GM is hosting a plug-in ready panel discussion in downtown LA.  I will be there for the discussion.
It is led by Chevrolet vice president Brent Dewar and includes representatives from utility companies, local governments and other stakeholders.
Live webcast is below, and you can submit questions too:

Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Lyle
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Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Chevrolet, Design/Style

There’s really nothing wrong with the first-generation Chevy Camaro, except perhaps for the fact that rows upon rows of them can be seen at every single car show in America. In fact, so ubiquitous is the 1969 model that there are a couple of aftermarket companies willing to build you a brand new example from the ground up utilizing just about zero OEM bits or pieces.

This being the case, it’s hardly surprising that this is the model year The General chose to mimic with its new fifth-gen Camaro for 2010. But what would happen if you could somehow jump to-and-fro through the time/space continuum in your Mr. Fusion-equipped DeLorean time machine and transport yourself back to ‘69 with visions of the 2010 model in your head?

Answering that question-that-nobody-asked is the 1969 Danz Camaro SS concept car, which you can see in the high-res image gallery below. Words cannot describe the initial reaction we had when opening this sucker up in our browsers for the first time, so we’ll just say that we hope its creator kept the original pieces in the garage when it comes time to sell. Yikes!

[Source: Carpictures.com via Carscoop]

Back to the Future: 1969 Danz Camaro concept goes the wrong direction originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Jeremy Korzeniewski
Filed under: Camaro, Chevrolet, Chevy | Comments Off

Filed under: Hybrid, Hatchback, Chevrolet, GM, Electric, Quick Spin

Three years ago this December we first walked into a Manhattan conference room for a background briefing on a new concept being developed by General Motors for the upcoming Detroit Auto Show. Earlier that year, the release of a documentary called Who Killed the Electric Car made the then largest automaker in the world the subject of some well deserved criticism for its handling of the end of the EV1 program. The movie and announcement of the all-electric Tesla Roadster lit a fire under GM to get back into the plug-in electric vehicle game.

What we saw that day in NYC was a description of a new powertrain architecture then dubbed E-Flex. GM folk on hand that day included vehicle line executive Tony Posawatz and former VP for environmental affairs Beth Lowery. They explained that among the biggest lessons learned from the EV1 program were that range anxiety and lack of practicality would make a car like EV1 nearly impossible to sell in the mass market. The engineers went back to the drawing board to address those issues and came up with the extended range electric vehicle, or ER-EV. The Volt concept was approved for production mere months after it was revealed at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. At this week’s LA Auto Show, GM is publicly showing the production intent version of the Volt. Before that, however, we were among the first to drive a Volt with its range extender running. Read all about it after the jump.

Photos Copyright (C)2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Quick Spin: 2011 Chevrolet Volt charges toward production

Quick Spin: 2011 Chevrolet Volt charges toward production originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Sam Abuelsamid
Filed under: Chevrolet, Chevy | Comments Off

Filed under: Budget, China, Hatchback, Buick, Misc. Auto Shows

Back in August, when General Motors gave the media a tour of its design studios to show off pieces of its upcoming lineup, one of the cars we saw was a compact four-door Buick sedan. That sedan was essentially a re-grilled and trunked version of the recently introduced Opel Astra, but GM did not say what badging the car would receive in North America. However, the five-door hatchback version has just debuted in China at the Guangzhou Motor Show as the newest baby Buick.

In what is Buick’s largest market, the compact is badged as the Excelle, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see that name come to the U.S. provided there aren’t any issues with the similarly named (and defunct) Hyundai Excel. The car we saw in August was identical to the Excelle shown above from the B-pillars forward. It only differs at the rear where the hatch was originally a traditional trunk.

Unlike the last Saturn Astra (and previous attempts at smaller Buicks), the inside of the new car looks much more upscale and should be more appealing to American consumers. We’ll probably only get the 181-horsepower, 1.6-liter turbo four-cylinder in the Excelle in order to set it apart from the 140-hp Chevy Cruze that shares the same platform. If our version gets the 138-hp 1.8-liter at all, it will probably be paired with the automaker’s new, second-generation BAS hybrid system.

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading New Buick Excelle debuts in China, sedan coming to America soon

New Buick Excelle debuts in China, sedan coming to America soon originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Sam Abuelsamid
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Chevrolet has worked very hard this holiday weekend showing off the Volt in Southern California, including providing drives to influencers such as Jay Leno. Yesterday the first wave of journalists test drives occurred in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium. This group included Edmunds, Popular Mechanics, Huffington Post, Autoblog, and the LA Times.
Edmund’s John […]

Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Lyle
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Filed under: LA Auto Show, Budget, Sedan, Chevrolet

More than a year after first showing us a styling buck and nearly as long since launching it overseas, General Motors is finally showing off the production Chevy Cruze for North America. Set to be shown publicly this week at the LA Auto Show, the Cruze is still a good eight or nine months away from arriving in U.S. showrooms.

