Bob Lutz: Volt plug-in powertrain should have gone into Escalade first

It was committed to production long before the market crash that led to bankruptcy and government intervention. The Volt was announced as a concept Jan 2007, and confirmed for production in June 2008.. that is pretty quick in the auto industry so it did nto spend much time as a trade show gimmick! I've talked with some battery engineers that were working on it in the proving the battery and propulsion. The internal anaysis was already happening even before the 2007 auto-show, but after 2007 it was almost full court press to make sure they could deliver.


We don't know how much Bob pushed behind the scenes for a Voltec-based SUV .. but it this does seem like self-promotion and historical revisionism.


But if they put a voltec in a AWD SUV, my wife would in one now. Although less less bling and a lower price would be better for us..

 

Committed to Production doesn't mean anything to me. I'm not saying that from 2007-2010, when the first REAL Volt rolled off an assembly line, things weren't obviously really happening behind the scenes from a production standpoint. The product did get produced. But that's 3 years at the least.

And I'm not sure if GM hadn't faced bankruptcy, and government intervention and the need to rebuild it's image if we still wouldn't have GM seemingly dragging their feet on completion of The Volt.

When you look at what Toyota has done, with The Prius, and what Honda has offered in their line-up, and even what Nissan with The Leaf and Ford with their electric and hybrid line-up....it's hard for me to applaud Bob Lutz and GM for any retrospective supposed foresight, despite the success of The Volt.

Since I believe the evolution of the automobile must embrace powertrain changes, I'm happy for the success of The Volt, I'm even glad to hear from Lutz or anyone that expansion of the powertrain is desired and going to happen.

But in the case of GM? At least for a while it's always going to be a "Show Me" situation.

I'm even a little unnerved that GM almost immediately applies it's "new" technology, not into smaller or potentially more accesible automobiles but into making more "efficient" and expensive automotive behemoths. ---But that is simply my own opinon.

 

Why would you need that. Do you haul plywood 100 miles every day? If you haul this plywood only 10 to 20 times a year and under 20 miles then you drive at most 400 miles per year with plywood in the vehicle. At 400 mi/year it matters not much if the truck gets 12 MPG or 50 MPG.

If you use plywood for a living then the lumber yard will deliver it and you've not waste time hauling it yourself.

 

Somehow politicians like Mike Kelly have revised history in your mind, if you think that way. The government bailout threatened to kill the volt program, GM had to fight to keep it.

It seems Toyota was dragging their feet on a phev version of the prius, that did not materialize until after the volt was selling. Let's look at history the way it happened, with all the blemishes.

The talk in GM was whether the voltec would go into a Cadillac or a Chevy. If Lutz wanted it in an escalade, the government bailout would have surely killed that. There is no indication from GM that an PHEV escalade was ever seriously talked about. There was no show car. There were no reports of ice and battery pack size, etc. Lutz is clearly making up history to try to sell vehicles for his new start up. He helped bankrupt GM. That is in the history books.