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Last update - 23:13 02/11/2008 The car that could make or break GM By Yoav Kaveh Tags: Environment, Chevrolet Volt PARIS - John Lauckner, General Motors Vice President for Global Program Management, sports a tailored mustache and a well-kept forelock. He is sitting on an elevated bar stool atop the dais overlooking the convention center floor, where GM is featuring an exhibition at the Paris Car Exposition. I am sitting on a similar chair opposite his. Looking directly into my eyes, Lauckner lucidly and decisively declares: "Chevrolet Volt is not some public relations stunt. Chevrolet Volt is a real car. We are going to produce it beginning November 2010 in the biggest GM factory in North America. Believe me." I don't believe him. How much will the battery cost, and how many miles will it permit the car to travel? In any event, how can they succeed in manufacturing an electric car and marketing it at a reasonable price to the consumer? Advertisement Lauckner does not give up easily. "We've identified the technical problems. They are evident to us and all of them can be resolved. We have already built a number of prototypes that drive smoothly. By the end of the year, we will announce who will supply our batteries." I gaze out from the stage. The Chevy Volt prototype is on display right below us. Peering out from underneath the car's front left girder is a tiny hole, from which an electric cord emerges connected to an outlet. The Chevrolet Volt is either GM's chance to stay alive or the final nail in the coffin of the car manufacturer that is losing money at a rate of a billion dollars per month. The advent of the Volt can be traced back to 1996, the year that saw another electric car, the EV1, whose initials stand for Electrical Vehicle. The car, which was solely powered by electricity, was not made available to the public for purchase. Rather it was offered for leasing at a price of $300-$600 per month. It was a remarkable automobile. The most advanced aerodynamics in history (a drag coefficient of CD 0.195); fully electric; completely noise-free and possessing impressive capabilities: It needed just eight seconds to reach a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. The public was enthusiastically receptive to the EV1 and General Motors amassed a lengthy waiting list of customers. But the company opted to manufacture just 1,100 units, and in 2003 it issued a total recall of all the cars. Subsequently, GM simply destroyed all of them. Company executives acknowledged that it was economically unfeasible to manufacture the car. In the film "Who Killed The Electric Car?" which premiered in 2006, it was argued that the destruction of the electric car was the result of a conspiracy by General Motors and the oil companies. The former would like to continue selling pick-up trucks and large sport utility vehicles at a considerable profit, while the latter would like to go on reaping billions of dollars from selling the black gold. Just two years after the liquidation of the EV1, Robert Lutz, GM Vice Chairman of Global Product Development, proposed to the board of directors that the company begin work on a new electric car. Lutz is an internationally recognized automobile guru, a former chairman at Chrysler, and the man whose fingerprints are all over the high-performance, gas-guzzling Dodge Viper. At the age of 73, he is pitching an environmentally-friendly car to General Motors. And he also has an idea of how to solve the problem of mileage: In order to drive a car for reasonable distances without getting stuck mid-way without electricity, what is needed are large, heavy, expensive batteries. Lutz suggests outfitting the car with a battery that is not too big and not too expensive, one that would provide sufficient energy for a drive within the city or the suburbs. To complement the battery and the electric engine, manufacturers would install a small gas-powered engine which would function as a generator, recharging the battery whenever necessary. The maximum estimated mileage for an electric-only car is 60 kilometers. Beyond this distance, the gas-powered engine would recharge the battery and generate electricity of its own. What's the big deal, I ask Lauckner. After just 60 kilometers, the Volt will guzzle gasoline and pollute the air exactly like the other cars. "The statistics prove that 75-80 percent of drivers in the United States and Europe travel less than 60 kilometers every day," Lauckner explains. "So in the overwhelming majority of cases, a gas engine won't even be activated. For those who want greater mileage, the gas-powered engine is there." What do you think of the solution proffered by Shai Agassi of the venture-backed company Better Place, whereby a dead battery is to be replaced by a fresh battery off the shelf? "Theoretically it's possible. But we at GM know a thing or two about installing car components, and we came to the conclusion that this solution poses complex technological challenges." At what stage of development is the Chevrolet Volt? "There are now a number of prototypes based on the previous generation of Chevy Malibus. We call them Malivolt. By the end of the year we will build 33 additional prototypes designed after the Chevrolet Cruise, which will also include electric engines. By the end of the year we will also have announced the manufacturer of our batteries. We are talking about batteries weighing between 170-180 kilograms." How much do these batteries cost? "I can't say. I can only tell you that this is the most expensive part of the automobile." Lauckner is also not ready to discuss the price of the car itself. It is widely estimated - Lauckner does not deny the numbers - that each unit will sell for $35,000-$40,000. For this amount of money, a prospective buyer could choose a luxury compact car like an Audi or a BMW. In contrast, the hybrid Toyota Prius could be had for $22,000-$25,000. "It seems expensive to you," Lauckner points out. "A European driver drives on average 12-15,000 kilometers a year. The cost of charging a battery in a Chevy Volt comes out to less than one euro per charge. In other words, 60 kilometers of driving will cost less than one euro, meaning that the average European driver would annually save 1,500 euros on fuel, and we expect that most countries will offer tax incentives for the Volt, like some countries do for hybrid cars. "It is true that the purchase price will be higher, but the use of the car will be cheaper and when you want to sell it you will get a higher price. Besides, you have to take into account that the price of the car is likely to drop the more we manufacture, just like what happened with personal computers, LCD screens and the like. If we weren't certain that the Volt would be a popular, widespread car, we wouldn't call it Chevrolet [GM's popular brand name as opposed to Cadillac]." Toyota, the world's most successful car manufacturer, is reaping a fortune from its sale of off-road utility vehicles while at the same time maintaining its reputation as a forward-thinking company that is friendly to the environment. The credit belongs to one model which is creating considerable buzz: Toyota Prius, the hybrid vehicle powered by two engines, one gasoline and the other electric. As opposed to the Volt, the Prius is nearly incapable of operating solely on electricity. Yet the Prius, in contrast to the Volt, is an already-existing entity. More than one million Priuses have been sold in the past 10 years. The Volt attracted plenty of attention at the Paris exposition, particularly from hundreds of journalists, including yours truly, who have written articles about the car. It has also done wonders for General Motors' public relations. Before driving a single meter on the road, the Chevy Volt is already starring in GM commercials in the United States. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Young Republicans Poll: Young U.S. Jews are more likely than their elders to vote GOP. Designing an icon Ten years ago, two students asked Israeli Ruth Kedar to design their new company's logo.   1.   Gas habit and withdrawal symptoms 11:59  |  allang 03/11/08

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