The fabulous, fictional Chevrolet Volt

General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner and vice chairman of product development Bob Lutz unveiled the rechargeable electric Chevrolet Volt in Detroit on Tuesday. The executives proudly described the Volt as the car that will lead GM into its second century.


GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner unveils the Chevrolet Volt at GM's centennial celebration Tuesday.

They showed off the Volt's liquid-crystal instrument display and touch-screen controls for climate, information and entertainment.

They said the car has a top speed of 100 mph and the most aerodynamic design in GM history.

They said the car is due in showrooms in November, 2010.

There's just one thing.

They're still working on the battery.

"Lithium-ion batteries, which are still under development, are expected to propel the car up to 40 miles on a single charge from a home outlet," the Associated Press reported.

"If GM and its partners can develop lithium-ion batteries that are durable, powerful and safe enough for automotive use, the car will go into production at Detroit-Hamtramck in November 2010," the Detroit Free Press said.

"Company executives faced a barrage of questions about whether some of the $25 billion in low-interest loans the industry is urging Congress to fund would be used to subsidize the Volt's development and production," the Los Angeles Times noted.

Did they mention it's Bluetooth-capable?


Detroit Free Press photographer Susan Tusa tries to help out by illustrating that the Volt can always roll downhill. That's vice chairman of product development Bob Lutz getting out of the car.

Rick Wagoner and Bob Lutz are very smart guys and they are not making a mistake. But they're not making a car, either. They're making a bet that Congress will help General Motors financially if GM gives elected officials a little bit of political cover.

The car ought to be called the Vote.

You have to feel for GM's executives. The company is saddled with enormous health insurance and retirement benefit costs for its past and present workforce, locked into expensive union contracts, and strangled by idiotic government regulations, including fuel-economy standards that for years forced the production of low-selling cars for no reason other than to offset the lower fuel economy of popular models.

Then the price of oil shot up and GM was like an aircraft carrier trying to turn around in a storm drain.

Still, the battery-powered car has a few problems that you ought to know about before your hard-earned tax dollars fly off to Detroit to pay for somebody else's health insurance.

"The battery for the Volt doesn’t yet exist, at least not at a mass-market price, and building it poses formidable challenges," Jonathan Rauch reported in the July/August 2008 issue of the Atlantic Monthly. "Loading enough energy into a sufficiently small, lightweight package is hard (the battery isn’t much good unless it fits in the car); keeping it cool lest it burst into flames is harder; making it durable enough to last 10 years on bumpy roads is harder yet; manufacturing it in high volumes and at mass-market prices may be hardest of all."

"Lest it burst into flames?!"

And we thought the Corvette was an exciting car.


Copyright 2008

.