GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

People often ask why GM doesn’t seem to be advertising the Volt.

It turns out now that launch is near, the process has begun.  Since GM announced the new initial launch markets of Texas and New York, print, television, and newspaper ads have begun appearing in those regions.

At the top of this article you can see a copy of the Volt print ad that ran among other places in the New York Times.  At the bottom of this article you can see a 30 second Chevrolet Volt television commercial.

I also had the follwing discussion on this with Tony DiSalle who is GMs director of Volt marketing.

How about people who get confused about the 40 mile range, do you think there is some education needed as some people see the LEAF as being somehow better and how will you go about correcting that?
There’s no question. How we are going about doing it? One way is to talk to you and people like yourself to get the word out. Clearly we have a lot more work to do digitally ourselves. You will absolutely see messaging from us from an advertising and marketing perspective to try to get the word out as well. You’re absolutely right, this is neat, it is a great marketing challenge as there isn’t a clear frame of reference for this. We’re kind of in many ways because the car is so innovative, we have to over-communicate in order to land the message with the consumer.

In terms of how the Volt does what it does, how we are able to achieve this notion of you don’t have to sacrifice your lifestyle. You charge your Volt overnight you take it out running errands, your plans change, don’t worry about it, you don’t have to come home and recharge. We have a backup system that’s going to get you where you need to go.

We’re working on creative concepts to help bring that to life right now, and also a lot of the PR outreach talking to people like yourself is really important.

The grassroots approach?
Yes. And I’ll also tell you we have a saying here that there is no better marketing told for the Volt than the Volt. Getting people in the car is going to be very very important.

You mean buyers and owners?
Buyers and having dealers demonstrate the vehicle and all of those kind of things. Auto shows, events, those kinds of grassroots things, as easy and as basic and as simple as it sounds, you can literally have somebody sit in the car, walk them around it, and in many cases drive it. I have found when you can do that the car can and does sell and educate itself.

I hear people ask why GM isn’t advertising the Volt in a traditional way. There’s no cool ads when Nissan is doing all this stuff for the LEAF. Are big flashy Volt ads something we will eventually see?
Oh yeah, you will at some point. Keep in mind we’re still five months away from launch. As we get closer you’ll obviously see more and more from an advertising perspective from us.

I can’t tell you specifically the medium and those kinds of things, those are things that were working through right now. There’s clearly an intent to advertise.

Will we see some celebrity endorsements, or things along those lines?
There’s nothing for me to announce to you today…we know this neurologist in New York…

The video below illustrates a safety test GM is putting Chevrolet Volt test cars through, called the flooded road test.

It takes place at GM’s Milford proving grounds and is headed by Engineer Rob Drexler. Concerns about putting large batteries in water is the rationale for the test which is done “to verify and confirm the customer is protected from any water intrusion into the battery,” says Drexler.

He notes the Volt’s battery system has three or four detection systems inside that will kill the power if water is detected inside. Development testing with a battery shell in the same trough, checking to ensure water did not enter it had been done six months ago.

The test demonstrated is an actual live battery in a Volt run through at various depths and speeds. It is both driven forward and in reverse multiple times. In between each run, engineers physically check the battery and the air induction system to make sure it passes specifications.

Whether water enters the pack is determined indirectly in between each run, and after the whole test the pack is physically completely broken down and visually checked by hand.

Drexel notes there are very stringent specifications for the allowance of any water into the battery and that the Volt is, of course, passing.

Previously, GM battery engineer Lance Turner described a test where GM fully submerged an EV-1 into a tank of salt water to simulate what would happen if a passenger accidentally drove into the sea.

I asked Turner if such a test had been done with the Volt. “I can’t confirm or deny,” says Turner.

