I used to work in oil exploration and can assure you that the oil companies will not sit still during the launch of the Volt. I predict gas will be around $5.00 a gallon prior to the launch but will drop to whatever price is deemed low enough to kill off interest in the Volt. GM is being really brave betting the farm on the Volt, but it takes a major player like GM to pull this off. Scaling up production on a new battery technology could cost GM a billion dollars over 4 years that to make the Volt competitve, GM will absorb. After 4 years if demand stays high, GM will be rewarded. The public can not afford to be fickle on this matter and ignore the low gas prices. The public needs to know that they have no control over the price of petrol and do in fact have control over the cost of electricity. If power companies start to raise rates, then the public will buy and install solar panals and grid intertie inverters, it is really that simple. I live in Southern California and our rates are $0.15 per kw/hr, the highest in the nation. At this rate I'm getting a 9% return on my investment in grid intertied solar panals.