Archive for June, 2008
Should GM Skip the Volt and Just Make More Efficient Gas Cars?
It’s glaringly clear that GM (and Ford and Chrysler) have rapidly slid into serious financial peril. Revenues have depended heavily on trucks and SUVs. The current oil price spike has fundamentally and profoundly shifted consumer behavior across the boards. People have abruptly stopped buying SUVs and trucks in favor of small fuel efficient [...]
Popularity: 5%
Continental Says Chances Good of Getting Volt Battery Contract
A couple of weeks ago we heard an interview with Compact Power CEO Prabhakar Patil in which he indicated his company and LG Chem had a good chance at getting the Volt contract and that his packs were the one’s running in the prototypes. It was also indicated that LG Chem would build a [...]
Popularity: 5%
Lutz Explains Why the EV-1 Can’t Simply Be Reintroduced
After GM first introduced the Chevy Volt concept in January 2007, there was a lot of ire and skepticism from the former EV-1 crowd. Most vocal among them was Doug Korthoff who appeared in the film Who Killed the Electric Car?
Doug has since filled the web with extensive anti-GM rhetoric and used to make appearances [...]
Popularity: 6%
Ford Calls the Chevy Volt a Hail Mary Play
Ted Miller is Ford’s senior manager of energy storage. He outlined to Bloomberg News Ford’s cautious approach to plug-in vehicles.
Balking at the idea of what GM has done with the Volt he said "if there’s going to be a true plug-in hybrid market, we’re going to be there. It’s just that that’s a huge [...]
Popularity: 6%
McCain Praises Development of the Chevy Volt
Today Republican Presidential candidate John McCain toured the GM auto plant that makes Chevrolet Cobalts in Lordstown Ohio. He told workers there among other things that he supports government investment in producing future electric cars.
He also is reported to have praised the development of the Chevy Volt.
He told the workers, “we can lead [...]
Popularity: 5%
EEStor About to Release Public Data on its Energy Storage Units (EESUs)
EEStor is the Texas company that has been secretly working on a breakthrough energy storage technology that is a type of ultracapacitor. The technology is reportedly able to store large quantities of energy in a package markedly smaller, lighter, and less expensive than lithium-ion batteries.
The company has formed an exclusive agreement with ZENN Motor [...]
Popularity: 6%
GM CEO Rick Wagoner Tells Obama About the Chevy Volt and Gives Financial Assurances
GM CEO Rick Wagoner attended a forum with Barack Obama and other automotive executives and academics today at Carnegie Mellon University.
Obama asked automakers how the next President could help them through the current crisis.
Wagoner asked for help with research funding to develop advanced batteries and vehicles.
Per the article:
Wagoner sounded a note of optimism, noting GM’s [...]
Popularity: 5%
Progress on the 2-Mode and 2-Mode Plug-in Saturn VUE
With all of GMs recent trouble coming from the crashing SUV market, they must be looking forward to the launching of their fuel efficient smaller SUVs. The Saturn VUE is on the verge of morphing into first a strong 2-mode hybrid form launching later this year, and after that a lithium-ion plug-in 2-mode hybrid [...]
Popularity: 6%
Exclusive: Interview with Ed Peper on Marketing the Chevy Volt
I just had the chance to interview Ed Peper, Chevrolet brand manager, and some of his team members, John Hughes, Carolyn Normandin, and Steve Wagg about bringing the Volt to market. Unless other initials occur, the responses are from Mr. Peper.
What is your job in GM?
I’m responsible for all the marketing, advertising, promotion, relation to [...]
Popularity: 6%
Has GM Increased the Size of the Chevy Volt’s ICE from 1.0 L to 1.4 L, and Cylinders From 3 to 4?
The initial Volt concept showed a 1.0 L three cylinder gasoline engine as the on-board generator. The role of that engine is to keep the battery at a 30% state of charge once 40 EV miles or so had been driven.
More recent discussions with the Volt engineers suggested that the actual engine to be used [...]
Popularity: 6%
GM Requests $7000 Tax Credit to Chevy Volt buyers, McCain Offers GM $5000
GM VP of global program management Jon Lauckner met with a congressional caucus last week and indicated his hopes for government help in getting people to adopt the Volt.
He said:
“What we favor is actually a sliding scale depending on how much battery you have on board. When I talk about $6,000 to $7,000, we’re [...]
Popularity: 6%
Video: The Latest With Bob Lutz on the Chevy Volt - Photovoltaic Roof After All?
GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz sat down with some bloggers recently and as readers on this blog have pointed out, the videos are on You Tube. This 10 minute segment below had some interesting details about the Volt
Some key points:
1. Lutz alluded that there may be photovoltaic roofs on the Volt after all. A [...]
Popularity: 6%
Recent Posts
- GM CEO’s Best Guess: Volt Will be Priced in “Mid to High 30’s”
- The Dawn of the Next Vintage of Chevy Volt Developmental Vehicles
- GM May Reveal the Production Chevy Volt on it Centennial Webcast, September 16th
- GM Has More Than Two New E-Flex Vehicles Already at Scale-Model Stage of Development
- The Volt’s #1 Fanboy and Our Wait List Story is the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”
- GM’s Future Volt and E-Flex Plans
- GM’s Advanced Battery Director Denise Gray is “Keeping Her Eyes on the Future”
- Interview with Chevy Volt Chief Designer About the Production Car: Plus Leaked Pictures and Video
- BREAKING: GM Releases New Production Volt Photos
- Chevy Volt Update from Chief Engineer: “There’s Nothing Standing in Our Way”
