GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Look out, a lot of good news here!

Ed Whitacre is GM’s new CEO, at least temporarily. The keen, sharp-witted Texas businessman is a man of few words but lots of action.

He attended and spoke at the Battery Plant unveiling, and spoke to reporters in the days before.

He was asked about whether car would be released prior to the November 2010 deadline.

“We’re going to put out some early and drive ‘em,” he said. “How early? I don’t know.”

Asked specifically if he was referring to putting those cars in the hands of consumers he said “Yeah,” but didn’t elaborate.

According to some reports he was referring to getting them to “high-profile citizens” and “image leaders,” and that it would be on a small scale.

Whitacre also hinted the Volt is just the beginning of vehicular electrification for GM.

“There’s a lot more to come,” he said.

“The Volt and the battery that powers it are part of a broader portfolio of vehicles and technologies that we’re developing to meet the countries energy and environmental goals,” he added.

Whitacre also conceeded GM hopes to build very large volumes of electric cars.  ”It could be a lot if the vehicle is successful,” he told reporters after the event. “If it goes like we think, the sky’s the limit.”

And as if the idea of getting Volts early, and a broad Voltec portfolio isn’t good enough, executives are beginning to suggest a lower-than-expected price.

You will recall that I had been given a hint that the $40,000 price tag bandied about may actually be a decoy (see post).

Now GM VP Jon Lauckner told the Wall Street Journal the Volt could be notably less than $40,000.

“We have until this summer to figure that out,” he said.

According to reporter Sharon Terlap who interviewed Lauckner, she asked  if he meant “like $500 less” and he replied, “No, that would not be meaningful enough.”

Lobbyists
During the bankruptcy process last year, GM internalized its lobbying activities, or rather more specifically, they canned a significant portion their $10 million+ external lobby operation. It was unclear at the time if this was just part of the streamlining of the whole company, or simply a move to avoid a public black eye over a potential conflict.

Since then however, we have received news that GM has rehired the firms of Greenberg Traurig and the Duberstein Group, while also bringing onboard GrayLoeffler, and is continuing its relationship with the Washington Tax Group. Between these four noted firms, they have 18 lobbyists registered to represent GM.

The main job of these lobby groups is to win favors for GM in the form of tax breaks, special allowances and subsidies/grants over and above the $50-odd billion GM has already received.

Executive Reshuffle
The news on the external lobbying came to light at a time when GM itself was reshuffling its executive…again. This time in the form of its internal lobbying division. It would seem that Ed Whitacre’s message of a ‘calming of the storm’ at the executive level at GM after the ousting of then CEO Fritz Henderson, is not becoming a reality, as the purge continues.

Last week, GM announced the replacement of its head lobbyist/vice president of government relations, Ken Cole for two of Ed Whitacre’s poker playing buddies ex-employees at AT&T, namely John T. Montford, who is now senior advisor to the GM Chairman and CEO (of which, Mr. Whitacre seems to currently have a whole legion of ‘advisors’ at his disposal), and Robert E. Ferguson, who takes over the role of vice president of Government Relations.

On a personal note, I am all for a good shakeup. I met the news of the dismissal of Brent Dewar from the head of Chevrolet with a smile, and I confess to uttering a ‘huzzah’ or two when GM’s glorious disaster in charge of marketing that was Mark LaNeve left the building.

However, firing Ken Cole, who oversaw (and some say was the architect) of the whole ‘lets go to the government and get some ‘interm’ money, then go back again and get more ‘interm’ money, then tell them to look at all the money they foolishly gave us and get them to protect that money with more money…and then have them rinse us through bankruptcy, while telling them to forget all that ‘interm’ money they just gave us…and also throw us a whole bunch more ‘new’ money as we come out of bankruptcy so we are ‘viable’ for years to come’ plan seems like firing Michael Jordan off your team because you know a couple guys that used to play ball with you back in the day that were pretty good.

/just saying

CEO Rumor Du Jour
Not sure how this rumor got started (Okay, actually I do) but how it got picked up around the interwebs as legitimate is beyond me.

Basically, the story goes like this; GM wants to get a high profile, competent CEO installed at some point to not only lead the company into the future, but sell ‘the tar’ out of the upcoming (at some point) IPO. Enter current COO of Apple, Tim Cook. /tada, mission accomplished

Where it all breaks down is when you look at accountability…and reason. For starters, the source is some random ‘tipster’ that has indicated that he has a ‘inside’ source at a third party head hunter firm that says Cook is a top candidate for GM…and that he would be willing to leave Apple now that Steve Jobs is back running the show.

Beside the obvious ‘dubious’ source of a know a guy, who knows a guy. Why would Tim Cook leave his role as COO at Apple? He has been running the day to day operations there since Jobs when down with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004, and even temporarily took over as the interm CEO roll while the rest of the world was under a ‘Steve Jobs/Apple Deathwatch.’ Needless to say, neither happened, and he led the company out from a multi-year low around $80 right back up to $140, well on its way to a all-time high this past December. At this point I am unsure that Tim Cook is not more Apple than Steve Jobs is.