On July 1st a caravan including a near final black Chevrolet Volt left Austin Texas where GM CEO Ed Whitacre announced the inclusion of NY,NJ,TX, and CT as initial Volt rollout markets. The Volt is travelling from Texas to New York City on a 1776 mile freedom drive eventually arriving in NYC on July 4th for the Macy’s fireworks celebration. I will be jumping aboard the Volt when it reaches New Jersey early Sunday morning and will be celebrating the fireworks with the Volt team and 70 GM-Volt readers who registered to go on this site.

Freedom stands for both freedom from oil as well as freedom from range anxiety

You can see the route on the map above or in real time on this link. The Volt has so far passed through Texas and Arkansas and is now in Tennessee. Stops were made in Dallas, Waco, Little Rock, Knoxville and Memphis.  It has so far traveled more than 1300 miles and will be passing through Virginia today on its way to Maryland this afternoon.

If anyone happens to capture a photo of the car as it passes by, just upload it to the Chevy Volt Facebook page and win a free Volt T-shirt.  There’s also a GM-Volt Facebook page, for those who don’t know.

Also, for anyone who plans to be at Criswell Chevrolet in Gaithersburg Maryland today, GM has advised me there will only be room for 5 test drives from GM-Volt readers, so please plan accordingly.

In other news, the New York Times is reporting that (the new) GM plans to file for its IPO in August, with expectations of selling shares to the public by the end of the year. Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase will be the underwriters, and the company apparently seeks an additional $5 billion credit line as part of the offering.

Selling shares to the public will be the US government’s strategy to divest its 61% ownership in the company, acquired during bankruptcy restructuring. The IPO is believed only to allow divestment of 20 percent of the ownership stake, however.

GM executives have expressed strong optimism in the company’s performance, noting that 12% more vehicles have been sold under only four remaining brands in the first half of 2010, than eight total brands in the first half of 2009.  Internatioanl growth has been idenified as te srtongest future considerationf or the ompany.  In fact, for the first half of this year GM sales in China beat US sales with GM selling 1.2 million vehicles in China versus 1.08 million in the US.

“It’ss a fundamentally different company in terms of its break-even point,” said GM CFO Chris Liddell. “What’s new about the new G.M.? Really everything.”

Last week, the yet-to-be profitable electric-car making Tesla Motor Company (Nasdaq: TSLA) sold 15.3 million shares at $17 to the public, raising a total of $260 million and giving the company a valuation of $1.8 billion.  In the secondary market, shares had quickly peaked at over $30 per share, back down to $19.20 at last trade.

Source (GM) and (New York Times)

Memorial Day in the United States is a holiday, established after the end of the Civil War, commemorating the ultimate sacrifice of Soldiers. At this time, it is appropriate to reflect on this sacrifice but also to spend the holiday with friends and family. I used the time to travel back to my native Massachusetts, thankful of the opportunities I was given by those who came before me.

As a member of the armed forces who has been deployed overseas, I believe that war is a necessary evil. While peace is always our goal and should be the natural state of man, it only takes one group, one nation, to start a conflict. President Kennedy once said “we dare not tempt our enemies with weakness” and there is much evidence to say that this policy has kept global war in check for many years. Still, there continues to be tension and regional aggression, and these bring a heavy cost.

We weigh our conflicts in victory and defeat and in lives and dollars. While loss of life is a heavy cost, it is not the only burden that war imparts on society. More recently we have looked at the toll it has had on our Veterans. Terms like “shell shock,” “battle fatigue,” and more recently “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” give voice to the silent cost of an ongoing war in the minds of the living. Families lose loved ones, and they are never able to get them back.

To this I would propose another cost to consider, an environmental cost. We currently find ourselves in the unenviable position of consuming more oil than we can domestically generate. We are thus obligated to deploy our military in defense of foreign governments with massive oil reserves. These nations may or may not share our desire of liberty and freedom. By depending on their oil, we make them rich and influential. Relying on oil as a primary source of transportation fuel has ongoing repercussions across the planet. Carbon dioxide emissions have increased with the mass adoption of the internal combustion engine. The companies who buy and sell this commodity accidentally spill it in along our coastlines due to incompetence or lack of oversight causing death, disease, and economic hardship for decades to come.

