The Chevrolet Volt might just prove to be the game-changing car its supporters say it is, but General Motors expects to lose money on the car "for years," said Vice Chairman Bob Lutz.

Maximum Bob's frank admission isn't terribly surprising given the resources GM is pouring into the Volt and the expense of the technology behind the range-extended EV, but you've got to admire his honesty.

"We won't make a dime on this car for years, and the board is OK with that," he told a group of Volt enthusiasts at the New York International Auto Show, according to the Detroit News.

As for the car itself, Lutz says it's still on pace for a late 2010 launch. Battery testing is going well, he said during a meeting with reporters, and the competition to supply the batteries is "a horse race" that will run "a little longer."

And why is GM prepared to lose its shirt?

Lutz said GM screwed up by ceding the hybrid market to Toyota even though it had largely mastered EV technology in the 1960s. The General won't make that mistake again, he said, even if it means subsidizing the Volt until it's firmly established. That's a noteworthy about-face, because according to Lutz, GM dropped the ball on hybrids because it believed it would lose $250 million a year selling them. Toyota, on the other hand, decided that short-term losses on the Prius would pay huge dividends once it caught on.

GM clearly hopes the same strategy will work with the Volt and put the company at the forefront of automotive technology. There's no question GM hopes to leapfrog Toyota and claim the green mantle – a point Lutz stressed in an interview with Wired.com not long ago.

Johan Willems, global director of communications for GM, told us he couldn't confirm the Detroit News story but said "it is absolutely normal" to "not prioritize making money for some time"

when adopting new technology.

"We need to get people rallying behind new technology and the Volt will not be an exception to that rule," he said. "In general, it takes a couple of generations of learning before a certain volume can be reached and that with volume the making money question is solved."

And about those batteries? Lutz says GM hoped to name a battery supplier next month but is still testing battery packs from Compact Power and Continental Automotive Systems. As for who's got the edge, Lutz wouldn't say.

"It's a horse race," he said, according to the Associated Press. GM plans to "run the two in parallel for a while longer" before deciding which batteries to put in the Volt. Both "have extreme strengths and some weaknesses, but the balance of strengths and weaknesses are different between the two potential suppliers."

Lutz still says the Volt will be done by late 2010, and so far the engineers haven't hit any major snags. "We are doing all of the testing and so far I will say, no failures, no problems. The battery technology is working great."

Photo courtesy GM