And for his trouble keeping Jobs seat warm, Mr. Cook has gotten paid…and with a capital ‘P’.  He has raked in tens of millions the last couple years, and just looking at his disclosures over his tenure, he has earned/sold over $100 million in Apple stock since his arrival. Not to mention he looks to have a lock on someday owning the ‘official’ CEO title. How long can/will Steve jobs really keep that seat filled?

Is GM willing to pay Cook $30 million a year, with a Nardelli-esque severance package? Would Cook even take that? Would Apple match any exorbitant price to keep him in house? Does Cook, who has only ever worked in the tech sector, even have the skill set to make a troubled automaker fly?

If somehow lightning did strike the Renaissance Center (like a dozen times) and Cook came onboard, GM certainly could boast having a who’s who of powerhouse executives, with Microsoft’s ex-CFO (Liddell), Apple’s ex-COO as CEO, and AT&T’s ex-chief Whitacre serving as President.

/but those three in the same room would surely cause the universe to implode.

Earlier this week General Motors announced that Chris Liddell would be taking over the duties of Chief Financial Officer, replacing the ‘kinda’ outgoing Ray Young, who has been displaced to GM’s international operation.

GM CEO Ed Whitacre had this to say of his new subordinate, “Chris brings a depth and experience to this job that were unmatched in our search for a new financial leader. Chris will lead our financial and accounting operations on a global basis and will report directly to me. We’re also looking to his experience and insights in corporate strategy as a member of the senior leadership team in helping our restructuring efforts.”

Curiously, Mr. Liddell has been CFO of Microsoft for the past four years, and on the surface this move would seem to be lateral, or even a demotion of sorts considering GM’s past and current woes, especially in relation to size, stability and safety of Microsoft.

This brings us to a couple of questions, why and how much? As in why would he make the move, and just how much is he making at GM…given the salary cap of $500,000 imposed on TARP receiving company’s executives.

Did GM CEO Whitacre indeed get concessions from pay czar Kenneth Feinberg to hire new talent from the outside the company at a premium price over the 500K?

At the time of the press release, GM spokespersons declined to comment on whether or not GM had gotten such lenience from the government, but they said the company might post more information in a regulatory filing in the future.

However, that fiscal information blackout lasted about 48 hours, as word trickled out just before Christmas Eve that Mr. Liddell would be the first new GM exec to break the government’s back and receive a annual salary of $750,000…and a $3.45 million dollar (in stock) bonus payable in 2012, plus an additional $2 million if GM can repay the $6.7 billion it owes to the US government. (Of interest GM already has this money in a escrow account earmarked to pay the government back in the very near future…and that money was actually put there by the government itself just a few months ago) /Can anyone say ‘money in the bag?’

While the amount of compensation the new GM CFO will make does seem significant at first blush, in context it does not represent a pay hike for Chris, as he earned $3,701,199.00 (according to Forbes) in 2009 with Microsoft.

While Mr. Liddell’s GM contract is certainly front loaded, if he sees his job through until the bonuses pays out in 2012, he will have earned approximately $7.7 million for 3 years of service, which is likely considerably less than he would have made toiling under another demanding (yet similar in style) CEO at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer.

So why the move? Why leave the juggernaut of profitability and cash flow that is Microsoft, and the near monopoly they enjoy over a industry…for GM, a company whose future is far from certain?

There can be only one reason. The CEO job is his to lose…or at least that is what he has been promised.

(Or maybe he got tired of Windows crashing his PC and he just really wanted to switch platforms bad)

We haven’t stirred up the Chevrolet Volt price pot in a while, so now seemed like a good time.

In all seriousness, there may be some developments on this front.

First, you will recall a recent government-sponsored study showed PHEV-40s may have difficulty becoming cost effective until gas is $4.00 per gallon based on today’s lithium ion battery pack costs.

Certainly there are a lot of early adopters that will buy up all the first year Volts before they even hits the dealers lots. That’s a given, but its only about 10,000 cars.

GM is looking to get costs down so that by its second genration, the Volt is cost-effective even if gas shouldn’t make it over the $4.00 mark. In fact, GM is quite concerned about this issue, and recognizes that the price of the car will me the major factor in determining if it will gain widespread acceptance.

“They are not going to pay tens of thousands of dollars in order to save a few hundred dollars a year on fuel,” GM vice chairman Bob Lutz told MSNBC, about the Volt.

We know it was always GM’s hope to sell the car for under $30,000, which is why they chose the Chevrolet brand. For many months, in fact years, we have heard that the car is likely to come in around $40,000. Of course there will be a $7500 tax credit making the effective price $32,500.

