GM makes a huge bet on the Volt
With Detroit facing criticism from every corner, industry “leader” GM seems to be betting their future on the Chevy Volt. Although the electric powered Volt is being widely marketed by GM and touted by them as proof of a new philosophy, the car is not slated to arrive in showrooms until late 2010.
The NY Times estimates that, since the Volt requires the development of completely new technologies, that the R&D price tag for this car could exceed the $1 billion it generally costs to develop a new car model.
Although it would be tremendous if the Volt was a success and could be the motor for a Detroit renaissance, we have our doubts. First and foremost, are our concerns about the state of battery technology. A GM VP notes, “We’ve turned into a plug-in society. We’ve got cellphones, PDAs, you name it, that are all plugged in. To a certain extent, [the Volt is] not much more complicated conceptually than coming in and plugging in your cellphone.”
True– But my cellphone won’t hold a charge for more than half a day of use and Apple won’t let me call my portable computer a “laptop” for fear that I will blame them if I burn my legs from the heat. And both my phone and my “notebook” use lithium ion batteries– same as the Volt.
Right now GM says the Volt will go 40 miles on its initial charge. Why does this immediately make me think of Motorola telling me I can talk on my phone for “up to ‘x’ hours”? Somehow my battery powered devices never seem to perform quite as well as advertised.
I’d like to give GM the benefit of the doubt (especially since the Volt isn’t even for sale yet), but I just wouldn’t be surprised if that “40 miles” gets the all to familiar “up to” qualifier tacked in front of it.
If the battery technology for the Volt is not exponentially leaps and bounds beyond that which we currently see in consumer electronics, GM may be making a fools bet… or maybe it is just a bet born out of desperation and necessity?
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