Would a $40,00 Volt save The General
Amongst GM employees, aside from the fear of getting a pink paper next week ( or the week after ) speculation is high as to whether the concept vehicle, being called the Volt, is going to be as revolutionary as the hype suggests.
After the disastrous shelving of the original working EV1 a few years back and taking incredible heat for being one of the BIG 3 engaged in fighting California in a bruising battle of who has the largest team of Lawyers, GM has gone back to square one ( perhaps a little unrepentant ) and is once again making an electric car.
Yep, sold the patents to a MIT. Just kidding. If the patents had been sold to MIT, the car would have been rebuilt and the Toyota Prius hybrid would never have been created. Whoever bought the patents wasn't interested in building an electric car. There is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest the battery patents were purchased by Texaco who has done tremendous work with them since ( NOT ).
Some might say, that was a wise business move to recoup costs, but most of the public would in acute dismay exclaim "Why would oil companies be interested in automotive patents that would/could eventually diminish their own returns ?"
Anyway in the latest from an interview with GM's Chief Designer we get the following profile of the Volt.
The Volt is probably GM's last, best hope for the future and certainly its most significant upcoming vehicle. Saddled with dwindling market share, credit-strapped consumers, and a lingering reputation as a purveyor of gas-thirsty vehicles, GM executives need the Volt to become an iconic product, like Apple's (AAPL) 1998 iMac or even Chrysler's 1980s K-car before. The Volt has to affirm the company's ability to innovate and, eventually, create a financial foothold from which the battered automaker can begin to turn itself around.
GM's response to public outcry shortly after co-jointly winning the lawsuit against California on the grounds that only the federal government had the right to determine zero emission, was to go on a publicity campaign extolling the virtues of their own version of Zero emissions - Hydrogen gas by 2010. Which probably prompted BMW to wake up and create a wonderful Hydrogen Gas vehicle which is already 4-5 years old and in its fourth or fifth refinement. So zip forward to 2008 and GM has backtracked on its Hydrogen promises and is now attempting to leap frog the Toyota Prius with technology that will get a commuter 40 miles of gas free driving on a nightly electrical charge.
According to GM research, many drivers will not need to switch to the gas engine because simply recharging the vehicle via a regular outlet at home overnight will satisfy most of their driving needs. When I first heard this, I thought - What a useless car. Who wants a car that does only 40 miles per charge, but in truth, the car simply switches to the small gas engine at that point and continues its merry way.
On the surface, unless you have significant shareholder shares in an oil company, we all want a Volt. The dream of being able to cross Europe or United States basically on plain cheap electricity without having to pay between 3 and 5 dollars a gallon for gas is a like a dream come true.
So will or can the dream car Volt save the General?
I suppose it might be presumptuous but perhaps we should first ask - Does the General really need saving?
BusinessWeek estimated GM's Liquidity position to be 45 Billion in May of 2005 with a burn rate this year of over a Billion a month here in 2008 ( Boston Herald ). Estimated reserves now stand at about 25 Billion and analysts say that even with the 10 Billion in future cost cutting, GM may need another 10-12 Billion in cash to see their way through to 2010.
Detroit News writes in an article on Oct 14th 2008
GM had access to about $21 billion cash and $5 billion in available credit at the end of June and is in the midst of cutting $10 billion in costs by the end of 2009 and raising $5 billion through asset sales and borrowing.
Cost-cutting associated with the aforementioned 10 Billion in cuts, intensified when GM announced it was closing plants in Grand Rapids and Janesville, Wis. 2500 workers are affected by these measures in plants that produce sport-utility vehicles and parts for pickups/SUVs.
Since 2005, the General's cash reserves have been reduced from 45 Billion to a mere 25 Billion and with the tightening credit crunch and federal government moving slowly on aiding the BIG3, the rumour doing the rounds is that GM is eyeing the cash reserves of Chrysler ( estimated 11 Billion ) to help it through 2009 when the arrival of the Chevy Volt and Cruz, the following quarter are expected to help turn things around.
In an interview given to Business week in the last week of Oct 2008, GM says its expecting to sell about 10,000 Chevy Volts at between 30-40,000 USD each in 2010. So, that's about 3-4 Billion dollars in gross sales with a net of about a 800 Million dollars annually at an estimated 20% profit per vehicle ( my own estimate not theirs )
So, is this innovative car of the 2010 year - Volt just a little, just too late?
