We’ve just returned from the belly of the Renaissance Center in Detroit, where General Motors celebrated its centennial with the unveiling of its keystone future product, the Chevrolet Volt.

The Car Connection has gotten its hands on some production images of the Chevrolet Volt, and many of those individuals responsible for it, just about a week ahead of the planned General Motors reveal in Detroit.

While all of the photos show the Volt at least a little bit obscured by executives and designers, we can clearly see the final product that has been such a long time in the making. Early impressions are that of a neatly detailed, yet altogether less sexy vehicle than its concept car starting place. The production Volt seems a little too tall, and a little too narrow, with a faux-grille that is entirely too plastic. Still, we’ll reserve our full critique until we get a chance to see the car in person next week, when many more details will no doubt be revealed as well.

+ The Car Connection: 2011 Chevrolet Volt: First Production Photos

New reports indicate that General Motors is planning to reveal the production version of its Chevrolet Volt (something like the car spied in the photo gallery above) in conjunction with plans for its 100-year anniversary celebrations later this month. A GM source was reported as saying that, “The rumors that a production version of the Volt will show up at the celebrations are true.”

The source went on to say that it will be the actual production version of the car, and not the concept, which will be on display for the anniversary festivities. The big event will be taking place at GM’s Detroit headquarters, and not at the Paris Auto Show as had previously been speculated.

GM’s anniversary is celebrated on the 16th of September but no word has come through as to the official date for the Volt launch yet.

+ Automotive News: GM plans to show production Volt this month

Honda has revealed the first official image of its next generation Insight Concept, set to be revealed in full force at this year’s Paris Auto Show in just about a month.

The Honda concept shares some styling cues with the FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle, though it’s hard to overlook its obvious resemblance to the Toyota Prius as well. Like the Prius, the Insight concept will offer the versatility of a five-door hatchback configuration, and gain the aerodynamic benefits of the reduced front end profile. Despite its visual similarity, Honda claims that the Insight will be priced “significantly below hybrids available today,” when the car debuts in the U.S. market next spring.

The Insight will go on sale with rather huge expectations from its parent company, which says that it expects to sell on the order of 200,000 examples worldwide, and more than 100,000 units in the U.S. alone. Those hybrid sales will also be boosted with the launch of a smaller, sportier model based on the CR-Z concept, after the Insight is revealed.

Hyundai's first entry into the gasoline-electric hybrid segment is scheduled to arrive on U.S. shores within the next two years via the Sonata sedan. Prototypes should to be hitting the road around November and this Sonata Hybrid is said to feature cutting-edge lithium-ion battery technology, but will not be plug-in rechargeable.

Vice president for product development John Krafcik says that the Sonata Hybrid should be launched sometime within the 2010 calendar year. This hybrid will, no doubt, go head-to-head against gasoline-electric mid-size offerings from Toyota, Chevrolet, and Nissan.

+ Automotive News: Hyundai plans to launch hybrid Sonata in 2010

General Motors has released a new set of Chevrolet Volt images today, showing engineers and artisans hard at work crafting the production version of the hybrid. These pictures don’t exactly tell the whole story of what the car will look like, but they do give us more of an insight into the car’s front grille treatment and, hold your breath, rear badging.

The best shot depicts the Volt’s high-tech front lighting, which seems to incorporate some kind of blue LED fog lamps at the extreme corners of the car. Most of the photos though, depict the building of a full size clay model of the car, as well as safety glass-bedecked workers making thoughtful faces and important gestures over the Volt’s all-important powertrain. Strong stuff.

Take a peek at Volt’s production form in the gallery above.

These are booming times for small car makers and sky-high fuel prices are causing some pretty interesting situations for the sale of high mpg vehicles.

Toyota can’t make copies of its Prius hybrid fast enough for the swelling demand, that’s bad news for Joe Consumer who’s just trying to cut down on his commuting costs every week, but great news for the dealers who are handing out the keys. J.D. Power has calculated that so far this summer (through the first three weeks of July) the average new Prius has spent only five days on dealer lots, while used 2007 model cars last only a bit longer at 20 days.

While we’ve seen images of a Toyota test mule for the next generation Prius hybrid already, that earlier test vehicle was little more than a powertrain mule built from the current model with a new front fascia attached. These new images reveal much more; the very first look at the all new, next generation Prius.

The images confirm the rumors that the Prius would be growing in exterior dimensions – the car seen here is both longer and wider than today’s version – meaning more usable space for backseat passengers and trunk storage. Toyota is said to be giving the Prius a power hike as well, supplying the car with better performance in addition to its beefier body. While one might expect that a larger more powerful car would indicate an attendant drop in fuel efficiency, we’re told that the new Prius will be even more fuel efficient than the old one. That’s a viable claim considering the pressure Toyota must be under to improve the vaunted mpg numbers for its green halo car.

One of the ways in which Toyota will pull off this trick new packaging is by replacing the current car’s nickel-metal hydride batteries with smaller lithium-ion units. Reported solar panels on the roof also seem to be for real.

Look for the Prius to start a family in this generation as well, with possible station wagon and convertible variants reportedly on the table.

Scroll down for the spy shooter’s own words on the next gen Prius and be sure to browse through our gallery of exclusive images above.

 
Larry Nitz, General Motor's executive director for hybrid powertrain engineering, told listeners at the recent Plug-In Conference in California that the Saturn Vue Hybrid had already undergoing real world testing. According to Nitz, the Vue Hybrid's lithium-ion batteries already had extensive battery management work done to them both in the lab and on the road. It was also mentioned that the plug-in charge integration was fully operational, though still in its early stages.

After spending a little over a week and a half in our test fleet, we found the 2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid to be a good contender in this segment, but not something we’re eager to drive on a daily basis. For the new model year, Ford bumped up the power of the four-cylinder gasoline motor to 175 horsepower, but overall acceleration is still somewhat slow. On top of that, the weak engine mated to continuously variable transmission creates a really horrible noise when a lot of power is needed. The interior, however, is quite pleasant, and we're definitely not complaining about nearly 30 miles per gallon in observed fuel economy.

Click through to read all of our individual impressions of the Mariner Hybrid.