Chevrolet Volt Demo Cars Arrive in US Showrooms

Following the decision to speed up the national rollout of the Volt in order to match customer interest, Chevrolet today announced the Volt demo vehicles have already began arriving at US dealerships, which means customers will soon be able to test drive the electric car.

Specifically, Chevrolet dealerships that will receive the vehicles for customer test drives over the next few weeks, include initial launch markets of California, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

According to the automaker, about 550 demonstration Volts will be delivered to Chevy dealers in the first quarter of 2011, and more than 2,500 by the end of this year.

Chevy expects to deliver Volts in all 50 states by the end of 2011. Customers nationwide will be able to order Volts with participating dealers beginning in the second quarter.  Deliveries will begin in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii in the third quarter.

"We know the best way to experience the Volt is to get behind the wheel and drive it. Now dealers will have the ability to allow consumers to form their own opinions of the Volt through test drives and demonstrations," said Cristi Landy, Chevrolet marketing director.

According to GM research, 85 percent of consumers searching for information about the Volt on Chevrolet.com looked at other Chevrolet vehicles. "We are seeing that the Volt is increasing traffic onto our dealer showroom floors and is exposing consumers to Chevy's line of 'gas-friendly' vehicles, including the Cruze Malibu and Equinox," Landy said.