GM to raise whopping $20 billion in IPO as Chevy Volt rides high

General Motors, maker of the upcoming electric-powered Chevrolet Volt, has priced its initial public offering at $33 per share, a good chunk higher than its previously announced range of $26 to $29.

It also bumped its overall valuation to $20.1 billion, up from $13 billion. The IPO marks the divestiture of shares owned by the U.S. Treasury, which bailed out the company during the recession. The company appears to be doing much better since posting a $3.2 billion loss in the third quarter of last year. GM expects third-quarter net income to be around $2 billion on $34 billion in revenue.

“As we prepare to enter the equity markets, all of us at GM are excited about this historic milestone. We are especially appreciative of those who stood by us through the toughest times, and we are dedicated to creating value for all of our stakeholders,” said GM vice chairman and CFO Chris Liddell in a company statement.

The company’s range extender, the Chevrolet Volt, seems to be riding high lately. Yesterday, Motor Trend announced the Volt as its car of the year. And this month GE said it would buy a record-breaking 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015, and 12,000 of them will be supplied by GM — starting with the Chevy Volt, which debuts this year.

The Volt is a well-equipped car that runs 25 to 50 miles on battery until switching over to gas — skipping the issue of so-called range-anxiety (a term the GM is trying to trademark) that comes with electric cars — and has won kudos from cleantech venture capital titan Vinod Khosla.

Business for the Volt seems to be good enough that an executive from the Volt’s battery supplier, LG Chem, told Reuters that the company is expecting more Volt battery orders in 2011 because demand is higher than expected.

Of all of the electric cars originally slated to debut in December, the Volt is the only one that has yet to — knock on wood — suffer from delays, unlike its all-electric counterparts, the Nissan Leaf and Coda sedan.

[Image via Motor Trend]