2015: 77,000 Volts per year to change GM's image
Mostly a marketing tool for the next decadeI don't hate GM. Still, now that US taxpayers are into GM for many tens of billions of dollars, it's hard not to look at GM in anything other than a critical light. And, unfortunately, it's very easy to find criticism with GM.
Last week a JD Power supplier survey found that of the top 10 automakers, GM was considered to be the least innovative. Then, today a UM study claimed that GM is not prepared for a significant move towards fuel efficiency.
So, what does GM have for the future? Well, it has the Chevy Volt, a very compelling vehicle, but a vehicle that GM will only be producing 77,000 units of per year by 2015. How can that really help GM become more fuel efficient and competitive?
It's all about marketing. Aside from the CAFE credits that the Volt will provide for GM's guzzlers, the real purpose of the Volt for the next decade is about image, not profitability. The Volt is an "image-changer" that will help change GM's image as an automaker lacking innovation into an innovator, without actually selling lots of innovative vehicles, noted an IBD article this weekend.
Hopefully, one day GM's auto business will be as innovative as its marketing.
Labels: Chevy Volt electric vehicle concept, GM
posted by Dahcredyns at
9:17 AM
2 Comments:
"The Volt is an "image-changer" that will help change GM's image as an automaker lacking innovation into an innovator, without actually selling lots of innovative vehicles, noted an IBD article this weekend.
Hopefully, one day GM's auto business will be as innovative as its marketing."
That is a good and fair point, and I specifically agree that the Volt is an "image-changer."
It is also a technology development platform that with enough capital investment, government support, and strategic leveraging can be a true source of innovation and profits for GM, in time.
I am coming around to your view that the Volt, especially Gen 1, as an individual product will not make much of a difference for GM, oil independence, or the environment. It is merely the first step in a long road for finding a successful "formula" for a battery powered American car. A necessary, but small first step.
That's true, but by the time GM hammers out the kinks in the Volt, it might no longer be very revolutionary. In fact, it might just be the wrong direction.
Ultimately, I've always thought the Volt was extremely important to GM's long term. However, I've also always thought it was a huge mistake not to do more today and in the short term.
In a sense, GM tried to, and continues to try to, market its way out of real action.
Even worse, the more I read about Hyundia's lithium polymer technology, the more I wonder how innovative GM's battery technology really is. In the end the success of lithium will come down to mass-manufacturing.
While lithium polymer technology has lots of issues to overcome, it's upside is far cheaper mass production in the long run.
Even if lithium polymer fails, it demonstrates that the battery technology of the future might end up being drastically different than today. This could have a huge affect on powertrain technology. Thus, I think one ought not have too many eggs, and certainly not all eggs, in any one basket.
It wasn't long ago that many predicted that GM's dual mode hybrid technology would prove Toyota's HSD totally inferior. I can recall Michelle Krebs of Edmunds going on and on about how revolutionary and superior was the hybrid powertrain compared to the HSD and game changing it would be. Engineers and hybrid students continually told me how superior this technology was.
And it is good technology, but it's too expensive and too focused on the wrong segment. Ultimately, success in the lab is far different than success in the real world.
GM can talk a good talk, but executing it in the real world has been a major issue now for decades. Can the Volt change that? We'll see, but I'd sure be a lot more comfortable if GM had a few other solid ideas outside of the Volt.
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