I feel that Memorial Day is an opportunity for each of us to remember our Soldiers’ sacrifice by taking personal responsibility. I ask that each of you invest in our society. First and foremost, vote. Research the candidates, ask intelligent questions and elect the official who is best qualified. Every day, each of us have the opportunity to vote with our wallet. Choose products which are made responsibly and invest in companies that represent true value. Value may not mean the lowest price; value may be manifested by locally made products, companies investing in green technologies, and those businesses supporting American ingenuity.

Compared to the sacrifices that Soldiers are asked to make, personal responsibility can be simple. Ensure that the air in your cars tires is at an optimum level. Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. An energy audit is a good way of understanding your home’s efficiency. In some states, the audit is subsidized and the cost minimal to the consumer. While investing in stocks may not be appropriate for everyone, my portfolio includes two companies building batteries for electric cars. I am in the process of setting up a 5kwh Solar array on my home. Personal responsibility can even be fun. Following the development of the Volt and even taking a test drive in New York has been rewarding. I have placed a deposit at my local Chevy dealership near where I work in California. I am ecstatic that I will be one of the first 8000 to own this piece of American ingenuity.

Use this day to remember and honor our dead. But also, reflect that our actions today can lessen the burden of our service men and women tomorrow.

Bob Lutz, former vice chairman of General Motors retired on May 1st.  I had the pleasure of a one hour exit interview with Mr. Lutz before he left the company.  Much of what he’s said has appeared in several hopefully interesting articles over the last few weeks. Yesterday GM threw a going away party for the 47 year auto veteran.  ”If I see things going wrong, there will be the ghost of Bob Lutz,” he said told party-goers, “and it ain’t going to be friendly.”

Below are his final unpublished comments to me.  Mr. Lutz, though not working at GM anymore will continue to participate in the auto industry.  For now he is writing a book about GM, its downfall, his time there, and includes a chapter about the Volt.  He plans to complete it before the end of the year.  He will also be invited to and will appear at the Volt launch ceremony, the car he made possible.

For those that are really interested, I have included the raw 60 minute total audio conversation between us at the end of the post.

Do you think the consumers will get the benefit of an extended range electric Volt over a pure EV?
Yes.  Because the educated people like yourself and readers of your site will be among the early adopters and they will be telling all their friends.

We’re already telling them.
That’s what I figured, of course.

As the consummate gar guru for combustion cars for decades it sounds like in your heart you are really interested in getting off petroleum.
I am.  Fundamentally one of the appeals, to be totally honest, is to demonstrate General Motors’ technological capability and to reinforce that fact that people were wrong to believe that GM didn’t have advanced technology.  General Motors can do anything it wants to do and can do it better than any other car company in the world.

I truly believe that and the Volt demonstrates that.  And demonstrating that in the face of the then infatuation of America and the American media with that paragon of automotive virtue called the Toyota Motor Company, that was very important to do.  Just draw a line in the sand and say hey there’s only one technology leader in the automobile business and that’s GM.

That was important.  Secondly I fundamentally like electric cars.  As you know I have a battery background from my time at Exide.  I deeply believe in the continued progress of advanced batteries and I am the owner of five Segways and one Vectrix electric scooters. So I personally own more electric mobility devices than most people you know.

You’ve driven the Volt a lot and had it home, Iv’e read.  How do you actually like driving that car?
I love it.  I just absolutely love it.  I think it’s a great car to drive. I’m personally going to get myself on the list for one, no question about it.  No question that I think its the greatest achievement of my career.

How do you see the future of GM?
I think the future looks brilliant.  The company is very streamlined now, it does far less business with itself.

We have a much cleaner balance sheet, we’ve just repaid the government loans.  Im not allowed to say anything about future profitability but we certainly have a justified hope of making some money this year.  We also have a justified hope of doing an IPO in the reasonable future to start replacing government ownership with private ownership again.