Is it possible this $40,000 price tag is a decoy?

GM has never publicly committed to it, and VP John Lauckner once said final pricing wouldn’t be made public until May of next year.

Although nothing official to report, I have been given a subtle hint that we may be in for a surprise when pricing is made public.

We’ll have to wait and see.

On Tuesday, hot on the heels of receiving a 86 million SEK ($12 million-ish USD) grant a week earlier, the Saab ‘coalition’ debuted the 2010 ZE Saab 9-3 electric car. It is a shame it will likely never see the light of day.

The ZE Saab (ZE stands for zero emissions) had twin electric motors putting out 335 HP, propelling it to 62 MPH in around 6.5 seconds. The car was estimated to have a range of 150 km (93 miles) on a 26 kWh battery supplied by Boston Power, with additional/larger batteries reported to be in the works for the future.

The Saab coalition had announced 100 units to be produced in 2010, and predicted up to 10 billion 60,000 by 2020.

Unfortunately for the ZE 9-3, the wheels fell off the bus at Saab on Friday, with the announcement that GM’s replacement suitor for Koenigsegg, namely Spyker cars, could not come to a agreement to buy the beleaguered brand. GM Europe President, Nick Reilly made this statement:

“We regret that we were not able to complete this transaction with Spyker Cars. We will work closely with the Saab organization to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner.”

GM did further explain the failure of the deal by saying, “Despite the best efforts of all involved, it has become very clear that the due diligence required to complete this complex transaction could not be executed in a reasonable time. In order to maintain operations, Saab needed a quick resolution.”

I basically interpret this to mean that GM is once again paranoid (see Opel deal) about giving up control of newer/future platforms (and the intellectual property that goes with them) to a small shell company, that is backed by a huge Russian banking group (this time the Konvers Group)…which as far as I can tell is controlled by the mob (or something not too dissimilar to it).

A fellow by the name of Alexander Antonov controls the Konvers group, whose business practices just happened to make him the recent target of a assassination attempt this year on Moscow streets. (He was shot half dozen or so times…no death) Reuters reports the attempt was a result of his, “professional activities.” Probably not the best partner.

/good call GM

In a way Saab will still live on. Chinese auto maker BAIC acquired the rights to three current/old generation Saab vehicle platforms. The salvageable parts of the technology will move from Sweden to Beijing for integration into BAIC’s lineup. BAIC expects new products from Saab technology as soon as 2011. The new models on this platform will not be marketed as Saabs.

Most exciting promotional video of a upcoming electric car ever (it is like they knew):

GM has announced it will be investing $336 Million into the Detroit-Hamtramck plant for the purpose of retooling and preparing the plant to build the Chevrolet Volt electric car next year.

“We expect the Detroit-Hamtramck plant will be the first facility in the U.S. owned by a major automaker to produce an electric car. It is the hub for the wheel that we began rolling in 2007 when the Volt debuted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit,” said Jon Lauckner, GM vice president of global product planning. “Since then, the field of challengers and partners has grown significantly. This competition will expedite the development of electric vehicle technology and infrastructure.”

So far GM has invested nearly $700 million in Volt related needs in eight facilities.  In addition to today’s announcement the following other money has been spent:

• $37 million in Bay City, Mich. to produce cam shafts and connecting rods for the Volt’s engine generator.
• $23 million in the Flint, Mich. Tool and Die facility to build the dies to stamp metal parts for the Volt.
• $202 million at the Flint Engine South plant — this is where GM will build the 1.4-liter engine generator that provides Volt an extended-range capability of more than 300 miles.
• $1.7 million at the Flint Metal Center, in presses to stamp parts.
• $30 million in the Weld Tool Center, in Grand Blac, Mich., to produce the robotic weld tool cells that were installed in Detroit/Hamtramck plant.
• $27 million in the Alternative Energy Center at the GM Tech Center in Warren, home of the new, state-of-the-art battery lab where GM tests and refines the Volt battery pack.
• $43 million in Brownstown Township, Mich., to open the world’s first OEM-owned, high-volume, lithium-ion battery pack plant.  GM expects battery-pack production to begin there early next month.

GM will begin production of the first validation build Chevy Volts in Hamtramck in March of 2010.

This work will gradually shift into regular series production of the car by late next year.

This investment indicates GM’s robust level of commitment to the future of the Chevy Volt and other electric vehicles.  It is the first electric car plant GM has operated since the EV-1 plant 13 years ago.

“The race to build a mass-produced electric vehicle – a race that has its roots with the EV1, but began in full with the reveal of the Volt – has been one of the most exciting developments the auto industry has ever seen,” writes Volt vehicle line executive Doug Parks.  “Detroit/Hamtramck is the finish line for the race and one we will cross this time next year as Volt begins arriving in dealerships.”

Source (GM)