A Volt-Face for GM

By Richard Stuebi

Fascinating article in this month's Atlantic profiling the herculean efforts apparently being undertaken by General Motors (GM) to launch its plug-in hybrid vehicle, the Chevy Volt, by the incredibly ambitious deadline of 2010.

I took away the following thoughts from the article:

1. GM seems to actually recognize that it really didn't give it the full college try with its previous electric vehicle work, the EV1 program, whose demise was profiled so blisteringly in the documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?.

2. While GM is using the Volt program as a way to reinvent and redefine itself as a nimble company responsive to customer preferences, it must be noted that GM tried this with the new Saturn line twenty years ago too -- and look where GM is now.

3. Bob Lutz -- the GM Vice Chairman who is on record for stating his opinion that global warming is a "total crock of s**t" -- is the key person within the kingdom who seized on the need for the Volt, being amazed at the gall of tiny start-up Tesla Motors daring to build an electric vehicle.

4. GM is being pretty gutsy by deciding to house the Volt within its core brand -- Chevrolet -- rather than insulate it in its own brand in case the project/car failed.

5. The Volt program appears to be pretty much "open source", allowing the public in to see its progress. My guess is that this is to better manage the public's expectations along the way, minimizing the potential for any bad surprises.

6. The project was launched without a business plan or any marketing/cost projections -- no doubt from the huge public frenzy spawned by the concept car's unveiling just 18 months ago in January 2007 -- and still seems to run under a "damn-the-torpedos" philosophy, almost akin to NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s.

Within a couple of years, we'll see what ultimately emerges from the Volt program, but no-one can doubt its audacity -- which is a word I thought I'd never use in connection with GM.

Disclosure: None

Comments

[elbon55:]

Richard Stuebi and writers of his type never have done one constructive or positive thing in their entire lives yet they have the audacity to criticize GM for their efforts at becoming better. Richard- take a sabbatical from your do-nothing job and work as a laborer for a bricklayer. Then come back and write about people who work for a living.

2008 Jul 15 08:13 AM

[Paul Killinger:]

I'm wondering what working for a living has to do with reporting on the progress of the Volt...?

I thought the author was pretty kind to GM, actually. Maybe they've turned a new leaf, and will continue to work with this type of desperation in the future. It would be a welcome change!

Like the General famously said in the movie War Games, "I'd piss on a sparkplug if I thought it would do any good right now." Perhaps this wake up call will serve GM and the rest of us well.

2008 Jul 15 12:08 PM

[Paul Killinger:]

P.S. If it's not too much trouble, I'd very much appreciate periodic updates on the status of the Volt project. I believe its success may be key to GM's future solvency.

2008 Jul 15 12:14 PM

[SpclEd:]

The Volt will be a tremendeous dissapointment. 40 miles on a charge? Could Chevy be more asleep as to the needs of U.S. drivers? A small gas engine in the rear to power a charger for extended range is such a silly solution it boarders on absurdity.

The Volt isn't going to happen, not as proposed. There are better, more affordable solutions available today.

2008 Aug 17 02:00 PM