But the most important thing is that this company now is 100 percent dedicated to product excellence.  You can see that in all the recent things that we have launched which are all selling extremely well.

That ethic of only the best is good enough because were General Motors and we know how to do the best cars and trucks in the world we just didn’t always have the will or the focus to do it.  We’ve always had the technical means.  Now we’re back at it, I think we’re approaching the top of our game again and Im very very proud of what the guys are putting out and what’s planned for the next few years.

Do you feel Mr. Whitacre is doing good, I know at first he said he knew nothing about the car business?
I feel very good about it because Ed likes to delegate and he’s very quickly figured out who he can delegate to and who not.  Ed is not going to interfere in or meddle with the vehicle development process.  He has delegated that to Tom Stephens, Jon Lauckner, and Ed Wellburn.

Its not that he doesn’t want to know but he asks ‘what is the value in my approving this stuff?’  We say ‘well you’re the CEO.’  He says ‘YeahI know but I’m not a specialist in this stuff, how do I know if this vehicle is going to be great or not?’  We say ‘you don’t but we’ll tell you all about it.’  He says ’you guys know what to do, you know what the rules are. We have to do the world’s best vehicle in each category and we have to make money on it.  I assume since you know it’s the goal you guys are not going to propose a bunch of stuff that’s not the world’s best and wont make money.’  We all said ‘you’re right. ‘ He says, ‘then why do I need to see it?’

Well that’s the way he manages it and I’ll tell you its very very refreshing and I think its going to be very effective for the company, because the creative people are back in charge of product development and that hasn’t been the case around here since the late 60s.

After your retirement to you plan to stay involved in the electrification of the automobile in some manner?
I’d like to.  It depends on what kind of board memberships are offered to me.  I’m certainly not going to start an electric car company.
AUDIO INTERVIEW

Technology marches inexorably to the future, ever changing and ever improving as the beat of human ingenuity propels it forward.

Just as the Volt represents a major paradigm shift for the automobile, so too one day even its technology and form factor will become outdated.

As much as we wait patiently for the Volt to roll into dealers lots and driveways across America, big thinkers sit pencil in hand dreaming up the next big thing. Not just about health and medicine, computers and technology, earth and space exploration but so too are people dreaming about the next generations of automobiles.

Chris Borroni-Bird is one such big thinker. Borroni is GM’s Director of Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts and was in part responsible for the recently demonstrated EN-V concept.

The EN-V concept which stands for “electric networked vehicle” is a 2 person electric pod capable of autonomous driving via wireless networking to other pods. It is proposed for use in urban centers of the future.

Borroni along with GM’s former VP of R&D, Larry Burns who was responsible for the similar PUMA concept, and William Mitchell, Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, co-wrote a new book called Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century.

The book takes the premise that today’s vehicles are fundamentally no different than the old Model T and that in the near future they should become “green, smart, connected, and fun to drive.” They argue the concept of cars with high power and speed to move multiple people along great distances is becoming outdated. Most of the world’s population is in densely crowded big cities, and a new form of low speed high efficiency electric transportation would be best suited for them.

Four central themes expected to revolutionize personal mobility are outlined and expanded upon in the book:

1.  Base the underlying design principles on electric-drive and wireless communications rather than the internal combustion engine and stand-alone operation
2.  Develop the Mobility Internet for sharing traffic and travel data
3.  Integrate electric-drive vehicles with smart electric grids that use clean, renewable energy sources
4.  Establish dynamically priced markets for electricity, road space, parking space, and shared-use vehicles

Are these leaders correct in envisioning the transition of the high horsepower two-ton chrome and steel roaring machines into the little self driving electric pod for two? I don’t know but you can tell them what you think or ask them what your want.  GM-Volt is fortunate enough to be hosting a live chat at 2PM Eastern Time with the three authors in the chat box below.  You can also order their newly published book by clicking the Amazon link below: