Cars, trucks and more

Henderson, Lutz and Wagoner next to the Volt
I’m a big fan of the Chevy Volt. I think it’s an important step in the right direction, especially for a company like GM. Still, I’ve blogged over-and-over that the Volt was not an excuse not to build a direct Toyota Prius-contender.
Ultimately, the lack of small hybrid cars [...]

Batteries to become a core business for GM
As you read this, GM isn’t just finalizing 80 prototype Chevy Volts that will be used this summer to get the Volt ready for final production, GM is also concurrently working on 2nd and 3rd generation Volts.
Why? For instance, according to Denise Gray, the Director of Global Battery [...]

Irrelevant or GM’s Ace card?
CNBC’s Phil Lebeau reiterated his belief that bankruptcy is not in the cards for GM. According to Lebeau the government made up its mind about saving GM some time ago. Check out this video of Lebeau on this issue, which includes a Chevy Volt test drive.
Yesterday, President Obama’s task force drove [...]

Too much EV range?
Carnegie Mellon University has finished carrying out an interesting study on the “impact of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) battery pack size on fuel consumption, cost and greenhouse gas emissions over a range of charging frequencies (distance traveled between charges),” according to GreenCarCongress.
In many driving scenarios, the study finds that conventional hybrid [...]

A few Volt lithium battery packs
When the Chevy Volt hits the streets next year it will be powered by both imported batteries and and an imported engine according to the UAW.
GM does plan to eventually produce both the batteries and the engines in the US but, according to the latest reports, there are no concrete [...]

Bob Lutz at the Volt’s NAIAS debut
GM’s product chief and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz is set to retire at the end of this year.
The legendary Lutz was one of the main drivers of GM’s Chevy Volt program, but he will not hang around long enough to see the vehicle hit the streets in late 2010. [...]

All Chrysler, or something else?
Not long ago, A123Systems was in the running for the first Chevy Volt battery contract, but it didn’t win. Nonetheless, and immediately, GM announced that A123Systems was still under consideration for future generations of Volt battery contracts (and who knows about dual mode plug-ins, such as the proposed Saturn Vue).
Nonetheless, regardless [...]

Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today
A few years ago, a rumor began to hit the blogosphere about a new vehicle that GM was developing that would leapfrog the Toyota Prius. At that time, as a perpetual critic of GM, I stated that if true, I would become that technology’s biggest advocate.
Not [...]

Same 40 miles as the Chevy Volt?
Something stinks in Detroit, but I’m not sure what it is.
Now that Chrysler has rolled out some new or updated EVs at the Detroit Auto Show, such as the pictured 200C EV Concept, I have a few serious questions.
First, is Chrysler even going to be around in 12 months?
Second, [...]

Let’s get real folks
I’ve pretty much had it with the EV1, GM killed the electric car, folks.
Did GM kill the electric car? Shut up.
Every automaker is working on an electric car today. No one killed the electric car. Cheap gas, however, delayed the emergence of the electric car.
Did GM screw up the EV1 program? Absolutely, [...]