Excerpted from the New York Times, “G.M.’s Latest Great Green Hope Is a Tall Order”, by Micheline Maynard, November 22, 2008
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The Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid, will not arrive in showrooms until late 2010. But it is already straining under the weight of an entire company.
Executives at GM are using the Volt as the centerpiece of their case to a skeptical Congress that their business plan for a turnaround is strong, and that a federal bailout would be a good investment in G.M.’s future.
But whether the Volt can live up to its billing is already a matter of debate. And some industry analysts note that GM has a poor track record of introducing green technology to the market.
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The Volt is a big long-term bet. New vehicles typically cost $1 billion to develop, and the Volt requires new technology that probably inflated that price tag even more.
G.M. says the car, which is scheduled to arrive in showrooms two years from now, will be able to travel 40 miles on a charge, but it will also have a small gas engine to extend the range to as much as 640 miles using both the battery and gasoline. It is expected to cost about $40,000.
To some, the Volt will remain a niche vehicle until its cost drops sharply and its range rises dramatically.
“If you’re the affluent individual who wants to make a statement, it’s one thing.” “If you’re Joe the Commuter, you’re not going to spend $40,000 on an electric car. It’s insane.”
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Once it arrives, GM believes, customers will adjust more rapidly to the Volt than they did to the Prius, Toyota’s hybrid gas-electric car. “I don’t think that’s going to be that big a deal for most people to get their heads around.”
“We’ve turned into a plug-in society. We’ve got cellphones, PDAs, you name it, that are all plugged in. To a certain extent, it’s not much more complicated conceptually than coming in and plugging in your cellphone.”
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The Volt is not General Motors’ first electric vehicle. In 1996, G.M. started leasing the EV1, an electric car, to customers in California. Although its few hundred owners loved it, the EV1 was discontinued just three years later.
G.M. reportedly spent about $1 billion in the 1990s to develop the EV1, which it dropped after saying it could not make money on the cars. The EV1, which was available only in lease deals, sold for the equivalent of up to $44,000 but cost G.M. about $80,000 apiece to make.
Other efforts to earn green bragging rights have missed the mark, too. Only two years ago, G.M. promoted flexible fuel cars that run on E85, a blend of ethanol and gasoline, as the way to wean Americans off gasoline. But interest in ethanol has waned amid concerns about the environmental impact of using corn for fuel rather than food.
The company is building its largest sport utility vehicles with hybrid gas-electric power trains as well, but they have sold poorly.
Edit by DAF
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Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/business/22volt.html?pagewanted=print
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From Business Week, a compendium of articles re: Hybrid Cars
http://bx.businessweek.com/hybrid-cars/
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