GM Vice Chairman and product chief Bob Lutz (pictured right with the Volt) said on Sunday company critics will have to revise their thinking about GM’s commitment to addressing environmental concerns and U.S. dependence on oil imports after seeing the Chevrolet Volt electric concept car.
“An electric vehicle coming from General Motors, I am shocked, truly shocked,” Lutz said sarcastically. “The GM electric vehicle is an inconvenient truth. This is not a PR exercise or a pure show car. This is a real program with real money behind it that is heading for production.”
Lutz said GM used what it learned from the EV1 program, GM’s previous electric car that was discontinued in 2003, to develop the Volt. GM has been criticized for killing the EV1, including the release of a documentary film last year.
“A lot of the people that worked on the EV1 are still with GM. We reconstituted that team,” Lutz said.
The success of electric cars relies on production of stable larger lithium-ion batteries that are now used in laptops and other small electronics. Lithium-ion batteries hold more power and recharge faster than the batteries now in use for hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles, but incidents where laptops have burst into flames because of overheated batteries have raised concerns.
“Four years ago, I would have said that it requires a breakthrough in lithium-ion battery technology, now I don’t think there is any invention required,” Lutz said. “It is now a normal engineering development exercise.”
GM recently awarded deals to two supplier teams to develop a next-generation battery.
“Some day, maybe, you don’t put any internal combustion or fuel cell in it. If the battery guys can get the batteries up to 200 miles, why would you have an internal combustion engine, it would be a pure EV,” Lutz said.
Lutz said he was confident that the car could be sold in large numbers around the world eventually, but GM would know more in a year about the costs involved and progress on the batteries.
“Our goal is to have this in the showroom like any other GM car. The architecture is so flexible that we could do station wagons, crossovers, sports coupes; we could do it in different sizes,” he said.
(PHOTO: Reuters)
Trackback
4 comments so far
It’s great to see a major automaker finally moving forward on what small companies have been proving possible for several years (see Energy CS, CalCars and HyMotion). But while the announcement is exciting, GM still isn’t giving any solid timeline on WHEN we can see these cars on the road or HOW MANY cars are actually going to be produced - at best they say 3-4 years if the battery technology is available. There is a demand for plug-in hybrids NOW - there are hundreds of cities, counties, utility districts and fleets already placing “soft orders” for such vehicles. Such early-adopters of these vehicles would provide test markets for GM to refine the technology and build public confidence and interest in these cars.
I have to admit I’m a little concerned that they will use the announcement of these concept cars more to clean up their image than clean up their product line. There is a lot GM can do between now and when we may see these concept vehicles actually on the road.
We all know increasing fuel efficiency is the direction automakers need to head so lets get past the hype of a handful of concept vehicles and look at what they are doing with the rest of their fleet. Overall average fuel economy from the Big 6 is worse today that it was 10 years ago and GM is still heavily dependent on its gas guzzling truck lines. In addition to that they are still fighting tooth-and-nail against increasing fuel economy regulations, suing states that try to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and in December argued before the Supreme Court that carbon from tailpipe emissions was not even a pollutant. GM is still planning to expand their Hummer line to become 25% of their overall sales. Consumers still have limited options to find fuel-efficient cars that are affordable, well-built, and fun to drive. There are plenty of things automakers can do today to increase fuel economy and I’m tired of being shown distracting concept cars that we won’t see for 3-4 years if ever.
I’ve been working with the Freedom From Oil Campaign to make automakers honestly prioritize fuel economy and move beyond oil check out what we do at http://www.FreedomFromOil.org
- Posted by Mattone day we hope to buy a car that runs on no fuel other than solor light from the sun. Out here in Arizona we have the sun to power a car and all it has to do is be able to make it to and from work. 90 miles round trip nd I think you might have a winner.
- Posted by Used Car Parts GuyThe only way American car companies are going to be able to compete with the Japanese is by beating them at their own game, TECHNOLOGY.
I compiled some videos, audio clips, pictures and more of the Chevy Volt Concept Car , check them out online at http://www.chevy-volt.net
- Posted by Chevy Volt FanFrom their website, the Volt appears to be just pr and that’s it. Tellingly, there is no info on manufacturing plans, or even expectations. If GM wants to turn its company around, it needs to PRODUCE THIS CAR, and tell the oil companies to go to hell.
- Posted by lnmassaro