.” As in not the electric underpinnings, which have so far “proven very robust and successful.” How robust? “Nothing has come up that we haven’t had an answer for,” he tells Dennis. There have been no “unanticipated problems.” How reassuring.