Even though General Motors is in the midst of bankruptcy protection, the firm's engineers and technicians have somehow managed to stay ahead in the development of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid - or at least that's what they support. On Wednesday, the automaker completed the build of the first pre-production Volt more than a week ahead of schedule. Up until now, the development team was working with prototype mules utilizing the body of the Chevy Cruze and the hybrid drivetrain of the Volt.

The model's chief engineer, Andrew Farah, took the first pre-production Volt for a quick spin and while he was at it, GM also recorded the test drive on film. According to Farah, only a few Volts are being produced per week now but the company will soon ramp up production to create a fleet of around 80 pre-production vehicles by October.

"Most of these vehicles will be used for testing and validating the production intent design as well as developing the final vehicle software and controls - we'll also use them to tune the vehicle's overall driving experience," said Farah. "Some of these Volts will have very short lives as they'll be used in safety and structural integrity testing."