Chat With Bob Boniface, Chevy Volt Design Honcho

There’s been such a hue and cry over the revised design of the production Volt, we decided to ring up the guy who designed it to find out what’s up. Bob Boniface has led the Volt design team from the earliest conversations through the concept phase and right up to the present day, when the final production Volt was unveiled at GM’s 100th birthday celebration in Detroit. And he says that the Volt’s big reveal today served to silence the naysayers, at least to an extent. He claims it’s one of those cars that really shines when you see it in person, and that a lot of the people calling it a Camry copy or an Acura TL wannabe were the very ones who became believers when they saw the stunning little car in the flesh. Fair enough, though clearly we’ll all have to see a live Volt before we can comment. More…

So, you have to know that the aggressive styling of the ultra-hot concept Volt had to be smoothed over some to make the car practical, NHTSA-legal, and able to get 40 miles on a charge—aerodynamics is everything, especially with EV’s. But did it have to be so jellybeaned out? In Bob’s words, the production version is a much more "sophisticated," "still-sporty," "modern styling statement"—so, I guess, more grown-up than the low-slung, predator-stanced, and totally badass-looking concept Volt. The 40-mile range was non-negotiable, Bob said, so it became a question of what pieces from the concept they could keep, while still getting what they needed out of the car. The "design vocabulary," he says, is very similar, but those who were ultimately hoping for an "electric Camaro" (whoa. Now does that sound like an awesome idea or what?) are bound to be disappointed. At least until they see the car in person! Hmm.

Speaking of that—will the Volt appeal to car enthusiasts? Bob emphasized the Volt’s performance potential—the instant torque provided by the electric motor, and the stellar vehicle dynamics thanks to the Volt’s super-low center of gravity. The battery pack, one of the vehicle’s heaviest components, lies along the center tunnel of the car, close to where the transmission would be on a RWD vehicle, so the handling is supposed to be pretty superb. He’s not even ruling out an eventual future in motorsports for the Volt, which is an entirely plausible scenario, considering how eagerly major motorsports series are gunning for "green" racing—the GRM Ultimate Track Car Challenge and the American Le Mans Series are just two series that feature a "green" or alt-fuel division, and even gas-guzzling NASCAR is looking into possibilities for running some kind of energy-efficient offshoot.  Oh man, I’d be the first to turn out to watch a Sprint Cup-style Volt spank an electric Camry all the way around the superspeedway!

As for the practical dimensions of owning and charging a plug-in—what about condo-dwellers, a key urban demographic for the Volt, who don’t have a garage where they can just plug the car in and can’t very well run an extension cord from their 15th-floor balcony? Bob has faith that the infrastructure will catch up quickly, much in the way it did with cell phones. He’s talking metered charging stations in apartment buildings, company garages, and even curbside, similar to what they’ve got in the UK, where Volt owners could charge up for pocket change. Bob says GM is in active discussion with the power companies to make this happen, and that those guys are looking at it as a major money-making opportunity. Though seeing as the Volt will reportedly cost less to run than your average fridge, it seems that it would truly have to dominate a huge segment of the market in order for the utility providers to jump on it.

It’s going to be really interesting to see how this all pans out. Bob says that GM is still absolutely on track for a November 2010 release, that there’ll be a huge party, and that the price will "certainly" still come in at under $40K. Best of luck, GM! I still don’t entirely understand why the General would’ve so heavily hyped a radically-designed concept whose production-ready counterpart would naturally be a disappointment by comparison. But after having spoken with Bob Boniface, I’m willing to give the new Volt design the benefit of the doubt. Let’s see what happens in 2010.

More photos at Jalopnik.