Electro-Shock Therapy “We looked at the Prius and the masterful job of positioning and public relations Toyota did with that,†Steve Harris, GM’s top PR executive, says, “and we thought, That could have been us.â€
Positioning and PR ? How GM !! What about engineering and reliability ? Guess it doesn't matter if you rely merely on positioning and PR.
I would buy a reintroduced EV-1 with a more modern battery pack. The old one was great, but a decade of improvements would not hurt
" . . . GM’s EV1, an all-electric technological masterpiece that had done so poorly commercially that GM wound up crushing the cars amid a hail of public condemnation." Some writers just regurgitate the crap fed to them. The EV1 didn't do poorly commercially . . . IT WAS NEVER FOR SALE! "Glancing at the concept car on the dais, I realized I was looking at the Barack Obama of automobiles—everyone’s hope for change." EVERYONE'S???? Yeah, right! But . . . It does make sense comparing the Volt to Obama. - Way out in left field, unproven, a bunch of promises, and a following of 'believers.' ound:ound:ound:
GM still clueless? Stop the presses! Why do we have so many "GM is still clueless" threads but few "water found to be wet" or "temperature on the Sun may be hot" threads?
GM knows PLENTY about advertising. Look how deliberate they put "blah" factor in the EV1 ads. Black & white? Kitchen apliances? Nothing but creep factor. They never did want to sell it, as it's greatness ("Look how great it is" type ads), if they HAD marketed its greatness, would have eventually made all their other stuff look like crap. That's because if you say, "look how long it will last" ... in essence your're saying, "look how long it'll last in comparison to all these other dirty oily break-down prone ICE cars/trucks we build.
My favourite line; "Adding insult to injury, the prominent acquisition of Hummer in 1999 had made GM a poster child for environmental irresponsibility, even as Toyota and the Prius piled up accolades for eco-friendliness." Is it typical or what? Now if marketing is the mark of Prius why isn't GM following the Prius lead? Prius was a top secret project throughout its development so what is GM doing with its Volt? Prius went from an idea to a production car at 2000 units per month in 2 years, how long have we be hearing about volt? The batteries for the Prius were also being developed in parallel to the rest of the car, the company that made the batteries wasn't even in existence when the project was started. As people have said, the EV1 should put GM in a "been there done that" position. I heard Li-Ion was cheaper per unit stored energy than Ni-MH so why are they saying too expensive? Is it easier than saying a fire risk?
Looks like things are looking up for the Volt. The battery has been sorted out, and they've got test mules out and about (with Malibu chassis). It'll be pricey though, between 30 and 40 thousand initially. Check out the info at Green Fuels Forecast
My first thought is this is FUD, like Microsoft pre-announcing next version of Windows so we'll wait for it and not buy Macs. GM wants us to wait for the Volt and forget about non-GM hybrids/electrics. My second thought is that in this article, GM seems to be of the opinion they need an engineering showpiece and not a new production car to sell gobs of. It's like the old fashioned idea of "Win races on the weekend in GM cars and sell the masses street models of GM cars on Monday". IMO, if GM is looking to make the Volt an image car to sell in low numbers, the bell tolls for them. :attention:
GM needs to publicly say it was a mistake for it to end the EV1 program and shred the cars. They need to admit that they did have a waiting list and practically had to pry the cars out from peoples hands. From an engineering standpoint the EV1 was a home run for a 'first try'. Two generations of improvements could have been made and we could have had the volt in 2005.
The Wall Street Journal posted a full two page add in the 1970's with the headline, "The most famous name in Japanese quality control is American". His name W. Edward Deming, and he gave the America manufacturers first crack at his talent and expertise. We have never been really interested in quality, at least it's identification and measurement. He started his eduction of their scientific community in the 1950's and Japan has never looked back.
Can't disagree with that! It is sad that the EV-1 engineers saw the fatal flaw from most consumers point of view in the car, limited range, and fixed it for testing purposes with a motorcycle engine, then GM couldn't see what they had and trashed the project. 15 years later: Hey, let's make an EV-1 that can generate power on the fly to extend the range to something useful for any driver and call it "Volt". I really hope they succeed. The world needs cars like this. However, I am reminded of their heavy slam of the Civic and Prius hybrids as "dead on arrival", interpreted as "DAMN, we have nothing to offer against these!!" marketing hype. Add their subsequent weak offering in their own hybrids (i.e. auto stop and a LITTLE assist when driving) with heavy 'we are green' hype marketing and I'm not buying any GM stock just yet.
