xcel
01-08-2008, 07:23 PM
Better yet: It counts former critics among its leading fans. (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=215917)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Volt_in_Boston.jpgDavid Dias – National Post - Jan. 8, 2008
A lot more Chevrolet Volt details on the table than most News outlets have output over the last year. And a great read at that! -- Ed.
GM took tons of heat for killing its first electric car, the EV1. Now it's back with the Volt. Based on simple concepts, the Volt has revolutionary potential and an audacious 2010 launch target.
It's early on a Sunday morning in December. Motor City is covered in slush and ice as Jon Lauckner, General Motors' vice-president of global program management, and a handful of colleagues board one of the company's private jets, a Gulfstream bound for sunny Anaheim, Calif., to attend the 23rd annual Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS23). There, with thousands of enviro-car enthusiasts in attendance, Lauckner and a few key members of GM's green team will be exhibiting the company's latest advances in zero-emission automotive technology, and laying out its strategy and timeline for bringing these to market. GM was a founding sponsor of EVS, and has been attending for more than two decades. But this year is special. For the first time since 2002, when GM scrapped its Saturn EV1 electric-car project - an admitted strategic blunder that disappointed legions of fans and led to the company's vilification in Chris Paine's 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? - North America's largest automaker will be reporting real progress on the development of a battery-powered vehicle for ordinary drivers: the Chevy Volt. And Lauckner, a plainspoken, mustachioed Michigan native, will have the privilege of delivering the good news.
Frankly, GM needs some good news to talk about. Over the past five years, onerous union obligations, including the legacy health-care costs of its pensioners, have bled GM's finances at home. Meantime, the automaker has been losing market share to its more fuel-efficient Japanese rivals as the rapid industrialization of China and India boost gasoline prices in the U.S., and weaken demand for the trucks and SUVs that have long been GM's bread and butter. If these trends sound frightening, the bottom line is downright bleak. Since 2002, GM's stock has dropped 20%, to a 25-year-low, and the automaker has cumulatively lost a whopping $44 billion (all currencies U.S.) - nearly three times what GM is currently worth on the public markets. A slow turnaround is in the works, though. In September, GM negotiated a more favorable contract with the United Auto Workers, which created an independent trust to administer retiree health-care benefits and move spiraling costs off its balance sheet. It has also won kudos from the automotive press for its 2008 lineup of vehicles, including the Cadillac CTS (Motor Trend's Car of the Year) and the Chevy Tahoe hybrid (Green Car Journal's Car of the Year). Still, GM suffers from a troubled reputation and is viewed by motorists as a second-rate automaker that trails its Japanese competitors. "There are people who think we've lost our technological edge," says Lauckner.
A year ago, however, GM took a major step towards reclaiming that edge. At the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), held in Detroit, Bob Lutz, head of product development, unveiled the muscular Chevy Volt, a concept vehicle that he vowed would become the world's first mass-produced electric car. A direct descendent of the EV1, the new vehicle Lutz described would derive all its propulsion from a single electric motor. For the first 64 kilometres of a trip - longer than most daily commutes - a rechargeable battery that you could plug into a standard wall socket at home would power the motor all by itself; for longer drives, a gasoline generator would kick in to provide continued electrical current to the motor… http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=215917
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Volt_in_Boston.jpgDavid Dias – National Post - Jan. 8, 2008
A lot more Chevrolet Volt details on the table than most News outlets have output over the last year. And a great read at that! -- Ed.
GM took tons of heat for killing its first electric car, the EV1. Now it's back with the Volt. Based on simple concepts, the Volt has revolutionary potential and an audacious 2010 launch target.
It's early on a Sunday morning in December. Motor City is covered in slush and ice as Jon Lauckner, General Motors' vice-president of global program management, and a handful of colleagues board one of the company's private jets, a Gulfstream bound for sunny Anaheim, Calif., to attend the 23rd annual Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS23). There, with thousands of enviro-car enthusiasts in attendance, Lauckner and a few key members of GM's green team will be exhibiting the company's latest advances in zero-emission automotive technology, and laying out its strategy and timeline for bringing these to market. GM was a founding sponsor of EVS, and has been attending for more than two decades. But this year is special. For the first time since 2002, when GM scrapped its Saturn EV1 electric-car project - an admitted strategic blunder that disappointed legions of fans and led to the company's vilification in Chris Paine's 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? - North America's largest automaker will be reporting real progress on the development of a battery-powered vehicle for ordinary drivers: the Chevy Volt. And Lauckner, a plainspoken, mustachioed Michigan native, will have the privilege of delivering the good news.
Frankly, GM needs some good news to talk about. Over the past five years, onerous union obligations, including the legacy health-care costs of its pensioners, have bled GM's finances at home. Meantime, the automaker has been losing market share to its more fuel-efficient Japanese rivals as the rapid industrialization of China and India boost gasoline prices in the U.S., and weaken demand for the trucks and SUVs that have long been GM's bread and butter. If these trends sound frightening, the bottom line is downright bleak. Since 2002, GM's stock has dropped 20%, to a 25-year-low, and the automaker has cumulatively lost a whopping $44 billion (all currencies U.S.) - nearly three times what GM is currently worth on the public markets. A slow turnaround is in the works, though. In September, GM negotiated a more favorable contract with the United Auto Workers, which created an independent trust to administer retiree health-care benefits and move spiraling costs off its balance sheet. It has also won kudos from the automotive press for its 2008 lineup of vehicles, including the Cadillac CTS (Motor Trend's Car of the Year) and the Chevy Tahoe hybrid (Green Car Journal's Car of the Year). Still, GM suffers from a troubled reputation and is viewed by motorists as a second-rate automaker that trails its Japanese competitors. "There are people who think we've lost our technological edge," says Lauckner.
A year ago, however, GM took a major step towards reclaiming that edge. At the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), held in Detroit, Bob Lutz, head of product development, unveiled the muscular Chevy Volt, a concept vehicle that he vowed would become the world's first mass-produced electric car. A direct descendent of the EV1, the new vehicle Lutz described would derive all its propulsion from a single electric motor. For the first 64 kilometres of a trip - longer than most daily commutes - a rechargeable battery that you could plug into a standard wall socket at home would power the motor all by itself; for longer drives, a gasoline generator would kick in to provide continued electrical current to the motor… http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=215917