With the current gloomy global economic climate and an energy crisis, GM's mismatched product mix of numerous large SUVs and trucks makes GM look like a lumbering dinosaur. Failure however is not an option for GM, with millions of American jobs and supply contracts to hundreds of American companies on the line, the closure of GM will have profound socio-economic impact that will require Federal intervention.
Rick Wagoner's future at GM, along with the millions of American jobs rest on one single model. Its very life depends on this - the Chevy Volt; a lithium-ion powered plug-in hybrid vehicle capable of driving 40 miles (approx. 64km, enough for a typical daily commute of most people) on pure battery power alone, before requiring a small petrol engine kicking in to recharge the batteries. This means that for a typical daily commute to work, not a single drop of fuel is used. An overnight charge at home is sufficient to top-up the battery juice.
GM's CEO Rick Wagoner (right), with GM's "product-czar" Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz (left) at the unveiling of the Volt concept in the 2007 North American International Autoshow. Image from flickr gmblogs.
An unofficial Volt fans website, gm-volt.com has a "waiting list" of more than 33,000 prospective buyers. The vehicle will be sold in Europe as the Opel Volt but availability in other parts of the world is still in question. Though I doubt the car will make its way out of key North American and European markets so soon due to concerns of managing potential recalls. A common consideration for all carmakers.
Despite early doubts of GM's capability in rolling out the vehicle by 2010, industry news have all pointed that GM is very much on track for its targetted launch by late 2009, where it will be first sold to fleet buyers. Full scale sale to consumers should begin by 2010. Yesterday, Toyota announced that it is bringing forward introduction of its next generation Prius with plug-in function to 2009, a year ahead of the earlier planned 2010. Prior to this new development, Toyota has always hinted of its doubt (in typical conservative Japanese fashion) on the viability of using lithium-ion batteries in cars, even more doubtful of GM's capability to meet its targetted launch date. GM is currently selecting its battery suppliers, Korea's LG Chem and Germany's Continental Automotive Systems are pitching for GM's supply contract.
Is Toyota going on a defensive as GM is slowing proving itself that it can and it will produce the Volt? Whether or not is the Volt is able to match the Prius on price levels is beside the point. The prize of being the first to roll-out a plug-in hybrid is not being at the top of sales chart, it is about the image, and regaining investor's confidence to continue to bank-roll GM's development of more mainstream models. The first generation Prius didn't generate much profit. In fact, many speculated if it ever generated any profit at all, but look where the Prius is at the moment, light years ahead of the nearest competition, not to mention the PR service it did to Toyota's green image. Industry analysts expect a price point of between USD 30,000 to USD 40,000 plus for the Volt, while the current Prius base model starts at USD 21,000 upwards.
Nissan too have mentioned it will be rolling out a fleet of EV models from 2012 onwards. More on that in another post. That's not all, Mazda is the latest company to jump on the EV bandwagon. AutoCar UK's sources indicate that a prototype in fairly "advance" state of development is running on a Mazda 5 bodyshell, with by a rotary engine employed to charge the batteries.
GM have been teasing the public with a series of teaser images of the production Volt.
Image from WorldCarFans.
Check out these spy shots from gm-volt.com - the shots below are taken at a shooting set of Transformers 2 movie. The car shown is said to be a close to production version Volt. If the news is true, gracious heavens now that is one wicked cool looking car! Cooler than anything else on the market!
Just look at the interior shots "leaked out." ipod inspired motives!
We often laugh at Americans, for their students who can't count, for having a stupid president, for their shallow culture, for the rubbish that Hollywood exports out, for the ignorant general public who don't know much about the world outside their country.
But we forget for all their lack of intellectual capacity on the surface , America has churn out more innovation than many other civilizations of our time. America is a melting pot of culture, a nation built by immigrants fleeing famine, war, religious persecution. Thus I think it is not right to make any sweeping statement about Americans, as they can be very different descendents of Irish, French, Italian, German, Russian, etc etc. A society that opens itself to other cultures, like USA tend to be more adaptive to innovation and new ideas. Therein lies the American ingenuity. Start-ups like Google and companies like Apple can only happen in USA, with their network of VCs and angel investors who are more willing to finance new ideas than any other groups in the world. After all it is the land of the free, ideas included.
Japan on the hand, rebuilt its post-war economy on a "slave-like" work culture that forbids disagreements with superiors and demands complete commitment to the company, including sacrificing one's family and personal interest. They even have a term for it - karoshi it is called. Its communal culture demands toe-ing in line with the rest. There is even a Japanese saying "the nail that stands out will be hammered down." Such discipline and commitment might work well in the Industrial Age. But Japan is at a turning point, the world is a much different place from 50 years ago. GM is going into the next hybrid race as an underdog to Toyota. Underdogs always benefit from a certain "can do spirit." Much has been said about the superiority of "Toyota Way," but I think the way to move forward, faced with such "disruptive" EV technology that threatens to turns the whole established car industry business model on its head, is not in any particular corporate mantra, but the ability to manage innovation rather than pushing engineers to clock in the longer hours. Put it this way, Rome and Egypt were built on slave work, they came and went, leaving behind an assortment of relic structures and philosophies on political state affairs. The Renaissance, in its structureless free-form, challenged the established dogma on the universe, along the way shifted the entire human race to the next level of conscious existance.
Don't dismiss GM so fast. After-all, the brains of this nation once accomplished the Manhattan Project. For once, GM might be doing something right.
Related post :
Third generation Prius
Hybrid Car Wars of 2009
Honda Insight 2
Malaysian Hybrid Vehicle Tax Incentive and Electric Protons
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