GM may bump up price of its IPO; Volt named 'Motor Trend' Car of the Year

General Motors feels especially bullish about its upcoming initial public offering and may bump the opening price of shares as high as $33, the Detroit Free Press reports, quoting four people familiar with the matter.

That would be about $4 a share higher than GM indicated in its Nov. 3 IPO announcement. At $33, GM would raise $12 billion selling common stock, the paper says.

The Free Press quotes three of its sources as crediting vehicle sales and earnings at GM, along with a surging equity market, as boosting demand for the stock and prompting GM and its banks to encourage adding shares or raising the price range.

And in a second blast of good news, GM's electric Chevy Volt has been named the 2011 Motor Trend Car of the Year.

"From the get-go we knew this car could only be a spectacular achievement or a spectacular failure," Motor Trend writes in its evaluation of the Volt. "And it didn't disappoint."

(Posted by Doug Stanglin)

Update at 6:32 p.m. ET: Responsing to stronger-than-expected demand from investors, GM has expanded its IPO by 31% -- 113 million shares -- to 478 million shares, sources are telling news outlets. The Wall Street Journal reports that it could get even bigger, to 550 million shares, if banks underwriting the deal exercise an "over-allotment option." That would make it the second-largest U.S. IPO ever.

The Journal also writes that, according to "people familiar with the matter," the federal government's ownership stake would fall from the current 61% to 26%.

(Updated by Michael Winter)