At first blush it seems ludicrous to think GM would be afraid of Tesla Motors. GM manufactures a zillion vehicles a year, has operations in dozens of countries, and a long history of automobile and truck manufacturing. But, in an interview with the Detroit News last week, it seems that…
Should GM kill the Chevy Volt? I thought we were past that phase, but maybe not, or maybe an article with that title on the Motley Fool is just a piece of link-bait. In any case, GM is clearly playing the game of developing Volt 2.0 rather than killing the…
When a big company signs an agreement to be a good environmental steward, we tend to think of greenwashing, that the company is just looking to paint themselves green and there’s no real depth to the commitment. Today, GM became the first automaker to sign on with the Climate Declaration…
Several good milestones were reached in the world of Tesla Motors. The first expansion of the Supercharger network began with construction of stations on the East Coast. That’s a good milestone, however the company seems to be behind original projections for the network in California. That the lawsuit from the…
At a public hearing today convened by California Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett to discuss Electric Vehicle Deployment, representatives of GM and Nissan sparred over electric car fast charging standards. A big battle is being fought over the charging socket of electric cars, one in which billions of dollars in…
GM’s latest video on YouTube attempts to reassure the public about Chevy Volt battery pack safety, in wake of the recent controversy over the battery pack fire during crash testing last year. General Motors has its work cut out for it, to rehabilitate their image following the hyped up controversy…
GM’s former CEO Bob Lutz publishes another op-ed piece in Forbes defending the Chevy Volt, and this time pointing fingers at right wing media figures, claiming their Volt bashing will cost American Jobs. A couple weeks ago Bob Lutz, GM’s former CEO and Chairman, and Father of the Volt, wrote a piece for…
Reports have been circulating since last year that GM is planning to move electric car development and/or manufacturing to China. In some circles, especially those who like to rephrase GM’s name as “Government Motors”, this thought is highly controversial. In truth GM sells more cars in China than it does…
A politically charged Congressional Hearing this morning questioned the NHTSA’s integrity following the Chevy Volt crash test fire last summer, with Administrator Strickland bearing the brunt of Rep. Jordan’s angry questioning. In a politically charged Congressional Hearing held today, the safety of the Chevy Volt, and the integrity of the…
Perhaps when we think “oil companies want to kill electric cars” our imagination is running away with us, but when a Congressman who owns/owned millions of dollars in oil company stock, who is also a car dealer, and wants to kill electric cars, what else is our mind to think?…
The government tried to close his car dealership, he fought back, and now as a Congressman Rep. Kelly wants to kill the electric car. With HR 3768 introduced, on Dec 30, by Chevy Car Dealer and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), a proposal to end the $7500 tax credit for electric…
Conservative policy think-tank playing loose and fast with the numbers regarding government spending on the Chevy Volt. Yesterday the Mackinac Center for Public Policy posted a statement claiming that each Chevy Volt is subsidized to the tune of $250,000 or more. That’s caused a cluster of blog posts trumpeting this…
Confidence abounds that they can fix the problems, and getting back to production and sales. With the controversy brewing about battery pack safety in the Volt, the folks who are stirring the controversy might believe that GM would stop producing the Volt. Instead in a recent interview GM’s CEO Dan…
Volt: Lithium manganese spinel from LG Chem; Spark EV: lithium iron phosphate from A123 Systems. Both are supposed to be safe. In October, GM announced the Chevy Spark EV would be sold in select U.S. and global markets beginning in 2013. The Chevy Volt crash testing battery pack fires have…
Carbon fiber doesn’t have remain in the realm of the high end race vehicles, it could come to mass production cars. Carbon fiber doesn’t have remain in the realm of the high end race vehicles, that is if GM and Teijin’s plan works out. Carbon fiber materials are stronger than…
