GM responds to Audi's "Volt is for idiots" remark
2011 Chevy Volt - Click above for high-res gallery
We've already seen Audi's Johan de Nysschen walk back comments he made that the Chevrolet Volt is "a car for idiots." Before de Nysschen's official response, we asked GM if Bob Lutz wanted to get into the fray (who, us, trying to cause a fight?). No such luck, but GM spokesperson Rob Peterson had a few words about de Nysschen comments:
Next time, we'll bring some boxing gloves, see if we can't turn this up a notch.Very surprised Mr. de Nysschen was so quick to insult the intelligence of electric vehicle and Volt enthusiasts. Not so surprised that Audi is taking a bold stance given their entrenched diesel position. EVs will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and tailpipe emissions – if that's being "hoodwinked by our government" then count me in.
Gallery: 2011 Chevy Volt
[Source: GM]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Bahnburner 5:19PM (9/04/2009)
"Entrenched" doesn't seem to fit with a company that has been actively involved in alternative vehicle propulsion including electric, hybrid, hydrogen, propane, natural gas, gas to liquid and diesel for decades. It does, however fit with a company that's spent the same period of time building gas-guzzling SUVs and cars nobody wants, then after bankruptcy and government control, rests its future on one car that costs twice as much as its competition and delivers little result to show for it.
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why not the LS2LS7? 5:59PM (9/04/2009)
Did you miss the VW Touareg? Audi Q7? Audi R8? Hell, Audi owns Lamborghini! VW/Audi make plenty of gas guzzlers.
And while VW has been showing hydrogen concepts, GM has project driveway hydrogen cars already in the hands of customer testers.
There's nothing alternative about Diesel. It's still oil.
Lad 7:45PM (9/04/2009)
Brain Alert:
I suggest the CEO of Audi and any other Auto CEO who has lost sight of the future and believes fossil fuels are good for American attend the following event: http://www.rmi2009.org/
Mark Kiernan 7:32AM (9/05/2009)
GM made a bold and correct statement. Audi are entrenched to oil, they invested in Diesel and diesel goes up just like gas when there is speculation. EV are a better stop gap to oil price speculation.
oldraven 11:33AM (9/05/2009)
Then? No, the Volt was in full swing long before the Government Loans. If you're going to speak, speak some truth.
ericmiyre 9:50PM (9/05/2009)
I agree with audi's statement. The volt is idiotic. It will be demanding more energy all the way around. It is made worse than other hybrids by being a plug in. Most inefficient vehicle in the world, that and the other pickup and suv idiot vehicles.
Lorena Palin 5:31PM (9/04/2009)
Why is it a bad thing to like diesels? They have quite afew good points, and are much more atractive to buyers than a $40 grand car that feels like a $20 grand car.
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why not the LS2LS7? 5:59PM (9/04/2009)
Depends on the buyer. By your argument, the Prius wouldn't succeed. And yet it did well.
meme 6:01PM (9/04/2009)
Out of curiosity, when did you last sit in a Volt?
Mel 11:04PM (9/04/2009)
didn't know the prius cost 40 grand.
why not the LS2LS7? 2:06PM (9/05/2009)
You missed my point. You could write off the Prius as saying a Corolla does the same for much less. Same way you can write off the Volt.
But the Volt delivers something that some buyers value. It does most of what an EV does and there are people paying a lot more than $40K for EVs right now. So you can't say the Volt will be a failure just because a Corolla is cheaper.
Turbofrog 5:51PM (9/04/2009)
Regardless of what you've got to say about Audi or GM, the Volt is arguably a more progressive vehicle than anything Audi has put out...well, ever. Now that the Volt's been in the pipe for a little while, the Nissan Leaf is looking like a serious competitor in what looks to be a burgeoning EV market, but when it was announced, it caught most of the major automakers with their pants down, which is why it's been such a huge media fixture.
I suspect Nysschen's comment was just ignorant. Given that Audi is the business of market premium-priced vehicles, it's a bit funny that he would attack it on economic grounds. Oh well, for the price, Audi buyers can wrap everything in leather, I'll take an 18 kWh battery pack instead...
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wincros 6:30PM (9/04/2009)
..."more progressive vehicle"...
It is not a vehicle until you can buy it and carry passenger and luggage down the road. The Volt is not yet a vehicle, it is a prototype. So comparing it with "what Audi has put out" is meaningless.
On the other hand VW and Audi have been producing diesel cars for sale with higher fuel economy than anything produced by GM. So your conclusion is 180 degrees wrong. Their gasoline TSI engine is a high fuel economy innovation that has yet to be equalled by anything similar from GM. Ford's EcoBoost may come close.
