At first, of course, someone else is going to have to manufacture the batteries the the Volt (and whatever other E-REV options the automaker comes up with.) But after the first couple of years, the automotive giant will be making its own batteries at a facility (hopefully) in Michigan.

The announcement, of course, drew a huge round of applause here in Detroit. The lithium-ion cells themselves will be made by LG in Korea, but they are combing the cells into the Volt's battery here in the U.S..

GM also announced that they would be building “America’s largest automotive battery lab” which sounds more impressive than it is, since I can’t think of another one of any size in the U.S.. I did find out from Tony Posawatz, though, that this lab will be available to test anyone's battery technology. So if you make a new sort of battery, GM will gladly test it for you, determining the lifetime of the battery, charge times and capacity. And then, I imagine, they'll try and buy the technology from you.

2010 Prius to Get 50 MPG, Solar Roof

Toyota just unveiled the third-generation Toyota Prius, a car that has absolutely revolutionized the industry and what it means to be environmentally conscious in a car-centric world.

It's easy to say that this third-generation car isn't as big of an advancement as the last two were. But I'm actually going to say that I'm pretty dang impressed.

The car is bigger, more spacious, has better acceleration and actually improves mileage number significantly. This new Prius is the most efficient production car in America OF ANY SIZE. If Honda was still making the original Insight, yes, that would beat it, but the 2010 Prius truly will be the most advanced and most efficient car on the road.

New to the car, aside from all of the various innovations that made it's tremendous mileage numbers possible, is a solar sun roof, which will keep the vehicle cool on hot days, eliminating the need for huge bursts of AC, and thus strain on the battery.

As we just noted in our rather last, rather sobering post, there isn't going to be a lot of gravy at this year's North American International Auto Show...but that doesn't mean there won't be a lot of high quality meat, especially for the greens.

In fact, I don't think I've been this excited about an auto show since I started blogging. What will we be seeing? Well, I can't say for certain, but we can start by skimming the surface of what we know already.

BYD will be showing off the world's first production plug-in vehicle, and while it won't be available in the U.S. until 2011, it's pretty impressive that China managed to beat both the U.S. and Japan to the punch on plug-in hybrids.

Fisker, will be unveiling it's production plug-in Karma. The car, which made a huge splash last year in concept form, is like a cheaper, more practical, more beautiful Telsa Roadster.

Toyota Moving Beyond the Prius: Pure EV by 2012

Toyota showed off this concept electric vehicle, the FT-EV today at the Detroit Auto Show. And while it's an adorable little micro-car concept that might never see the light of day, they used the opportunity to promise a pure electric vehicle by 2012.

Interestingly, they aren't the only ones. Ford also promised a (very similar) BEV by 2012, with the same market (urban dwellers) in mind. Toyota hinted at a 100-mile range, the same as Fords promised BEV, but it looks as if Ford will be delivering the vehicle in a more traditional casing.

The FT-EV is based on Toyota's iQ, a peppy little three-seater for young urbanites in Japan. It's Toyota's answer to the Smart Car, and the FT-EV, of course, is Toyota's answer to the electric Smart Car. Though, the Smart EV should beat Toyota to the punch by at least a year.

Part one of a tour of the Detroit Auto Show. Tomorrow we'll be hitting up Toyota and Honda, and then in parts three and four you'll see news from Ford, Chrysler, BYD, Fisker, Tesla, VW, Mercedes and more!

This blog first appeared at EcoGeek: "Detroit Tour, Part 1"