GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

It has recently been disclosed that GM is in advanced talks with Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer Sichuan Tengzhong to purchase the Hummer brand. Shedding Hummer has been an important aspect of GM’s reorganization plan to be able to bring the automaker down to its four core brands, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick.

Much has been made in the media about the irony of a Chinese company buying Hummer and the fact that it will give them a foothold in the US market as dealerships are taken over.

In more irony, the company has also indicated its interest in making Hummer a fuel efficient brand.

Tengzhong will keep the current Hummer executive team and continue to manufacture the vehicles in Shreveport, Louisiana. Jim Taylor is Hummer’s general manager and was recently interviewed about the transition.

Taylor confirmed the Hummer production would stay in the US at least in the short-term.

"We’re there until the end of 2010, for sure. After that, we have a lot of choices," he said. "As far as I can see in the next product development cycle, it would all come from here.

Of course Hummers sold in the US would have to achieve the newly approved federal CAFE regulations.
"We need to head towards CAFÉ compliance – which means smaller and more fuel efficient, or we’re dialed out," says Taylor. "Think of the smaller H4 we were showing at the auto show and it could safely conjectured we would enter into that space."

The reporter pointed out Raser’s recently unveiled plug-in hybrid hummer demonstration vehicle that could get 100 mpg and asked if the new company might pursue that course.

"It’s a big number to take on, a ground-up hybrid or electric vehicle, but it’d make a lot of sense for the Hummer brand," he said. "We just have to look at the financial side to see if it’s something we can stomach." He did note that there is a "100%" likelihood that in 5 years an alternative propulsion Hummer will hit the roads.

Source (TheDetroitBureau )

GM first announced its intentions to build a plug-in hybrid Saturn VUE in late 2006, months before revealing the Volt concept. All along we have heard development of those plug-in VUEs has continued and remains on track. Although initially launch was expected in early 2010, the most recent plans state the car would come in in 2011, after the Volt.

However, GM’s newly released viability plan indicates that all support for the Saturn brand will be terminated by the end of 2009. This has led some to believe the plug-in 2-mode hybrid program will die along with it.

Not so fast.

“The plug-in technology survives!” says GM spokesperson Brian Corbett.

“It will be applied to a vehicle offered by one of four core brands,” he says. “We’ll be announcing which one in the not too distant future.”

The drivetrain for the vehicle features GM’s 2-mode hybrid system which uses two powerful electric motors, one for low speed and one for high speed assist and a complex software control system. The plug-in version has an added lithium-ion pack that could allow up to 10 miles EV and overall twice the fuel efficiency of comparable non-hybrid models.

As many are aware, the Saturn brand is on the list of items that GM must shed to become viable.  GM has only agreed to support a product line though 2011 and encourages the possibility of spinning off the brand to investors.

Reports have surfaced including an acknowledgment from GM that a group of investors led by Black Oak Partners LLC and some Saturn dealers has submitted a proposal.  This proposal is in addition to several others.

The proposal is to spin off Saturn as, you guessed it, a different kind of car company.  Where did I hear that before?

A new company would be formed called the “Saturn Distribution Co.”  It would utilize the high customer satisfaction ratings that Saturn’s 450 national dealerships enjoy as a network to sell vehicles.

The cars that would be sold however would be sourced from several different carmakers including large international brands.  The cars would be built to order as new the Saturn would retain its own design center and create vehicles based on what customers want.

So now instead of the manufacturer telling the dealer what to sell, the dealers would tell multiple manufactures what cars it whats to sell.  Sort of a Best Buy of cars. EREVs anyone?

Meanwhile there are new reports that even the GMC brand may have to be shed along with Saturn and Pontiac in an effort to make GM viable, based on discussions with the Obama administration.  This would then lead to a three-brand new GM; Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Buick, each presumably with a Voltec car.

Source (AP)

If at this point any doubts remain, US Treasury Secretory Timothy Geithner went on CBS’ Meet the Press on Sunday and proclaimed “GM is going to be part of this country’s future.”

“We want to see a strong automotive industry emerge from this recession,” he said, also indicating the government needs to assure that GM “can emerge strong enough without having to have government help on an ongoing basis.”

Currently a quick-rinse bankruptcy is not ruled out and CEO Henderson said of the company’s required restructuring “If it can’t be done outside of a bankruptcy process, it will be done within it.”

Some pundits are reporting that all this bankruptcy talk may actually be a high-stakes game of chicken noting Obama to be an avid poker player. The idea is that bondholders and the union will wither to accept concessions in the remaining weeks rather than face the prospect of greater losses in bankruptcy court.

Meanwhile GM presses on with the preview today of a new upcoming vehicle, the 2010 GMC Terrain. The bold radically-styled new truck is based on the same platform as the upcoming Chevy Equinox. Impressively it uses a 2.4 L 4-cylinder gas engine delivering 182 horsepower and achieving a remarkable 30 mpg highway. The sister-car Equinox has already been value-priced at a $23,185. I know, no plug no sale.

Spyphotos of a next generation Buick Excelle undergoing testing have surfaced.  Reportedly this is a new-version Buick built on the same compact Delta platform that the Chevy Cruze and Chevy Volt are.

It is conjectured that this vehicle could become an extended-range electric car as well since it already has the proper architecture.

We have been told by GM executives that multiple Voltec concepts would be shown this year.  The Cadillac Converj and Opel/Vauxhall Ampera have already been shown.

Since Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn are being shed as apart of GM’s restructuring, Buick is the best candidate to get the third Voltec car.

The Excelle is a model currently only sold in China, but it is speculated the car could be brought to Europe or even North America.

GM officials have responded to my questions about this as “speculation”.

Recently is was announced by JD Power and Associates that Buick has achieved first place for vehicle quality, tying with Jaguar and upsetting long running number one Lexus.

Since we are imagining here, I will go on record speculating that such a car would be called the Buick Electra.

Source (LeftLaneNews)

From the beginning GM has said the extended-range electric car platform of the Chevy Volt will be globally produced. At this point GM has publicly revealed the portfolio of 4 brands of electric cars the world will receive.

1. The Chevrolet Volt
This we know will appear in the US in 2010. GM has stated the car will sell in other countries that offer Chevrolet as well, including Europe.

2. Opel Ampera
Continental Europe will get the left-handed Opel Ampera in late 2011

3. Vauxhall Ampera
The UK will get a right-hand drive Vauxhall Ampera sometime in 2012.

4. Holden Volt
New Zealand and Australia will get a right-hand drive Holden Volt in 2012

?.  China
Still missing from this equation is China. GM revealed a hydrogen fuel cell version of the Volt at the 2007 Shanghai Auto Show, and thus has demonstrated interest in getting an electric car into the Chinese market. Indeed China is GM’s most rapidly growing market and has a lot of potential.  However, electric car competition in China is already expanding rapidly with the $22,000 BYD F3DM already on sale, and a $15,000 Chery S18EV on the way.

GM spokesperson David Darovitz told GM-Volt.com, “the Volt is a global, mass market vehicle. We intend to bring the Volt to Asia soon after the North American and European launches. “