I’m a sucker for factory tours and enjoy watching how stuff is made. GM released a video of how the Chevy Volt electric vehicle is manufactured in Detroit. Henry Ford would be proud of the mostly robotic assembly line. Any geek would enjoy the gadgetry involved in building the Volt.
This time-lapse video compresses the Chevy Volt assembly process down to under two minutes. Obviously it takes much longer for Chevy’s robots and the union guys to weld and bolt a Volt together.
The Chevy Volt is a plug-in hybrid vehicle that will run on electricity for most commuters’ entire trip. There is a gas engine that will kick in when the batteries are depleted.
It is impressive to see that many humans still involved in the assembly process. Especially compared to the Nissan Leaf video, also just made available. The other thing I would note is the level of light and daylight in the Japanese plant is huge compared to the dark dreary American plant.
These enviromental issues effect the humans involved in day-long assembly operations. But then with humans, comes human error. Which goes a long way towards explaining the lingering quality issues the american automaker still has, and will continue to have. I really don’t want to have to explain to my kid what a “Friday” car is…..