GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Today is truly a historic one for the US automotive industry, and for the dream of petroleum independence and the Chevy Volt.

After weeks of intense political wrangling and nail-biting financial drama, US President George Bush has agreed to grant low interest loans to GM and Chrysler.

As he just announced those loans will be sufficient to allow GM and Chrysler to operate until March 31 2009. GM will receive its first $4 billion on December 29th, and an additional $5.4 billion on January 16th 2009. It could get another $4 billion on February 17th if the second half of the TARP is released.

Bush said normally he wouldn’t have intervened and would have allowed the companies to fail, but cited the current finical crisis as being extenuating circumstances. He determined allowing the automaker to collapse would be devastating to the economy. Bush also agreed with the automakers that a disorderly bankruptcy would cause them to fail and liquidate as consumers wouldn’t buy their cars.

The automakers will be given until March 31, 2009 to prove they can restructure and obtain net positive value, but not necessarily profitability. They must obtain meaningful compensation from labor and debtholders. If they fail to meet those goals, the loans will come due and they will have to file for an orderly chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Government would take non-voting stock in the companies, and there would be limits to executive compensation. The Treasury would oversee the restructuring.

The following specifics have been published by Politico.com:

Binding Terms and Conditions: The binding terms and conditions established by the Treasury will mirror those that were voted favorably by a majority of both Houses of Congress, including:
—Firms must provide warrants for non-voting stock.
—Firms must accept limits on executive compensation and eliminate perks such as corporate jets.
—Debt owed to the government would be senior to other debts, to the extent permitted by law.
—Firms must allow the government to examine their books and records.
—Firms must report and the government has the power to block any large transactions (> $100 M).
—Firms must comply with applicable Federal fuel efficiency and emissions requirements.
—Firms must not issue new dividends while they owe government debt.

Targets: The terms and conditions established by Treasury will include additional targets that were the subject of Congressional negotiations but did not come to a vote, including:

—Reduce debts by 2/3 via a debt for equity exchange.
—Make one-half of VEBA payments in the form of stock.
—Eliminate the jobs bank.
—Work rules that are competitive with transplant auto manufacturers by 12/31/09.
—Wages that are competitive with those of transplant auto manufacturers by 12/31/09.

The drama of the end game seems to be picking up steam. Despite early reports that the Bush administration would announce loan plans to GM by Wednesday, still no word. Most recently, White House press secretary Dana Perino said “there’s nothing new on the auto front.”

President Bush discussed the topic on Wednesday on a Fox News interview and said the following:
“I’m thinking through, you know, it needs to get done relatively soon. I’m looking at all options. Two principles by which I’m making this decision is … a disorganized failure, disorganized bankruptcy or disorderly bankruptcy would cause, could cause great harm to the economy — beyond that which we’re now witnessing, and that concerns me. And the other point is that … I’m not interested in, in really putting good money after bad, so it’s … an issue that I’m thinking through.” (Reuters)

Chrysler announced it will be shutting down all vehicle production at all of its 30 plants beginning this Friday for a period ending no sooner than January 19th. As we’ve heard GM has had to shut down construction of the Volt engine plant.

However, a senior GM executive stated that GM will continue efforts to build the Volt even if the government loans don’t come through. This person said “although we are temporarily absolutely stopping all work on everything, the Volt will be out as originally scheduled.”

Reportedly there are plans in place such that even if GM goes into bankruptcy it will still have funds set aside to carry the Volt to production. It was noted that even if the Flint factory doesn’t get built in time, the 1.4 L engine generator could be sourced from overseas. (CNN)

Sources familiar with the White House discussions advise me though that the bailout negotiations are progressing and because there is “no playbook for this” it takes time. Those sources reassure us that a conclusion will be coming soon.

Furthermore new reports indicate that Chrysler is attempting to revive merger discussions with GM again in an effort to prove to the government they are serious about restructuring. GM has denied this.

The devil continues to be in the details of the democrat-written bill that will use government funds to allow GM and Chrysler to survive until next March. A draft was presented by the top Democrats to the White House on Monday night.

The bill will be called the Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act, and a draft copy has leaked into the press.

One thing that appears to be final is the amount, $15 billion, which will go to the automakers out of the retooling fund already appropriated.

It calls for the creation of a single individual to be appointed by Bush and so-called the car czar. That person will oversee and help negotiate the restructuring effort and be able to review any expenditure of greater than $25 million.

