First Chevrolet Volt for Sale to be Auctioned Online, Benefitting Math and Sciences Education in Detroit Public Schools

The first Chevrolet Volt available for retail sale will be offered at public auction with the proceeds benefiting math and sciences education in the Detroit Public Schools.

“Every aspect of the Volt – from its aerodynamic shape to its battery chemistry – is a testament to the importance of math and sciences,” said General Motors North America President Mark Reuss. “By encouraging Detroit-area students to pursue these topics, we hope to cultivate the next generation of engineers who will build upon the Volt’s innovative technologies.”

Reuss announced the auction during an event at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, where the Volt is assembled. At the event, Reuss announced the first Volt built during regular production will be retained by Chevrolet in recognition of the team’s efforts to bring the revolutionary car from concept to reality. The first Volt   bearing the vehicle identification number ending in BU100002 – will be auctioned with all proceeds benefitting the Detroit Public Schools Foundation.

The Volt offered in the auction has a Viridian Joule exterior, Light Neutral interior with dark accents, Premium Trim Package, Rear Camera and Park Assist Package, and polished wheels. The auction also includes a 240-volt charging station and home installation. The opening bid is $50,000.

Bids for the first retail Volt will be accepted at www.bidonthevolt.com until 6 p.m. on Dec. 14. The winning bid will be announced by Chevrolet on Dec. 16. The winner’s Volt will be delivered in December.

Funds raised through the auction will be donated to the Detroit Public Schools Foundation to support initiatives such as robotics competitions – including students’ entry fees, travel costs, and competition-related equipment. 

“One of our primary focus areas is science and math enrichment,” said Chacona W. Johnson, President & CEO of the foundation.  “Knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math is critical for the success of our students in higher education, and in their future careers in the 21st century workforce.”

The tax-exempt Detroit Public Schools Foundation is dedicated to supporting Detroit students. In addition to science and math enrichment, the foundation supports fine and performing arts programs; early childhood investment; building academic and athletic leadership; and college preparatory investment.

“An estimated 80 percent of jobs in the next decade are going to require skills based in math and science. With the support of GM, Detroit students will be better equipped to make a difference in Detroit, in Michigan, and in the United States,” said Robert Bobb, Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager. “We appreciate General Motors’ support in developing the next generation of engineers.”

The Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle that can operate under a range of weather climates and driving conditions with little concern of being stranded by a depleted battery. The Volt has a total driving range of up to 375 miles, based on EPA estimates. For the first 35 miles, the Volt can drive gas- and tailpipe-emissions-free using a full charge of electricity stored in its 16-kWh lithium-ion battery. When the Volt’s battery runs low, a gas powered engine/generator seamlessly operates to extend the driving range another 340 miles on a full tank.

Phillips Chevrolet has Illinois’ Largest Chevy Inventory! We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and are one of the Largest Chevy Dealers in the United States. Visit us at www.phillipschevy.com. View our specials! Follow Phillips Chevrolet on Facebook and Twitter to receive coupons, special offers and prizes!

2011 Chevrolet Cruze Named ‘Urban Car of the Year’

The all-new Chevrolet Cruze is the Urban Car of the Year as voted by judges at Decisive Media and an independent panel of 15 automotive journalists.

Cruze features the spaciousness and amenities of a midsize car with the fuel economy of a compact. The Cruze Eco model features a new Ecotec 1.4L turbo engine that delivers an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 42 miles per gallon on the highway, leads the segment in fuel economy. It also is a segment leader in safety features, including 10 standard air bags.

 “If you really want to see evidence of a turnaround at GM, look no farther than Cruze,” said Lyndon Conrad Bell, editor in chief of Decisive Auto. “Handsome styling, an attractive interior, competent powertrains, an enjoyable driving experience, exceptional practicality, and ready affordability all come together to make the Chevrolet Cruze Decisive Auto’s 2011 Urban Car of The Year.”

 “I was very impressed after driving the new Chevrolet Cruze for the first time,” said Randi Payton, publisher of Decisive Media. “I immediately saw it as a contender for Urban Car of the Year and there was no doubt in my mind that our 15 judges would think so too. When the votes were tallied, my predictions rang true.”

“We set out to redefine the compact segment with Cruze by offering customers more of the features they want for less money than comparably equipped competitive models,” said Margaret Brooks, Chevrolet Small Car marketing director. “The Cruze offers significantly more value than the competition – with more standard equipment, segment leading safety features, segment leading fuel economy and a fun-to-drive ride characteristic.”

Cruze pricing ranges from $16,995 to $22,695.

Phillips Chevrolet has Illinois’ Largest Chevy Inventory! We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and are one of the Largest Chevy Dealers in the United States. Visit us at www.phillipschevy.com. View our specials! Follow Phillips Chevrolet on Facebook and Twitter to receive coupons, special offers and prizes!

