Just yesterday, GM finally revealed the production version of one of the most anticipated cars of the decade, perhaps several decades — the Chevy Volt. Some information about the Volt has been available for a long time, but yesterday was the first time anyone outside of GM’s iron curtain laid eyes on what many hope will be the auto giant’s messiah.

The Volt will be different from popular hybrids available today (like the Prius) in that it will be a series hybrid instead of a parallel hybrid (read more about that distinction at Wikipedia, if you care). It’s quite simple: in parallel hybrids like the Prius, Civic hybrid, Camry hybrid, etc, a small electric motor and the traditional gas motor can both drive the wheels. In a series hybrid, only the electric motor can drive the wheels, and the gas engine is there purely as a backup generator to charge the batteries that drive the electric motor. This gives the series hybrid the ability to go a decent distance without burning a single drop of gasoline — in the Volt’s case, GM claims it will be 40 miles.

So 40 miles on just electricity, and since you can plug it into any electrical outlet to charge it (with a cost estimated at around $0.80 for a full charge) this thing will no doubt be very cheap to operate. Imagine how great it would be, if you live less than 20 miles from where you work, to be able to go to and from work all week without ever using any gas. Good for your wallet, good for the environment, everybody wins, right? This thing will be a revolution, won’t it? Ah, but you must be wondering what the Volt will cost.

GM hasn’t unveiled specific pricing yet, but the latest rumblings hint that it will be higher than the $30k GM originally wanted — closer to $40k. Yikes. That’s well above the average car buyer’s means, and is getting into real luxury car territory. And at $40k, you’re starting to get out of the price range where the buyer cares much about fuel economy.

Looking purely at fuel costs, let’s compare. Say in two years, you’re comparing Honda’s new 60 mpg Insight hybrid that costs about $20k (which is supposed to go on sale in 2009) against the Chevy Volt that’s pushing $40k. Here’s where the problem comes in — what’s the Volt’s MPG rating? If you drive less than 40 miles between charges all the time, it consumes no gas at all. Even in that ideal scenario, driving 12,000 miles per year, you’d have to drive the Volt for 25 years before making up the $20k difference from the Honda — and of course by then we’ll finally have our flying cars that we’ve been promised for the past half century or so.

So it’s not really for those looking to save money. But that’s not what this version is about. This car is the tip of the iceberg, the herald of a new way of building automobiles. The shape is pretty conventional, but underneath it is completely different from everything else on the road today. The LED lamps, fastback rear with no traditional exhaust outlets, and high-tech interior with its dual LCD displays and slick touch-sensitive center stack — which looks like the lovechild of a Malibu and an iPod — makes it clear that the Volt is special.

So, will Chevy finally live up to their advertising tagline, “An American revolution?” I absolutely think so. Is it a novelty? At $40k and just 40 electric miles, this first iteration will be. But it’s paving the way for a new generation of automobiles which will be much more impressive — and eventually less expensive — than the Volt.