I leave that answer up to you, but if I had to make a serious bet with odds, I know which way I would be betting. - 23226
After the disastrous shelving of the original working EV1 a few years back and taking incredible heat for being one of the BIG 3 engaged in fighting California in a bruising battle of who has the largest team of Lawyers, GM has gone back to square one ( perhaps a little unrepentant ) and is once again making an electric car.
Yep, sold the patents to a MIT. Just kidding. If the patents had been sold to MIT, the car would have been rebuilt and the Toyota Prius hybrid would never have been created. Whoever bought the patents wasn't interested in building an electric car. There is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest the battery patents were purchased by Texaco who has done tremendous work with them since ( NOT ).
Some might say, that was a wise business move to recoup costs, but most of the public would in acute dismay exclaim "Why would oil companies be interested in automotive patents that would/could eventually diminish their own returns ?"
Anyway in the latest from an interview with GM's Chief Designer we get the following profile of the Volt.
The Volt is probably GM's last, best hope for the future and certainly its most significant upcoming vehicle. Saddled with dwindling market share, credit-strapped consumers, and a lingering reputation as a purveyor of gas-thirsty vehicles, GM executives need the Volt to become an iconic product, like Apple's (AAPL) 1998 iMac or even Chrysler's 1980s K-car before. The Volt has to affirm the company's ability to innovate and, eventually, create a financial foothold from which the battered automaker can begin to turn itself around.
GM's response to public outcry shortly after co-jointly winning the lawsuit against California on the grounds that only the federal government had the right to determine zero emission, was to go on a publicity campaign extolling the virtues of their own version of Zero emissions - Hydrogen gas by 2010. Which probably prompted BMW to wake up and create a wonderful Hydrogen Gas vehicle which is already 4-5 years old and in its fourth or fifth refinement. So zip forward to 2008 and GM has backtracked on its Hydrogen promises and is now attempting to leap frog the Toyota Prius with technology that will get a commuter 40 miles of gas free driving on a nightly electrical charge.
According to GM research, many drivers will not need to switch to the gas engine because simply recharging the vehicle via a regular outlet at home overnight will satisfy most of their driving needs. When I first heard this, I thought - What a useless car. Who wants a car that does only 40 miles per charge, but in truth, the car simply switches to the small gas engine at that point and continues its merry way.
On the surface, unless you have significant shareholder shares in an oil company, we all want a Volt. The dream of being able to cross Europe or United States basically on plain cheap electricity without having to pay between 3 and 5 dollars a gallon for gas is a like a dream come true.
So will or can the dream car Volt save the General?
I suppose it might be presumptuous but perhaps we should first ask - Does the General really need saving?
BusinessWeek estimated GM's Liquidity position to be 45 Billion in May of 2005 with a burn rate this year of over a Billion a month here in 2008 ( Boston Herald ). Estimated reserves now stand at about 25 Billion and analysts say that even with the 10 Billion in future cost cutting, GM may need another 10-12 Billion in cash to see their way through to 2010.
Detroit News writes in an article on Oct 14th 2008
GM had access to about $21 billion cash and $5 billion in available credit at the end of June and is in the midst of cutting $10 billion in costs by the end of 2009 and raising $5 billion through asset sales and borrowing.
Cost-cutting associated with the aforementioned 10 Billion in cuts, intensified when GM announced it was closing plants in Grand Rapids and Janesville, Wis. 2500 workers are affected by these measures in plants that produce sport-utility vehicles and parts for pickups/SUVs.
Since 2005, the General's cash reserves have been reduced from 45 Billion to a mere 25 Billion and with the tightening credit crunch and federal government moving slowly on aiding the BIG3, the rumour doing the rounds is that GM is eyeing the cash reserves of Chrysler ( estimated 11 Billion ) to help it through 2009 when the arrival of the Chevy Volt and Cruz, the following quarter are expected to help turn things around.
In an interview given to Business week in the last week of Oct 2008, GM says its expecting to sell about 10,000 Chevy Volts at between 30-40,000 USD each in 2010. So, that's about 3-4 Billion dollars in gross sales with a net of about a 800 Million dollars annually at an estimated 20% profit per vehicle ( my own estimate not theirs )
So, is this innovative car of the 2010 year - Volt just a little, just too late?
I leave that answer up to you, but if I had to make a serious bet with odds, I know which way I would be betting. - 23226
About the Author:
Dino Delellis writes on a number of interesting topics. To see more of the Dino personal journals hop on over to musings of Dino Delellis and catch his strange views on the world in a nutshell.
posted by X - Men @ 9:11 AM
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