GM Centennial: Bob Lutz talks about the Volt's future, $7,500 tax incentives
Ahh, the blogger round table. At GM's Centennial celebration yesterday, GM chairman sat down with a group of bloggers to talk about - what else? - the Volt. Lutz took questions about the car and gave a upbeat assessment of where the overall program is now; he didn't even knock wood when he said that the battery testing has not given them any problems - guess he's not superstitious. One thing that Lutz said would help GM sell more Volts would be government incentives, specifically $7,500 incentive for each person who buys one. By the looks of it, the he won't quite get that amount.
Over the next few years, here's what will happen with the Volt program: There will be 50 or so Volt powertrains in Chevy Cruze bodies cruising the streets gathering data in the next few months. They are currently building three a week. Next year, about 100 Volts that look like the Volt will be out and about and in 2010 there will be a "pretty huge fleet" testing. Basically, Lutz said, everything's on track for the late-2010 production date.
We also hear how those leaked photos hit the web - yup, GM was embarrassed.
Have a listen to all this a lot more (31 min):
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex 6:34PM (9/17/2008)
Is it just me or does Bob look like he is passing a kidney stone?
Similarly if you look back at the Volt unveiling event pictures during the centennial celebration, all the board members are frowning and look like they just took a crap in their pants. No a single one is smiling like at our events, i.e. new corvette unveiling.
These guys must seriously hate doing this as it goes against the grain of 100 years of GM ideology: destroying electric mass transit systems in the early 1900s, fostering fascist doctrine and monopoly like with the Nazis during WWII, propagating the demise of electrical innovations during the 70s and 80s, crushing the EV1 program literally, and now greenwashing their reputation with the Volt and E-Flex systems because they have no stable footing in the automotive market and its future.
Happy 100th GM. Your chromed-out wheelchair awaits...
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Name of the Game 6:40PM (9/17/2008)
2010 GM Asstro
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Name of the Game 6:42PM (9/17/2008)
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/pinkfloydhouse/Pimped_Up_Wheelchair.jpg
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TX CHL Instructor 8:03PM (9/17/2008)
The financial pundits are reporting that GM and Ford are lining up at the Government's teat to see if they can get some of that Liberal bailout money like AIG got. After decades of throwing money around like a drunken sailor, GM wants *ME*, the taxpayer, to bail them out. Sorry, I'm not interested in bailing out GM. If the consequences of bad management is just a government bailout, then eventually every business in the US will be lining up for their turn at the Government's teat.
Without a taxpayer bailout, GM will certainly fail. I hope the Feds allow it to fail. Dunno if Ford is also going under, but it wouldn't surprise me.
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gorr 8:14PM (9/17/2008)
I remember having driven a brand new chevrolet citation v6 1986 and the third speed from the automatic transmission was changing at the same time as the forth speed that was in the differential casing and was activated by an electronic sensor and then the motor was passing from second speed to forth speed and then after one second after almost stalled the transmission goes back to second speed, LOL. The repair done at the dealership under warranty was just to unplug that electric sensor and i was back to a three speed transmission without this nasty forth gear overdrive. Even the motor mount broke. After a year i was back to a volkwagen rabbit with the same performance and a more refine driving experience.
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shamba mishra 9:29PM (9/17/2008)
Chevrolet,its great that you have done the future in the present but remember having a lot of supporters you are thinking you as a great legend,...........but i think you don't have the actual.,will you tell me you have done some great........ i don't believe.I took birth in a middle class family far away from your house.I have nothing except my belief to make a legend thing in future and that give the importance............i will make it,i will break down all the walls that will obstruct me,will make something that will amuse you also.......tell me whenever someone build up him from a small to a great..........thats very tough but you have done nothing except stretching your company but i am maker and also get my company to the every field.thats the difference between you and me.........
can you do my work what i have done or will do in future?
noooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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ziv 10:21PM (9/17/2008)
GM is close to building a game changing car, with the range looking good, the car itself looking nearly as good as the concept, and the probable life of the battery pack looking good, the major questions are, 'Can GM build it for enough less than $40,000 to make it more than a niche vehicle' and 'Will they build enough of them, and build enough Volt 2.0's and Volt 3.0's to make a real difference'. This car will mean that my fuel costs will go from $2400 year to $500. And it will be dead easy for me to set up a wind generator and cut that cost even more. I will be talking to Mr. Exxon once a month at most, and then I will only be buying 4 or 5 gallons, which is a tenth of what I buy per month now.
Thank God Lutz ditched the Pepto pink tie, tho.
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Nobody Special 6:25AM (9/18/2008)
Bob is his favorite fan - really can anyone take this guy seriously? Liberal bailout money? I missed the 'Liberal' side of the bailout - oh, you forgot 'Conservatives'.
I'm tired of the bailouts - Bush goes down to Galveston and Houston, and asks 'Mericans to send money to help. Then approves a bailout - nice move.
The 'big 3' have been raking in the profits with huge, inefficient, high profit vehicles, with a damn the torpedoes attitude. Let them fail and give the bailout dollars to the employees they've put out to the streets.
Then, plug their wet, greedy fingers into the socket and watch them 'Volt'.
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Dan 8:49AM (9/18/2008)
I'm trying to like Gm its just so hard....
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Andy 7:13PM (9/18/2008)
Little wonder GM makes so little effort to be competitive when they consider the American tax payers their own personal ATM.
Notice how the credit is optimized to its maximum on behalf of GM, offers no advantage to all electric vehicles soon to come out with far more battery capacity (e.g. Tesla S), no credit to non "cars" like the Aptera, and I surmise this was a revision of the hybrid credit that has already phased out for Toyota. GM is our Sweetheart.
I bet these guys cheated on tests in high school because they felt they deserved good grades.
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Jason 12:46PM (9/19/2008)
The government handed out 29.9 BILLION Dollars to Bear Stearns and that was just the tip of the iceberg. And who did that benifit. It wasn't the American Tax payer. And unlike the Chrysler deal of the past you can darn near Gaurantee that they will not be paying it back. That means you and I payed their bill.
You are telling me that they can dish that out (plus the billions more they have this week) to reward the Super Rich CEO's of these companies but they can't dish out $7,500 for cars. If they sold 100K cars in the first two years (of course they won't) that is only 7.5 Billion dollars. Not even a third of what they gave a greedy company in one day.
That 7,500 may be the price point to really get people into these cars. The fuel savings (around 2K per person depending on a lot of variables) per year would be put back into the economy and keep it running. Not to mention make our country stronger and safer (of which I will not get into).
Sure it is sad they our capitalisitc society is not working and that people are taking advantage of it. I completely disagree, as it is not the governments job. But don't blame GM for trying here. They are working for the people more than any of those other financial companies out there.
I hope they make some progress.
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gorr 11:24AM (9/19/2008)
If they just put a second tank for natural gas or hydrogen gas as an option in all their cars and trucks, it will add 1 000$ to the purchase cost and the goverment can give 1 000$ as an incentive instead of 7 500$ and it will save a lot of pollution and help kick-start the hydrogen gas retailing business and help take national natural gas instead of monopolyzed gasoline.
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