General Musings

GM: Innovators or crackheads? 5

chevy voltSome assembly required.GM.comAt one of our news meetings last week, I mentioned a story I had seen. “GM says the Chevy Volt will get 230 miles per gallon,” I told my fellow editors. The number struck me funny because it was ludicrously far beyond any current mpg rating, and because GM acknowledged that the Volt, due in late 2010, would be difficult to recharge given current infrastructure. It’s as if you had a pony that delivered lollipops door to door, except it didn’t have anywhere to buy them. But to a couple of staffers, it was funny for a whole different reason: “Miles per gallon of what?” they asked. “It’s electric!”

The Volt does use some gas, and the 230 mpg figure is based on some fancy-footwork math. But as this Time article points out, a more realistic measurement for the new generation of vehicles might be kilowatt-hours per mile or even, when we get really high-tech, miles per kilogram of hydrogen.

I wasn’t the only one intrigued by the car company’s hype. Hundreds of stories repeated GM’s claim—breathlessly at first, then with a creeping note of skepticism, then with level-headed analysis. It didn’t take long for the EPA, which faces the unenviable task of figuring out how to develop fuel-economy measurements for plug-in electric hybrids, to clarify that it had not actually tested a Volt and couldn’t confirm the 230 mpg figure.

For me, the most entertaining part of the whole episode was this quote from a blog entry by GM Vice Chair Bob Lutz: “I’ve said before that Volt is like our moon shot, and I stand by that statement. It’s exactly like a moon shot, if the lunar landing module were getting 230 miles per gallon.”

Exactly!

So to today’s “moon shot”: GM is floating the idea that it might produce a $4,000 compact car. The model would likely be made and sold in Asia, though VP of International Operations Nick Reilly said the company can’t scooch down as low as the $2,500 Tata Nano because of emissions standards, among other reasons. This news, too, is being greeted fairly warmly; writes Derek Thompson in The Atlantic: “[Whether or not the car sells in the U.S.], it’s nice to see GM trying to compete with emerging market auto makers, because it tells me that somebody is serious about making GM an auto company that’s thinking globally and long term.”

Is that what we’re seeing—the transformation of a near-dinosaur into a far-sighted global giant? Or are we watching that dinosaur thrash around helplessly in a shady swamp, occasionally spitting out shiny driblets of PR that make the media go wild? Can a dinosaur make a moon shot and survive?

Katharine Wroth is a senior editor at Grist.

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  1. neosapiens Posted 2:58 pm
    19 Aug 2009

    If GM would make a lightweight electric car more or less like a Mini-Cooper, it could have a very low part count and might even be able to make some of the body panels from plastics or composites to make manufacturing simple.  If they offered several options for battery cost, weight and range, they could create a new low-cost family of vehicles ranging from neighrborhood vehicles to commuter vehicles. By varying the battery configurations, they could address a wide enough niche that they could take the market away from small startups like Zap or Coda.

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  2. Javaman Posted 6:46 am
    20 Aug 2009

    Meh, nothing but BS and mirrors. GM is trying it's best by throwing crazy propaganda and hoping some of it sticks to the wall.They are crack addicts claiming they will go clean AFTER they get their next fix.A $4000 dollar car? A cracker box on wheels more like. Just make a frigging car that we can afford that runs on alt fuel.How about a diesel hybrid? Or just a plain old to and from electric car? (oh that's right, they had one of those and crushed it after they strong armed the california legislature into dumping the clean air rules)Screw GM, they had their chance, they saw how the winds were blowing and chose to ignore all the warning signs in favor of the quick buck with material hungry gas hog SUV's. Greed, folks, plain and simple.They threw the unions under the bus, they threw the public under the bus, why should I support these creeps?don't look to the big three for salvation. There are many start ups out there listening. Just pay attention and stop listening to GM's tripe.

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  3. TarryFaster Posted 6:56 am
    20 Aug 2009

    When the article mentioned Tata Motors, I don't understand why their compressed air car wasn't/isn't mentioned.  This seems like a major innovation in automotive transportation --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Motors#Compressed_air_car

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  4. TarryFaster Posted 7:03 am
    20 Aug 2009

    Here is a video that shows off the compressed air car:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_agapY9mZjs&feature=fvst

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  5. Jensen G Posted 7:47 am
    20 Aug 2009

    Not sure why you felt the need to mention hydrogen, as it's a different (and environmentally questionable) technology...but it's entirely true that MPG will eventually become obsolete.

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