DeVolted: Secret GM memo indicates Volt won't happen
Shock: The Chevy Volt was just a marketing ploy?!I was just forwarded a copy of a secret GM memo between Bob Lutz and Rick Wagoner regarding GM's plans to slowly pull the plug on the Chevy Volt, which I'll post after I check into some legalities.
It turns out that computer models just before the Volt debut at NAIAS demonstrated that GM's plan to achieve 40 miles of pure electricity with the Chevy Volt simply isn't possible without significant advances in lithium technology. Nevertheless, GM went forward with the Volt debut because it was too late to do anything else. Read more....
posted by Dahcredyns at
2:12 PM
6 Comments:
Full Story
I was just forwarded a copy of a secret GM memo between Bob Lutz and Rick Wagoner regarding GM's plans to slowly pull the plug on the Chevy Volt, which I'll post after I check into some legalities.
It turns out that computer models just before the Volt debut at NAIAS demonstrated that GM's plan to achieve 40 miles of pure electricity with the Chevy Volt simply isn't possible without significant advances in lithium technology. Nevertheless, GM went forward with the Volt debut because it was too late to do anything else.
However, with all the Volt buzz at the show, GM saw an opportunity to capitalize on the hype created by the Volt that GM car tsar, Bob Lutz, convinced CEO, Rick Wagoner, to pretend that the Volt was a real program as cover to further develop fuel cell vehicles. Additionally, the delay would give GM more time to convince Americans that ethanol would solve America's energy problems until fuel cell vehicles.
Unfortunately, the hype around the Volt has now grown so great that Wagoner now believes the Volt has become a huge mistake that threatens to backfire and destroy the company, especially when just the announcement that the Volt might not be ready by 2010 can almost instantly cause GM's stock to drop (more).
O.K., I'm kidding. I have no such memo. There is no such memo, I hope. Yet, I'm amazed at how many believe that the Volt is vaporware, as it was called on MotorTrend's Forums today, for example.
Just last month I talked to Bob Lutz, as well as numerous lead engineers working on the Volt project, such Tony Posawatz, Volt Vehicle Line Engineer and Denise Gray, Director of Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (Stay tuned. I think I might make these interviews available - at least as PodCasts), and I have no doubts that GM is dead serious about producing the Volt.
These people aren't liars. Bob Lutz is a man that doesn't lie. He doesn't have to lie. He just says what he thinks. If you don't believe or like what he says, that's your problem. Today, Bob Lutz works at GM because he wants to, and I truly believe that if it wasn't for the Volt, Bob would now be retired. The Volt is the defining moment of Bob Lutz's amazing career. Would he really risk it all on a Volt lie? What's the gain?
It's all about the battery
The Volt battery team just took delivery of the first battery pack on Halloween. It would seem silly to put that one battery pack in a prototype Volt just to meet a prediction made in March when Bob Lutz suggested a full prototype could be available at the end of 2007 - the first major benchmark of the Volt program. With one battery so much more testing could be done in the labs than in one prototype.
So, yeah, the Volt missed its first benchmark, which was really just an estimate in the first place. So what?
Both Volt engineers I interviewed, Tony and Denise, confirmed that the first Volt prototype is scheduled for the first quarter of this year. While Denise admitted achieving this date would be tough, she still believed it could be met. Denise also thought the 2010 date could be met, but that it would also be hard.
Under normal circumstances it can take 3 to 4 years to engineer a vehicle from concept to production and somehow GM is supposed to go from concept to production on the most sophisticated car they will have ever produced in just 2 or 3 years?
Anyway, hopefully, Wagoner's recent announcement that Volt battery tests have been "favorable" means that this is still the case, and I hope to find this out this weekend when I meet with GM at NAIAS. So, if you're interested in this subject, check back on Sunday and Monday.
You got me!
After reading the first paragraph, even though I doubted it (it almost sounded like an Onion report), I had to come by and read the whole post.
Nice work!
In regards to your story, I'm in agreement. The Volt thing is definitely being overhyped to the point where I'm beginning to get burnt out on the whole thing.
Mike-
I graduated from UW-Madison, where the Onion was largely founded, so I guess I learned fabricating a phony story from the best!!
There is no doubt that the Volt hype is out of control, and while GM is nurturing this hype, there is an audience out there demanding and promoting the hype as well - with or without GM.
While the Volt buzz can become a little annoying since the car is still at least two years from reality, in the best case scenario, the buzz might help push GM to develop more great green products as soon as possible - it'll make the Volt more believable for GM skeptics.
Also, I hope, the buzz means that GM must not just produce the Volt, but it must continually seek to expedite its production.
What Bob Lutz is lying about is his claim that the EV1 didn't work. The EV1 had an EPA-certified range of 140 miles (I still have the tag). Lutz lies in his claim that existing lead or NiMH batteries won't work. Lead or NiMH are more than sufficient for an EREV, as he calls serial hybrids.
Our Toyota RAV4-EV, last sold in Nov., 2002, still have over 100 miles range (150 miles in a pinch), it's a small SUV, holds 5, carries 1000 lbs. of tools and supplies. Just add a range extender, it's an EREV here and now.
Lutz is to be commended for publicizing the idea of a serial hybrid, but condemned for postponing it and trivializing it. The VOLT will be too little, too late, and whittled down to inconsequence, even if it's issued in 2011 as Lutz broadcasts.
GM has announced that the VOLT won't be available in significant quantities, and won't be counted in GM's struggles to meet MPG ("cafe") standards.
That means, they have the freedom of action to kill the program, it won't be more than a token number, and it won't be a very fun car to drive.
The EV1 and RAV4-EV are fun cars, and we still drive the RAV4-EV every day.
Why not the EV1?? Lutz lies.
Besides which, Lutz has a bad history with batteries, his previous gig was leading EXIDE batteries into bankruptcy. Even then, he was gonzo on Lithium, but doesn't know the parameters needed for an EV battery.
Doug Korthof
562-430-2495
Why Electric cars are so important, and why Lutz is to be condemned for exploiting the idea with no intention of delivering:
If you could buy a RAV4-EV or EV1, the money you Don't spend on gasoline would more than pay for your rooftop solar electric system.
Granted, not everyone has a roof, but the 300,000,000 Americans who do, could find that "going green" is easy, and self-funding.
No government subsidies needed!
Our family has driven over 600,000 all-electric miles in the last 11 years, that's saved at least 30,000 gallons of gas, at least $60,000 at $2/gallon.
Our solar system, which now produces enough power in the day to give us credits for charging TWO RAV4-EV overnight, only cost $12,000. We paid for it in 3 years, now we ride free of pollution -- and free of cost.
No gas, we charge up with American Electrons.
Why not you?
That's why Lutz is to be oondemned, this is the most important issue of our time, and he's sexploiting it.
Doug Korthof
http://DrivingTheFuture.com
562-430-2495
Doug-
Love your story, and your are correct.
Yet, most people have a hard time paying their monthly bills, so the 'startup' costs of your solution seem out of reach for most Americans.
Likewise, imagine the commodity shortages that would occur, for example, polysilicon is in short supply today. If everyone converted the costs of solar materials would skyrocket initially.
Your solution could scale to cost-feasibility over a few decades, but the government could certainly make it happen faster.
Ultimately, there is no doubt that you propose a cost-effective solution for consumer, but the vision such a system requires takes more vision and upfront capital than most Americans seem capable, or willing, to tolerate.
Post a Comment
<< Home