The automaker says that today's bankruptcy filing won't delay the release of its electric car, but it may not have much to say about it.
After GM filed for bankruptcy this morning, a spokesperson for the company told me that the filing will have no impact on its plans to start selling an electric car called the Volt at the end of next year. But if, as planned, the federal government owns a controlling stake in the company after the bankruptcy proceedings (60 percent, according to the New York Times), GM's leaders might not have much to say about it.
It's not clear that the government will tell GM what to do about the Volt. Indeed, in a speech today, President Obama said, "When a difficult decision has to be made on matters like where to open a new plant or what type of new car to make, the new GM, not the United States government, will make that decision."
Yet the government has already shown willingness to force changes at the automaker, even without the controlling stake. For one thing, the government essentially fired GM's CEO. If the government does get involved with the Volt, it may not be good news for the vehicle. Earlier this year, the White House released an assessment of the automaker that concluded that the Volt will cost too much to make to be a commercial success. From the report:
GM is at least one generation behind Toyota on advanced, "green" powertrain development. In an attempt to leapfrog Toyota, GM has devoted significant resources to the Chevy Volt. While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable.
If the Obama administration's goal is to return the automaker to profitability as soon as possible, it might not want to continue pouring money into a project that it doesn't think can succeed.
While the Volt might not be the perfect solution to reducing petroleum consumption--for one thing, at a rumored $40,000 apiece, it will be too expensive to sell in very large numbers--it seems at the least to be a step in the right direction. Indeed, it represents an overall direction that the administration supports, as seen by its emphasis on plug-in hybrids. (The Volt is a plug-in hybrid, since it will be powered by a gasoline generator after its batteries are depleted.)
GM will likely sell all of its first run of Volts, even at their high cost (more than 48,000 people have indicated that they want to buy the Volt). And economies of scale and advances in battery technology could bring costs down, allowing more people to buy the car. The wait would be worth it. Eventually, plug-in hybrids could allow most people to commute without using any gasoline.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
philcolley
06/01/2009
Posts:1
( Free Government Grants Money - Small Business Grants - Education Grants )
common1
08/03/2009
Posts:3
( Foundation Grants - Housing Grants )
common1
08/03/2009
Posts:3
Clearly the administration is "not running GM" at all...
skuban
06/01/2009
Posts:1
kstauff
06/01/2009
Posts:120
jsessex
06/01/2009
Posts:13
The initial purchase price is only one consideration. Total cost of ownership is the real issue, especially with anything you're going to finance. Electric motors have TBO's of upwards of 100,000 hours vs 2,000 for an ICE. You never have to change the oil, or tune it up. It's more reliable in every way. The ICE in the Volt might only run a few hours a month in a typical urban application - a fraction of conventional cars.
It will be cheaper to operate, cheaper to maintain, and a strong step in the right direction towards a sustainable environment.
iconoclast
06/01/2009
Posts:2
ms
06/02/2009
Posts:149
kstauff
06/02/2009
Posts:120
It would not surprise me in the least if Honda or Toyota revealed a production ready serial electric car next year just to rub everyone's faces in their technological, marketing and business superiority. The Volt is destined to become the fleet purchase of choice for US government agencies simply to "prove" there is a market for a overweight and underpowered small car.
If anyone really wants to purchase a Government Motors car, there is a conventional model to be built on the "Volt" platform, and if GM were a real car company, rather than a prize for political supporters of the Obama administration and a vehicle for "green" social engineering, they would be putting a small diesel engine in that platform to provide the combination of fuel economy and performance that consumers are actually willing to pay for.
Thucydides
06/03/2009
Posts:19
A lot of the hype seems too good to be true. I'm afraid it will go 40 miles on its battery and then drop into something that resembles a "limp home" mode.
With batteries, electric motor and a 1400cc IC with a heavy alternator, this will be a heavy car even with GM intensive weight reduction efforts.
As the car runs out its range depleting the battery, the IC engine takes over more and more of the load. 1400CC engines, no matter how well developed won't give a heavy car much grunt.
I wish they had made the IC engine/alternator removal to reduce weight for in-city driving and maybe make it possible to add a second battery pack for increased battery-only range. The IC engine could be re-installed for longer trips.
bildan
06/01/2009
Posts:20
kstauff
06/02/2009
Posts:120
Jfmack
06/03/2009
Posts:1
Further, not everyone will accept underpowered Yugo's as a primary form of transportation. SUV's in the 90's and early 2000's were highly profitable, which goes further to highlight how bad a deal GM made with the unions. The Volt is a great step in the right direction, but lets hope it's just the first. There *is* a market for high performance vehicles regardless of their power source, and it's a very profitable market.
kstauff
06/03/2009
Posts:120
This is the important first step that we must take to get us off imported oil and on to Pure Electric vehicles . This will happen in a short time , but in the between years people will need to adapt to using electricity as a power source for individual transportation .
What I would like to see happen is for the government to place an order for two to three billion dollars worth of Volts from GM , have the dealers sell them for less than $25,000 , have the dealer keep three thousand dollars for doing the "PDI" on the car and return the $22,000 back to the government . The development is done and finished to the point of testing the final vehicles before production so no more money is needed there . The only thing left to do is start mass production and a few tweaks on the engine driven gen-set highway speed range extender .
The same thing should also be done with Ford and Chrysler . Place an order for two or three billion dollars worth of cars from both manufacturers . With Ford it would be the Milan and Fusion , deliver them to the dealers to sell for three thousand dollars a copy and send the difference back to the government and have Chrysler make a Chrysler version of the Volt in a larger car than the GM Volt .
Have all three of these companies bring to the market Pure Electric Vehicles as quickly as possible (2 years) and do the same thing with them .
The money saved from not buying imported oil from the middle East would pay for the manufacturing of these cars and all the peoples wages , thousands more people would be working , suppliers would know what to expect , new homes could be built , and most of all the depression would be over a healthy economy would be created and we would all be driving electric cars or extended range electric or hybrid cars that were made in North America , not some foreign country like Japan or Korea or China .
Sheet steel bent one way becomes a Ford , bent another way it becomes a Volt , bend it yet another way and it becomes a Chrysler . It is still the same steel .
Keith Tomils...
06/03/2009
Posts:9
Unless you intend to get home using wide-open-throttle the entire time, the ICE/generator will provide quite nicely for the entire duration of the Volt's 400 mile range.
iconoclast
06/09/2009
Posts:2