The bill also calls for the government to receive stock in the automakers worth 20% of the loans, and limits executive compensation. There’s even a clause requiring a study as to whether the automakers could build transit vehicles.

Nancy Pelosi when speaking about the bill late Monday said “We call this a barbershop. Everyone is getting haircuts, in terms of the conditions,” referring to the shaving of dollars owed to them by creditors as well as contract guarantees from the autoworkers.

The White House has expressed concern that the bill inst tough enough on the automakers. There are fears that it may not offer taxpayers enough protection and may allow companies that cannot demonstrate long-term viability to still get loans. Since loans could be given up until March 31 it might not be possible for GM to show that it has achieved sufficient restructuring by that date. Think about how long it might realistically take to sell Saab or shut down Saturn for example.

Outspoken Senate Finance Committee member Bob Corker noted that the bill “lacked teeth” and should accomplish the same thing as bankruptcy would only without the detrimental stigma. As it stands, he said he wouldn’t support the bill.

Negotiations on the draft are to continue with the hope that a vote could be taken as early as Wednesday, but whether it can avoid a Senate filibuster is still far from clear. It still remains possible that the auto companies will not get government loans.

Source (Wall Street Journal)

In late 2007, GM unveiled the Opel Flextreme concept car and later showed it rebadged as Saturn.

The vehicle has a unique monocab design, but importantly, like the Chevy Volt, is also an E-Flex vehicle. It is meant to demonstrate how the range-extender could also be diesel and how the E-Flex E-REV drivetrain could be implemented in a utility vehicle body.

Many have praised the design.

Today GM announced that the Opel Flextreme was recognized by an international jury and received the prestigious red dot award in a ceremony in Singapore.

I asked GMs Director of Communications from Opel in Europe, Jean-Philippe Kempf, whether since the design has been so acclaimed that GM might move it into production.

He replied:

While I cannot directly comment on future products, I can tell you that you will see further implementations and evolutions of the new Opel design language in future Opel on one hand, and that the E-REV concept will also be deployed within the GM brands.
Do not expect to see the Flextreme hit production. But stay tuned, and you will find many of (not all) the ideas it contains in future Opel products.

Vijay Iyer who is GM Europe’s Manager of Design Communication told me the following:

We expect the first iteration of  an Opel/Vauxhall E-REV to be quite close to the Volt, but there could well be Opel/Vauxhall specific designs in the future.

Source (GM)

I had some further discussions about the Chevy Volt’s interior with chief designer Bob Boniface.  He advised me that the production interior design has undergone some further refinements. This images above reveal those. The older design is at the post bottom.  You can download the high-res image here.

Are the interior interfaces finalized?
Stylistically it looks mainly final.

Are the things seen on the display completely finalized?
They’re not completely finalized, there is going to be more content than what you see here. These are just DVDs that are rolling on a loop.

One of the things we have changed I should tell you design-wise is this piece the middle touch screen frame. People kept trying to break this or pull it off. It doesn’t move. It looks like it should move. It (also) is not very manufacturable.  It was one piece. It was die-locked. So now we’ve integrated it. It has more of a hood on it, its integrated around its edges, it actually looks quite a bit better. On all these buttons, we’ve added pill-shaped targets, tactile targets that you can navigate towards.

Are they haptic?
No, they are capacitive, but they have auditory feedback, they don’t have touch feedback.

Have you taken some feedback then from the public perception?
No, we just knew that all along.

Another thing is that these vents have moved. They’re actually “siamesed” off the sides of the center stack, and they actually look a lot more high-end, more upscale. The rest of these main surfaces are unchanged.

Older Design

Thanks to Statik for finding the image.

Despite all of the abysmal financial issues plaguing GM and the “important changes” to business operations GM CEO Rick Wagoner plans to announce on Friday, GM continues to push ahead with the Volt program.

Multiple sources have stated that with all the slashing going on at GM, the Volt program and budget remains unchanged. In fact there is good evidence GM is actually continuing to work on a portfolio of future E-Flex vehicles.

Reuters is reporting that GM will be developing a range of plug-in vehicles to follow the Volt launch in 2010. These include a Cadillac luxury E-Flex and a Chevy with “SUV styling”.

Supporting this report is a recent exchange I had with E-Flex lead designer Bob Boniface:

Can you say anything about other E-Flex vehicles besides the Volt that you are designing now?
No…well I’m working on some other derivative concepts that use this powertrain. That’s all I can say. And they’re not four door Chevys. In other words, we’re playing with brand and were playing with category.