With GM set to begin selling the Chevy Volt later this year, there are undoubtedly tens of thousands of drivers ready to purchase one of these hotly anticipated electric cars. But wanting a Chevy Volt and getting a Chevy Volt are likely to be two very different things.

GM’s production plans for the Chevy Volt could be called conservative at best with only 10,000 Volts slated for production in 2011. Production is set to increase in 2012 up to 30,000 but even then demand is likely to be far from met unless the electric car is a total flop.

Currently GM has a list of potential buyers that is 53,000 names long. Despite the obvious interest and media attention, GM is playing it safe.

“We want to make sure, at the beginning, that everything is right, “GM spokesman Rob Peterson stated. Not only will GM be entering very different territory with the electric car, it also need to be sure that dealerships are properly prepared to service the Chevy Volt’s unique systems.

Not only is GM putting the brakes on the number of Volts it’s selling each year, it’s even restricting the places that it can be purchase with only six states seeing dealerships getting the Chevy Volt.

According to the New York Times, GM has agreed to sell Saab to the small Dutch company, Spyker Cars.

Spyker, known for it’s high-end sports cars, will breathe new life into Saab, which otherwise, would probably ceased to exist.

GM Saab facilities, based in Sweden, had already initiated shutting down at the start of 2010. The sale to Spyker will stop the scuttling of the Saab infrastructure and see the facilities start producing Saab vehicles again.

If GM has its way, America’s infatuation with the pickup truck won’t necessarily have to come with nearly as much eco-guilt. GM is currently investing big, in ways to significantly improve fuel efficiency on their newer lines of trucks.

The focus of the investment, which is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, will be on improving the mileage of the full size GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado (pictured above).

GM is coming at the improvements from all angles and going beyond typical engine adjustments with things like an upgraded grille that would include electronically adjusted openings that would boost aerodynamic efficiency while engine cooling is not required.

Harvard-Westlake middle school in L.A. will be getting a lesson in electric vehicles on November 30th, as GM will be doing a presentation on the inner workings of the 2011 Chevy Volt (pictured above).

The presentation, which will also be broadcast on the web, will examine the basic principles behind electric cars like the Volt, and how GM expects them to be the vehicle of the future. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer period which will hopefully involve an inquisitive student asking why GM dragged its feet on electric vehicles up until now.

The Chevy Volt will also be shown to the general public as it will be making an appearance at the Los Angeles Auto Show. In its press release GM stated that they wanted to do the presentation for the middle schoolers because, “Today’s middle schoolers are tomorrow’s leaders.”

Today, General Motors released two interior photos to coincide with the Chevy Cruze’s unveiling at the Paris Motor Show this week. And can we just say that the interior looks swank? With tweed-like fabric covers and slick colored panels along with a slick, centrally-located LCD screen, the Cruze definitely trumps the Colbalt in design.

Chief designer Taewan Kim says that the new Cruze’s design is meant to be “bold, not evolutionary. We wanted to take a big step forward, making a strong design statement for Chevrolet products around the world.”

The Chevy Cruze, which is speculated to be taking the place of the Colbalt, will hit the European market in March of 2009, with U.S. production at the Lordstown, Ohio, plant, where the Cobalt is currently made, beginning in June 2010. So US buyers won’t be getting the Cruze until April 2010 as a 2011 model.

On 2011 Cruze’s official site, GM says, “Cruze boasts ample interior space, surprising cargo capacity and comfortable seating for five. With exacting safety standards and quality build, Cruze delivers on Chevy’s promise to offer a smartly designed compact at an exceptional value.”

After three days of hearing a federal judge has approved a plan that allows General Motors to sell its best assets to a government-run company.

The three days saw 850 objections to the restructuring plan addressed. Ultimately the judge agreed with GM’s main point that the sale was mandatory to save the company.

This ruling is a significant victory for the Obama Administration as it has been putting enormous pressure on the American auto industry to restructure in a very short amount of time.

In June, Chrysler rose from bankruptcy after only 42 days despite seeing shcallenges from three state funds that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

By Friday, General Motors will likely have be a changed company, having taken the fast track to the bankruptcy courts and coming out the other end as a smaller car manufacturer with fewer brands and a greater focus on more fuel-efficient cars like the Chevy Volt (pictured above).

In a Web-based interview with the media Tuesday, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said the company may take a closer look at what it spends on fuel cell development. When asked about fuel cells, Henderson said “while we need to be more efficient in this area, we are confident we can maintain the capabilities necessary to win in the market going forward.”

General Motors declared bankruptcy this month and is selling off subsidiaries. Any cuts could have a huge impact on Rochester because General Motors employs over three hundred people at a fuel cell research center. Henderson added that fuel cell vehicles are still “some considerable time away.”

General Motors, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, has sold its Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd., according to the New York Times. GM has been somewhat tight-lipped on the sale, saying Tuesday it had found a buyer for their Hummer brand but declined to say who the buyer was or how much they would pay for the company.

The Hummer has been in serious trouble since the near recession, sky-rocketing gas prices, as well as a growing public interest in more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles. The Hummer’s buyer, Sichuan Tengzhong, based in Chengdu, China, has been expanding its products to include heavy vehicles.

GM says they hope the sale of the Hummer brand will save more than 3,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at various Hummer dealerships.

Currently I’m writing this post in Florida at an Orlando Car Rental place. Thankfully they do not have hummers laying around to be rented, I’m just waiting until they sort out getting me my hybrid!

Michael Moore is lashing out against General Motors, who formally filed for bankruptcy today. Moore took to his website publishing an open letter to GM, which blames oil companies for preventing advancement  with eco-friendly technologies and also advocates clean mass transportation, fuel-efficient vehicles.

Moore writes, “100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front — and the back — seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it’s over. It’s a new day and a new century. The President — and the UAW — must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.

Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.

So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.”

It was a bad day for GM’s retired auto workers, who will lose their benefits in the wake of the auto giant filing for bankruptcy.

It was recently unveiled that a fund set up a few years ago to protect those benefits had been mismanaged and is now  underfunded. The UAW – United Automobile Workers union – has learned that retirees will lose their dental and vision insurance beginning in July and that further cutbacks may occur in 2010 and 2011.

The General Motors Retirees Association, a national advocacy organization devoted to the preservation of pension, health care, and other benefits earned by GM retirees, is outraged.

“Imagine a city larger than Peoria, Illinois, or Abilene, Texas. Now imagine that every single person in that city might lose catastrophic health insurance, prescription drug benefits, life insurance, and her or his hard-earned pension,” said Karen DeOrnellas, Director of Communications for GMRA. “This is the situation today for GM salaried retirees.”

“We want a reorganized GM to succeed, but bankruptcy shouldn’t push tens of thousands of retirees and their families into poverty or endanger their health when those people did nothing wrong,” DeOrnellas added.