Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Tele man
...IMHO the Volt is nothing more than a re-incarnated EV1 'smoke & mirrors' exercise done soley for Government edification, it certainly does NOT look like it was done for the general motoring public.
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Actually the Volt is the "Precept," the last GM 'Power Point' design submitted to the Al Gore program, Partnership for Next Generation Vehicle. That program was defunded and replaced by the Hydrogen Fool Cell program in 2001. The program goal was a car that could achieve 80 MPG.
The EV1 worked well enough which is probably why it was crushed. The Leaf has more EV1 but the Tesla is really what the EV1 could have become. Regardless, there is one bit of good news . . . GM killed their "mild hybrids" the same month Bob Lutz retired.
GM charged $4,000 extra for a Malibu "mild hybrid" to add ~4 MPG, not even into the 30 MPG range. What a fraud!
Personally, I don't think GM will ever become a serious player until every one of Bob Lutz's hires and direct reports retires. GM was and remains frozen in old technology and old technology thinking. GM will need a new breed of engineers and engineering management and that is not yet evident.
Bob Wilson