How GM made Volt a Reality

Long before the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors designed a groundbreaking electric car, the EV1, and learned from that experience it doesn't always pay to be ahead of the pack. GM built EV1s for only three years, pulling the plug in 1999 after losing $1 billion.

But five years later, GM executives were bristling at the acclaim being heaped on Toyota Motor Corp. and its Prius gas-electric hybrid. "I was getting sick of it," said Bob Lutz, then GM's chief product strategist. Emulating Toyota by making hybrids was out of the question. Lutz's idea to develop a new electric car was roundly rejected, too. But GM had to come up with something to counter the impression that the Detroit automaker was content to churn out Hummers and other guzzlers, oblivious to the debates about climate change and energy security.

Drawing on lessons learned from the EV1 and its experience with batteries, GM carved its own path to design the Chevrolet Volt. Describing it as an extended-range electric car, GM will mark the official start of the Volt's production Tuesday at the Hamtramck plant near downtown Detroit.

GM shuns the term "plug-in hybrid," saying that the Volt is neither a traditional hybrid nor an electric car, but combines some of their best characteristics in an elaborately engineered vehicle that's unlike any other. The result, executives say, is a car that's as convenient as it is fuel-efficient.

No 'range anxiety' with Volt

In the near future, forecasting firm J.D. Power and Associates expects plug-in hybrids to outsell electric cars in the United States. Plug-in hybrid sales are forecast to reach 145,000 in 2015, compared with 90,000 all-electric car sales, said Mike Omotoso, senior manager of powertrain research at J.D. Power in Troy. The Volt and Leaf are just now going on sale, but already fans and naysayers have formed camps on the blogosphere. Electric car skeptics say batteries are less reliable and versatile than internal combustion engines. Today's batteries may be much more powerful than those in the EV1 and other electric cars of the past, but they still offer a limited range. Batteries also take a long time to charge, and need chargers. "There's no such thing as a 5-gallon can of electricity," Lutz said.

For the first 35 miles, the Volt can run on electricity alone, but it has a 1.4-liter engine to top up the 400-pound battery. The EPA estimates its total range at 379 miles. That combination eliminates "range anxiety," the fear of being stranded with a dead battery, which is the biggest drawback of electric cars. GM engineers know that feeling, having experienced it with EV1s in the 1990s. "They'd start sweating when they'd get down to that last bar of electricity — 'I'm not going to make it home,'" said Bob Boniface, design director for the Volt.

In 2004, after Toyota launched a stylish second-generation Prius, Lutz suggested that GM develop an all-electric concept car powered by advanced lithium-ion batteries. They were lighter and more compact than nickel-metal hydride batteries, which are used in Toyota's and other hybrids. Lutz hadn't been at GM during the EV1 era, but other managers, including GM's chairman and CEO, were still smarting from the experience. "Rick Wagoner said, 'We lost $1 billion on the last e-car we did. Do you really want to do this again, Bob?'" Lutz backed down — until he read that Tesla, a startup, was building an electric car with lithium-ion batteries. "Then I really got mad," Lutz said. "How come a small California company can do an electric car with lithium-ion batteries, and the world's smartest automobile company, GM, says it's impossible?"

GM executives spoke with Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhardt, who described the difficulty they had making the roadster. Jon Lauckner, former head of product development who now heads GM's venture unit, came up with the concept for the Volt. Instead of installing a big expensive battery pack to power the car, Lauckner proposed having a smaller, more affordable battery delivering a 40-mile range with a small engine to recharge it.

GM's engineers had applied such a system at their Milford proving ground to keep the EV1 batteries charged. "They had a little trailer that had a gasoline engine and a generator on it that could extend the range of the EV1s," Boniface said. "That's where the idea came from."

When the concept was outlined to the engineers and designers working on the project, "there was a sigh of relief," Boniface said. "We'd spent a lot of money on a vehicle that wasn't ready for prime time."

Larry Burns, then head of research and a fervent advocate of fuel cell technology, took the project to GM's automotive strategy board for approval in 2006.

Getting back in the game

At the 2007 North American International Auto Show, GM rolled out a sleek Chevrolet Volt concept car that drew as much skepticism as it did praise. GM's archrivals, Toyota and Ford, are now developing their own plug-in hybrids. GM, meanwhile, is already working on the second-generation Volt. "Everybody said it was junk, and it won't work," said Lutz. "But now they're all doing it."

Phillips Chevrolet has Illinois’ Largest Chevy Inventory! We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and are one of the Largest Chevy Dealers in the United States. Visit us at www.phillipschevy.com. View our specials! Follow Phillips Chevrolet on Facebook and Twitter to receive coupons, special offers and prizes!

Extended Service Hours

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Phillips Chevrolet has Illinois’ Largest Chevy Inventory! We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and are one of the Largest Chevy Dealers in the United States. Visit us at www.phillipschevy.com. View our specials! Follow Phillips Chevrolet on Facebook and Twitter to receive coupons, special offers and prizes!

