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First Chevrolet Volt Rolls Off The Line Nov. 1

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Mark your calendars — General Motors fires up the Volt assembly line on Nov. 1.

Lyle Dennis over at GM-Volt.com got his hands on the 2011 model year ordering guide the brass sent to dealers, and it says that’s the day GM plans to begin building production models of the Chevrolet Volt. The General always has said the Volt will roll off the line by the end of 2010, but the paperwork Dennis perused offers the first concrete date.

Dealers have until September to place orders, and General Motors will on Nov. 17 announce how many Volts are headed to each dealer. The car is slated to appear first in California, Michigan and Washington, D.C. Leo Karl, a Chevrolet dealer in Connecticut, notes there is some confusion in the timeline General Motors laid out in the ordering guide but says the bottom line is it looks like we’ll see the car in November.

“Obviously, this is all preliminary but the great news is that it is in writing and it simply marks another milestone along the way to seeing the first retail-ready Volts on the road,” Karl told Dennis.

GM is hedging its bets and wouldn’t confirm the Nov. 1 date.

“The exact date may fluctuate some in preparation for launch, but at this point all indications are that we’re on target to begin production later this year,” spokesman Rob Peterson told us.

The General already has built more than 80 production-ready prototypes, known in the biz at integration vehicles, and it will fire up the Detroit-Hamtramck plant next month to prepare the assembly line for full-scale production. Still no word on price, and it still looks like the car will come in at around $40,000 before the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.