I agree that companies should get some points on what they are willing to announce and produce. But let us be frank here. People make electric cars in their back yards. They are simple, simple, simple. GM has been dangling the Volt out there for years as a PR stunt while they continue to advertise and sell $60K, 12mp commuter vehicles to people with virility doubts. If they were serious they could have dropped a not seriously different EV power train into an existing car, worked out the bugs in six months, and put it in production in two years, but that would not be as profitable. If the Volt ever finds itself coming off a production line it will not be profitable as an Escalade either, and GM has made it clear it will be very expensive for what you get and will only be made in small numbers.
Nysschen was impolitic, but he was not wrong. And none of his statements were addressed by GM. They answered with an ad hominem attack. I am surprised they did not call him a terrorist.
Turbofrog 6:51PM (9/04/2009)
Thank you for that clarification. So when GM releases it - as a vehicle, of course - next year, it will be more progressive than anything Audi has made.
TSI, diesel, all good stuff - but they're still just squeezing margins of efficiency out of an internal combustion engine burning fossil fuels. The RE-EV concept is certainly not perfect, but if it's what's necessary to get people comfortable with EVs in a big way, then so be it.
People build aircraft in their backyard. Simple, simple, simple, right? Yes, it might have been possible to implement their drivetrain in an existing chassis (hence the Malibu and Cruz mules that have been used for testing), but without designing the rest of the components around it, it would have been a bad car. And bad cars don't sell well. Hey, you're right, it probably wouldn't have been as profitable. As far as production goes, yes, they're scaling it up slowly, but they will be scaling it up. I don't think GM sees the Volt as a boutique product, by any means...they have far too much invested in it for that.
By the way, read the response again - GM in no way attacked Nysschen personally. It was simply a coy reply that does accurately represent Audi's current market approach.
someEEguy 2:03AM (9/05/2009)
"But let us be frank here. People make electric cars in their backyards. They are simple, simple, simple." - wincros
Lol, I can hardly begin to explain to you how clueless that statement is. You can build a computer, right? But can you design and engineer all the hardware and software that goes in to a computer and then integrate them? No! Furthermore, not knocking the people who build them but "backyard" EV's are extremely primitive... ever heard of Control engineering? Thought not, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. A well engineered EV will take many engineers, many months/years to complete. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Mel 1:40PM (9/05/2009)
turbofrog - It seems that it is this kind of attitude that gets our car industry in trouble. You can deny the engineering prowess of companies like Volkswagen Group and Toyota all day, but at the end of the day this is where the buyers are going and spending their money. I hope i don't have to quote sales figures. We can argue all day about the merits of the EREV concept, but the biggest problem of the Volt is the way GM goes about making it. They seem to be more focused on the media hype they can create with it than the customer who may want to buy it. And I'm afraid that when it comes to market it will prove Johan was right. And as someEEguy pointed out, EVs are not really rocket science, VW/Audi can whip that out in no time flat, just like Nissan, Toyota and GM, if they wanted. And that range extender doohickey - if ACPropulsion managed to build it in their shop almost ten years ago it shouldn't be too difficult either.
someEEguy 6:50PM (9/05/2009)
@Mel You read my post wrong, I'm saying the contrary. While engineering an EV isn't "rocket science", you'll still need a team of engineers and months/years worth of time. Point being a backyard EV does NOT equal a Chevy Volt, Fisker Karma, or a Tesla Roadster, the difference in control, software, and hardware engineering is simply MASSIVE. I don't believe I can make it any clearer....
Turbofrog 7:09PM (9/05/2009)
It's a bit like comparing a tuned up Chevy Nova someone got to run 10s with a funny car. Same purpose, different quality of execution.
Except that it's even more dramatic than that, because the Volt is a mass-production car that needs to satisfy all its different buyers and perform in all conditions reliably for years to come.
polo 6:14PM (9/04/2009)
Interesting. From all this it looks like Toyota and Audi will emerge out of the next decade far behind their competition.
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Ignatius 7:01PM (9/04/2009)
I'm actually disappointed that the Volt isn't using a more-efficient diesel engine as its generator, but I have a feeling that has something to do with emission standards. Clean-diesel, which has been mostly seen from BMW is a fairly decent technology and fairly fuel-efficient, but electrification is absolutely necessary.
Besides, bio-diesel can be made from several everyday wastes and as long as it's filtered correctly, it can be fed straight into the engine.
The Volt isn't for idiots, it's for people who want a practical, working electric car without the range anxiety that is the norm for electric cars now.
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