GM announced that its sporty Pontiac Solstice roadster concept, first shown to the world at the 2002 North American International Auto Show, would go into production and go on sale for the 2006 model year.

The creation of the Pontiac Solstice concept was one of the first acts of then-newly appointed GM North American development chairman Bob Lutz. Lutz told Motor Trend that the Solstice was intended as a "great show car that shows off design talent". Starting in September 2001, two Solstice concepts (coupe and roadster) were designed and constructed over a period 18 weeks. The roadster was drivable and used mechanical components from numerous other production vehicles. Reaction to the Solstice was positive upon its reveal at the 2002 North American International Auto Show. However, moving the car to production was difficult beacuse its compact rear-drive layout did not fit with any existing GM platform.

In spring of 2002, the Solstice was approved for production. Vehicle line executive Lori Queen oversaw an innovative fast-track development process which aimed to bring the Solstice to production by sometime in 2005. Queen and her team created the all-new Kappa platform to underpin the production Solstice. To speed development and lower costs, many of the production Solstice's parts were culled from other production vehicles.

GM presented production Solstice, now only a roadster, at the 2004 North American International auto show. Shortly thereafter, members of the media were invited to drive early prototypes. Solstice deliveries began as planned in August 2005. A Solstice Coupe, a new targa-top variant, similar to the coupe concept, was announced in 2008 for 2009 production.