GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

The story begins pointing out that the Chevrolet Camaro SS is GM’s latest muscle car that flies in the face of all the environmental talk going on these days. “Sexy with charisma,” says Lutz, but admits “Some people don’t care for those kinds of descriptions today — it’s a different time.”

Lutz counters “But we have new vehicles, too. We have the Volt. We are committed to the electrification of the automobile. We know this is the time.”

Extensively described is how the Volt came to be. The author confirms what we already know, Lutz didnt commission the Volt to fight global warming which he calls a ‘crock.’

“If you look at most of the mainstream media, you get the impression that 95 percent of Americans today want a vehicle like the Chevrolet Volt or a [hybrid such as the] Toyota Prius,” says Lutz. “And that, by God, the reason General Motors is in trouble, is that we have not offered a vehicle like that. But when you look at the reality, at today’s fuel prices, most Americans still want a conventional car.”

Lutz says why the Volt was really developed, “Because it is an important symbol. We need it. It has a chance to change our image.”

However, Lutz intends the Volt to lead the way for a pure electric future. He says the Volt not only represents GM’s commitment to change but call it “the first generation of an electric vehicle from GM” leading to successively more enhanced Volts eventually resulting in a pure electric with more than 150 miles of range.

Lutz recounts what happened when Toyota first introduced the Prius in Japan in 1997. The GM board met and asked if they should do the same thing.

“Somebody said, ‘Do we have [hybrid] technology?’ ” recalls Lutz. ” ‘Oh, yeah,’ was the answer. ‘Oh, yeah, we got the technology. We’ve been building hybrid prototypes since the late ’60s.’ ”

However, it was decided the cost, then about $600 to $700 million wasn’t justified as it was expected the cars would lose money. Wagoner decided ‘We can’t do that’ and the decision to not go forward with a hybrid program was made.

After watching the Prius’ halo effect drive sales of other Toyota cars and make the company a media and environmental sweetheart, by 2006 Lutz had finally had enough.

He told GM VP Jon Lauckner, known as ‘the Wizard’ he wanted a “game changing” electric car that would leapfrog the Prius and deliver 150 miles of pure electric range. Lauckner said it would be “too expensive” and furiously scribbled calculations that would be his solution of the Volt’s range extender design.

It is written that GM’s plan to build a limited first year run of 10,000 copies of the Volt at around $40,000 exudes caution. Lutz isn’t worried though. He expects all 10,000 cars to be purchased quickly by “well-heeled electric car die-hards.” This will lead to economy of scale cost reductions that will eventually get the car into the $25,000 to $30,000 price range he says.

Producing the car he feels is an absolute necessity for GM. “We’re talking about our image here — about remaking GM; it is essential to get this done,” says Lutz. “We can’t make any mistakes with the Volt.”

Lutz believes an artificial market is being created for electric cars driven by “influential environmentalists and the intellectual establishment” who want electric cars to succeed, and Obama’s stated goal of 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015.

Lutz although excited about the Volt is already mourning the loss of the high-power, gas-guzzling, dazzling machines of old. “In time, the government is going to legislate out of existence cars like the Camaro, the Corvette, the Cadillac CTS — all these acclaimed vehicles that have lately gotten rave reviews from the automotive press around the world,” predicts Lutz. “So, ultimately, we are driven by legislation into the kind of excitement provided by the Volt.”

And for demand. He says “it’s probably just 5 percent of the public that desperately wants something environmentally sound and is willing to pay a premium for it,” and notes “the customer will never recover the premium paid for the hybrid system in fuel economy.”

Lutz believes the electric car marketplace is skewed to the coasts. “I would say the East and West Coast intellectual establishment kind of lives in its own world. When you get to the broad American marketplace, excitement is still kind of defined in the way it used to be.”

And with that the 77 year-old Lutz set off on his 60 mile drive home saying “nice afternoon for a drive.”

Lutz, GM, and the country it appears are thus ambivalent about the greening of the automobile.

Source (Washington Post)

In the Motortrend piece it was explained that the EV-1 evolved from an earlier GM electric car concept called the Impact, unveiled at the 1990 auto show. After GM announced they would produce it, California responded with the mandate that 2% of all cars sold there by 1998 would have to be zero emission vehicles (i.e. electric).

Required to do so, GM went on to make the EV-1. It used lead acid batteries which held 0.4% as much energy as the same weight of gasoline. Thus the EV-1 weighed 2970 lbs, 1175 lbs of which were the batteries. The resulting range was 90/70 miles hwy/city. To achieve this, the tiny two-seater also had to have the record lowest CD, the most advanced powertrain of the day, and a cost of $80,000 (they were only leased to consumers).

MacKenzie paints the picture of a very unideal car, . He also pens the following remarkable quote; Hughes aircraft VP Howard Wilson, then working for GM after his company was acquired by them said,”What I’d really like to do (for the EV-1) is install a small gas turbine engine that could run at a constant speed to provide the electricity for the motors.” Sound familiar?

The article concludes:

“In the end, though, the price wasn’t an issue. The reality is the EV1 was hostage to a technology the engineers knew from the get-go just wasn’t able to do the job Roger Smith and the California Air Resources Board believed it could. That’s what killed the electric car.”

Source (MotorTrend)

Buried in that story is a striking statement that I have never heard or seen.

We debate and wonder how many Volts GM will churn out in its initial production run, with estimates putting it anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 cars.

The well known global marketing firm JD Power and Associates has apparently estmated that GM should be able to sell 300,000 Volts by 2014.

Can anyone say 300,001?

Source (Technology Review )

Thanks to Glen M. for the tip.

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A very thoughtful discussion on the birth of the Volt appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal. The story goes that GM has been feeling the heat and threat from Toyota, a company now known for its green-ness due to the Prius. Seeing the risk of being known as a company that turns out gas guzzlers (i.e. Maximum Bob and his Viper), GM realized that now was the critical turning point in history to re-invent itself. Larry Burns was noted as saying that GM had to come out with it’s equivalent of Apple’s iPod. And so the Toyota Prius-crushing Volt concept was born.

Now that the horse is out of the barn, and treading on the public relations disaster that the EV-1 was, GM is betting the farm on the Volt. Although early estimates are that the car will not be a high volume vehicle, and that the profit margin could be slim to none, GM must get the car on the road. The Volt will allow GM to become known as the leader of the green revolution, and that indeed this new image will be their only hope of survival in the upcoming brave new world of carbon taxes, peak oil, and renewable energy usage. Indeed GM is committing considerable resources developing all the other parts of the car, even though the heart of the car, the final form of the Li-ion battery does not exist.

We at gm-volt.com commend GM for this most honorable effort, and are here to see this car to production.

Bob Lutz was quoted as saying some very interesting things. See source article here. He was commenting on the Federal decison to increase fuel economy ratings. In the discussion, which took place on May 10th, he said that the Volt’s consumer cost would be less than $30,000. He also said that the Li-ion battery is now only 2 to 3 years away from mass production, and that the vehicle could have a combined electric-combustion range of 750 miles.
He also quite thoughtfully invoked the need for a Manhattan Project-like effort of the Federal government to wean the U.S. off petroleum and onto renewable energy.

For those who follow the Volts’ development carefully these are some very important pieces of information from Bob. Its the first time we’ve heard a possible price-point for the car, and a number likely to make a lot of people happy. Also we are tantalized by the prospect of the car arriving a year ahead of time.

With the Zaap Obvio and possibly Tesla sedan slated to arrive in 2009, an early Volt arrival will be a very good thing.