Toys for Tots at Phillips Chevrolet

Phillips Chevrolet invites you to get into the Holiday Spirit!

Once again, we will collect for the Toys for Tots Foundation.  This year, we are asking you to bring in a new unwrapped toy.  We have placed receptacles in our showroom, cashier and service areas for your convenience.

Happy Holidays!

Phillips Chevrolet has Illinois’ Largest Chevy Inventory! We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and are one of the Largest Chevy Dealers in the United States. Visit us at www.phillipschevy.com. View our specials! Follow Phillips Chevrolet on Facebook and Twitter to receive coupons, special offers and prizes!

EPA rates Volt 'all-electric' mpg at 93, range at 35 miles

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt, an innovative plug-in hybrid, got not one but three different mileage ratings from the U.S. EPA today.

On electricity alone, the Volt achieves the equivalent of 93 mpg. Powered solely by the gasoline engine, the Volt gets 37 mpg. Running on a combination of electricity and gasoline, the Volt gets 60 mpg, the EPA determined.

Additionally, the EPA said the Volt has a 35-mile range on electricity alone and a range of 379 miles with gasoline and electricity.

General Motors Co. had been saying that the Volt had a range of 35-50 miles on one full battery charge. “We have said that the range is variable on how you drive,” said Doug Parks, GM's vehicle line executive in charge of the Volt. The Volt falls into the EPA compact vehicle segment, which includes such vehicles as the Ford Focus, Chevrolet Cruze and Toyota Corolla. The Volt's mpg rating was rated as best in the subcompact class by the EPA. The new mileage label was created by the EPA with input from GM. 

Earlier this month, Tom Stephens, GM's global product chief, said Chevrolet would begin shipping the Volt to dealers as soon as the EPA issues a mileage label for the vehicle. Parks declined to say when shipments would begin, however. GM's Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant has built Volts for shipment since early November. Parks would not provide a number.

GM has said the combination of a pure electric drive motor and an efficient, range-extending engine, will give the Volt up to 350 total miles of range.

The Volt is the most aerodynamic vehicle GM has produced, Stephens said. GM has said the Volt can travel 25 to 50 miles on battery power alone and offer additional driving range of 310 miles when assisted by a 1.4-liter engine with a full tank of gasoline.

“The Volt does everything we said it was going to do the very first day we announced it — and more,” Stephens said earlier this month. “If you recall back then how many people were saying that they don't even have a battery, they don't have motors or any of this, can this be real?

“The fact is it is real and you can drive it now.”

Stephens said GM is maintaining its plan to produce 10,000 Volts through 2011 and 45,000 in 2012. However, that number could change depending on customer demand and the ability of suppliers to provide parts for the vehicle, he said.

Phillips Chevrolet has Illinois’ Largest Chevy Inventory! We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and are one of the Largest Chevy Dealers in the United States. Visit us at www.phillipschevy.com. View our specials! Follow Phillips Chevrolet on Facebook and Twitter to receive coupons, special offers and prizes!

Chevy Volt Wins Its Third “Best of” Award

The Chevrolet Volt has won its third award from one of the major car enthusiasts magazines, being named one of Car and Driver’s 2011 10 Best Cars. Last week the Volt was named car of the year by both Motor Trend and Automobile magazines. General Motors Corp.’s extended-range plug-in Volt won the title of 2011 Motor Trend Car of the Year and 2011 Automobile of the Year. 

Along with the Volt, the Cadillac CTS-V was also named as one of the 10 Best Cars of 2011. These two wins for General Motors makes them the only American automaker to earn two spots on Car and Driver’s list.

Phillips Chevrolet has Illinois’ Largest Chevy Inventory! We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and are one of the Largest Chevy Dealers in the United States. Visit us at www.phillipschevy.com. View our specials! Follow Phillips Chevrolet on Facebook and Twitter to receive coupons, special offers and prizes!

Gas Card Winner

Phillips Chevrolet’s sales consultant, Jaime Birks, congratulates Christopher Samaras for winning our Facebook giveaway. Christopher won a $50 gas card to BP! Congratulations, Christopher!

Phillips Chevrolet has Illinois’ Largest Chevy Inventory! We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and are one of the Largest Chevy Dealers in the United States. Visit us at www.phillipschevy.com. View our specials! Follow Phillips Chevrolet on Facebook and Twitter to receive coupons, special offers and prizes!

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Phillips Chevrolet will donate a $5 to Make-A-Wish for every fan that posts "I just helped grant a wish to a child in need!" to our Facebook fan page!

We would like to grant the wish of a child with a life-threatening medical condition. Our dealership would love to involve our fans in this charitable effort. Help Phillips Chevrolet reach our goal of $5000 by supporting a great cause.

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