GM working toward making future generations of Chevy Volt affordable

[DainBramaged]

While the Chevrolet Volt is still more than one and a half years away from going on sale, General Motors Corp. today said it’s already working on the second and third generations of the electric drive vehicle.

GM has not yet said how much the extended-range electric vehicle, which is slated to hit the market in November 2010, will cost but early estimates have suggested a price in the neighborhood of $40,000.


“This first generation technology is expensive,” Robert Kruse, executive director of GM's global vehicle engineering, hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries, told reporters during a conference call today.


He said the motivation for quick development of the future generation models is to try and reduce the cost and “make it more viable for the mass market,”


Denise Gray, GM’s director of global battery system engineering, said the automaker has been working with a number of battery cell producers to look for ways to cut costs in the next generation vehicles.


“Even at the very smallest levels of components … we’ve been working through different ideas,” she said.


Several factors should make a first-generation Volt a viable business, however, Kruse said. That includes state and federal incentives, along with the relatively lower cost of electric energy compared to petroleum.


What’s more, Kruse noted that advance technology usually becomes less expensive as its usage increases and understanding of the technology grows.


“We’re very bullish on the viability of this technology to meet … mass market needs,” Kruse said.


GM has about 30 test vehicles using Volt technology on the road, he said. This summer, GM plans to have 80 prototype Volts on the road for final testing in what Kruse called “the final engineering phase.”


http://www.freep.com/article/20090318/BUSINESS01/90318086/GM+working+toward+making+future+generations+of+Chevy+Volt+affordable



Back in 1983, when I started working for a very huge Japanese electronics firm, CD players hit the market at $995 and our product people were excited that maybe by 1984, they could retail them for $599 if they sold enough of the first generation ONE SPEED CD players. Today, we rely on solid state devices like the IPod to deliver DIGITAL music. And at unbelievablely cheap prices (a 2 GB MP3 player can be bought at Target for $19.95). So for the naysayers, volume means lower cost, and it WILL HAPPEN in spite of all of your efforts to put down AMERICAN ingenuity.

[Mike 03]

1. As a huge fan of futurist Syd Mead who envisioned vehicles like this, I am

excited as hell about a technology like this.

[Deja Q]

2. Aye, same here!!

K&R

[DainBramaged]

3. Wait though, the ToyHonNis is god crowd will be here to disparage any and all GM efforts

before I go to bed.


And to think that the computers in our cars are more powerful than the computers that were used to design the first transistors and filled entire buildings. And I lived to see this era of transportation evolve.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Vaporware.

[DainBramaged]

5. It only took seconds, but I called it didn't I folks.

:eyes:

[rurallib]

6. Will there be a middle class left to sell it to?

[depakid]

7. If it performs as hyped, it'll be worth it

[Old and In the Way]

8. Too bad they waited so long to react to a changing market.

They hooked their horses to Big Oil and anti-CAFE Republicans who eventually sold them out. Had they taken the leadership role on battery technology 35 years ago when the first shockwaves from OPEC started, they'd have a commanding position in automobile manufacturing...all over the world.

[DainBramaged]

10. Yup, I noticed god ToyHonNis didn't react (nor did the market) until oh 2000

and still produce gas guzzlers as 75% of their line ups.

No, GM is to blame, how could I not have seen that NONE of the Japanese manufacturers even wanted to work on electric vehicles until GM announced the VOLT, and God forbid that the US government had backed the research like the Japanese did of the Prius.


Yup, just bash away, I am POSITIVE no matter how low the cost, you won't be buying one.

[pipoman]

12. 75% Gas guzzlers?

Are you talking about cars which use gas in general? Or the more traditional definition of 'gas guzzlers' meaning vehicles which use more gas than other like vehicles?

[spag68]

13. Japan

Don't forget that they subsidies health care for their auto workers.

[Old and In the Way]

14. Plenty of blame to go around.

Cheap gas and bigger profits on larger vehicles made the domestic auto manufacturer's focus on these models. The consumer certainly supported this. The government didn't tax gas like Europe and CAFE standards haven't been pushed by the federal government since the 70's. In the end, that made our domestic auto industry weaker. BTW. I've never owned a ToyHonNis.

[flvegan]

9. I agree in the technology/price aspect.

There's a saying in the car world that if you want to know what kind of neat stuff your car may be sporting as factory equipment in 5 years or so, check out the Mercedes S class. In time, technology gets shared and flows down.

I look forward to the Volt, and even more so when it's a more affordable car "for the masses."

[Stevenmarc]

11. It's just not the car it's the infrastructure that needs to change too

Shai Agassi was on Cspan today

http://www.betterplace.com/