It's a revolutionary car, $750M is a pittance compared to what normal new generation vehicles cost to design, develop and manufacture.

The amount of buzz the Volt is generating (pun intended) all over the globe is worth its development money. There's already speculation that the Volt (and/or its technology) will be built in Europe and Australia.

 

I don't believe it would be quite that simple. Most of the components of the volt are probably specific to the volt. You wouldn't be able to slap this system, without extensive, expensive modifications into another vehicle. It would be easier to put the batteries into a suburban/tahoe/silverado, as there is more ground clearance, and more space in general, but I don't believe the electric motor would produce the power necessary to tow a boat, or even be able to haul a 5k+ lb vehicle, with no payload.

 

How ironic is it that the car that was supposed to "save" GM based on reputation alone might now be helping to run it into the ground?

 

You do understand that the Volt plugs into a 110v outlet (or, if available, 220v to charge quicker) at your home or office to charge the batteries, right? The onboard gasoline powered generator is a "range extender" that maintains a charge until you can get to a plug (after you have exhausted the onboard battery range). This car is, for all intents and puposes, an electric vehicle. Future evolution will determine HOW the electricity is generated for range-extending purposes. The ICE could be easily (relatively) replaced by any number of power sources (diesel, hydrogen, butane, etc.). But if you drive less than the range provided by the batteries between plug-in availability, you won't need that back-up power at all. The point is, the Volt is the first generation of a true mass production electric vehicle. Since a gasoline-powered ICE is the current best choice (both in economics and infrastructure) for extending the range, that's what the "first" Volt will use. As battery technology evolves, the "range extender" will become less important and, eventually, will probably be replaced by a small fuel cell-type generator.

 

I think the underpinning technology of the VOlt can be transferred to other vehicles.
Isn't this what they're calling E-Flex?

 

I believe it's mainly E-Flex because, as routesixtysixer points out, the electric drive system doesn't care what the range extender is - whether it's gas, diesel, fuel cell, etc. The Opel Flextreme concept uses a diesel for Europe where the Volt uses a gas engine for the U.S.

Nonetheless, you're right, I do think it's technology that should be pretty scalable across car lines over time once the cost comes down some.