When it does finally arrive, the Cruze should be a huge step forward from the Chevy Cobalt, and GM hopes it will be an able competitor to the next-generation Honda Civic and Ford Focus, which are slated to arrive not long afterward. The Cruze is slightly larger than the Cobalt, but will be powered by downsized engines, including a new 1.4-liter turbocharged four cylinder with 138 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque, as well as a 1.8-liter normally-aspirated unit with similar power but less torque. All Cruze models will get six-speed gearboxes - either manual or automatic. The turbo Cruze is expected to score an impressive 40 mpg EPA highway rating.

Based on our brief experience driving a Chevy Volt powertrain mule (Cruze and Volt share common DNA), the Chevrolet Cruze should be more refined than the outgoing Cobalt by an order of magnitude, with a roomier interior and much better-executed passenger cabin. We’ll see it in person later this week in L.A., and in the meantime, you can check out the first official images from GM in the gallery below. The official press release follows after the jump.

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading LA Preview: 2011 Chevy Cruze finally unveiled in U.S.-market trim

LA Preview: 2011 Chevy Cruze finally unveiled in U.S.-market trim originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 29th, 2009 by Sam Abuelsamid
Filed under: Chevrolet, Chevy | Comments Off

Ahead of its appearance at the LA Auto Show GM has unveiled the full specs of the US-version of the Chevrolet Cruze compact car.
The global vehicle has become very popular in Europe already where it sells at a starting price around $15,000. In the US it will compete directly against the popular Toyota Corolla […]

Posted on November 29th, 2009 by Lyle
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Filed under: LA Auto Show, Hybrid, Sedan, Etc., Chevrolet, Electric

General Motors shocked the crowd at Cars & Coffee this weekend by bringing out the 2011 Chevy Volt. Representatives on hand said this is the same car that will be on display at the LA Auto Show next week. They added that this is a pre-production model with a lot of development miles on it. For all that, it looked pretty good, especially given the wet conditions. We were disappointed that nobody faked an electric shock when touching the car in the damp lot.

Lack of hijinks aside, it seemed most people at the show liked the Volt, although several walked right past it, not realizing what it was. Good or bad, as important as this car is to GM, it looks pretty much like any other midsize sedan. On a day where Suzuki brought out all of their SEMA show cars and Tesla brought down a Roadster and Roadster Sport, the Volt and the Equinox fuel cell vehicle behind it still managed to draw a pretty big crowd. We snapped a few pics for our gallery, which you can check out below. We’ll bring you more about the Volt and everything else worth noting at the LA Auto Show next week.

Photos copyright (C)2009 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.

Cars & Coffee: Chevy shocks the crowd, brings Volt originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 28th, 2009 by Frank Filipponio
Filed under: Chevrolet, Chevy | Comments Off

GM is gearing up to announce the Chevy Volt’s first commercial markets at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Wednesday December 2nd.
Clearly, Southern California will be one of those places, which comes as no surprise considering the state’s long track record and interest in electric vehicles.  It was after all the same place where the […]

Posted on November 28th, 2009 by Lyle
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Filed under: Classics, Etc., Chevrolet, Toys/Games

We’re suckers for a happy ending - especially when it involves cars, kids, and hot pizza. Recall, if you will, this past summer when John Schnatter, founder of Papa John’s Pizza, was on a nationwide quest to find his beloved 1971 1/2 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 - a car he sold in the mid-Eighties to fund his first store. John found his car in Kentucky, paid out more than a quarter of a million dollars in finder’s fees, and then generously gave free pizzas from its 2,600 nationwide locations to all Camaro owners on August 26th.

Still feeling more than a bit elated with the return of his Z28, and intent on providing hope and inspiration to less fortunate children, Schnatter has now created a nifty little 1:64 scale diecast replica of his car. The metal cars sell for $4.99 apiece and each one comes with a coupon for a free medium cheese pizza ($1 from each car purchased will be donated to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation). In addition to selling the cars online, Papa John’s is donating 5,000 mini Camaros directly to Toys for Tots. All told, Papa John’s is contributing more than $155,000 to the Marine program and touching countless lives in the process. Go ahead and order a couple… we did. Full press release after the jump.

[Source: Papa John’s]

Continue reading Papa John’s selling recovered Camaro diecast, free pizza and charity involved

Papa John’s selling recovered Camaro diecast, free pizza and charity involved originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 27th, 2009 by Michael Harley
Filed under: Camaro, Chevrolet | Comments Off