On September 16, 2008, the world's drivers, the
media, the industry watchers all definitively
recognized that plug-in cars are coming. While
we've often urged even greater speed on a large
company that's already trying very hard, today
we're simply enthusiastic fans. In making the
Chevy Volt the cornerstone of its GMNext
Centennial event and its second century, GM has
challenged every carmaker to respond and made the
case for a national commitment to incentivize the
electrification of transportation.

Below we include information about the Volt from
GM followed by two important stories in the Wall
Street Journal and excerpts from the daily press
coverage we found most interesting and
informative. We'll follow up with a second
posting from some of the weeklies and perhaps blogs.


VOLT PRESS RELEASE EXCERPTS at
http://www.gmnext.com/uploads/assets/Chevrolet_Volt_Final_08.pdf
. It's interesting to see how PHEV advocates'
sometimes-complex ways of describing cost
benefits have been well distilled by a
multi-billion dollar company's marketing team.
And we noticed for the first time a caution: The
Chevrolet Volt is expected to be built at GM's
Detroit-Hamtramck manufacturing facility, subject
to GM successfully negotiating satisfactory government incentives.

"Revealing the production version of the Chevy
Volt is a great way to open our second century,"
said Rick Wagoner, GM Chairman and CEO. ""The
Volt is symbolic of GM's strong commitment to the
future … just the kind of technology innovation
that our industry needs to respond to today's and
tomorrow's energy and environmental challenges."

The Volt uses electricity to move the wheels at
all times and speeds. For trips up to 40 miles,
the Volt is powered only by electricity stored in
its 16-kWh, lithium-ion battery. When the
battery's energy is depleted, a
gasoline/E85-powered engine generator seamlessly
provides electricity to power the Volt's electric
drive unit while simultaneously sustaining the
charge of the battery. This mode of operation
extends the range of the Volt for several hundred
additional miles, until the vehicle's battery can
be charged. Unlike a conventional
battery-electric vehicle, the Volt eliminates
"range anxiety," giving the confidence and peace
of mind that the driver will not be stranded by a depleted battery.

The Chevrolet Volt can be plugged either into a
standard household 120v outlet or use 240v for
charging. The vehicle's intelligent charging
technology enables the Volt's battery to be
charged in less than three hours on a 240v outlet
or about eight hours on a 120v outlet. Charge
times are reduced if the battery has not been
fully depleted. At a cost of about 80 cents per
day (10 cents per kWh) for a full charge that
will deliver up to 40 miles of electric driving,
GM estimates that the Volt will be less expensive
to recharge than purchasing a cup of your
favorite coffee. Charging the Volt about once
daily will consume less electric energy annually
than the average home's refrigerator and freezer units.

GM estimates that the Volt will cost about two
cents per mile to drive while under battery power
compared to 12 cents per mile using gasoline
priced at $3.60 per gallon. For an average driver
who drives 40 miles per day (or 15,000 miles per
year), this amounts to a cost savings of $1,500
annually. Using peak electric rates, GM estimates
that an electrically driven mile in a Chevy Volt
will be about one-sixth of the cost of a
conventional gasoline-powered vehicle. The cost
savings are even greater when charging during
off-peak hours, when electric rates are cheaper.

The Chevrolet Volt is expected to be built at
GM's Detroit-Hamtramck manufacturing facility,
subject to GM successfully negotiating
satisfactory government incentives. Production is
scheduled to begin late 2010 for models in the
United States. Pricing has not been announced.


THE LAUNCH EVENT: Watch the broadcast and see
other events at http://www.gmnext.com . At the
Live Chat session with JON LAUCKNER VP, Global
Program Management, I learned something, when I
posted a question about why the Volt was now
described as having a 40 electric (charge-
depleting) range and a total 400 mile-range,
which would mean 360 miles at 30MPG in a
12-gallon tank. He said the designers had
downsized the gasoline capacity, and although I
have not found an official spec, it appears now
to be around 8 gallons, which would mean 45MPG as an HEV.

From the famously direct BOB LUTZ, Vice
Chairman, Global Product Development, we heard:
* The Volt technology is being developed for
General Motors vehicles! We are not buying any
technology from another manufacturer.
* We have a proprietary transmission, details of
which are top secret, but we've incorporated some
things that nobody else has ever thought of.
* [In response to why not move faster] Thanks for
the encouragement but this is all-new technology
in an all-new vehicle and we just plain need the
time. We're not going to take unnecessary risks.
* In response to "Can a vehicle like the Corvette
survive in today's green, fuel, efficient
environment? Lutz characteristically said, Just
because more people become vegetarians doesn't
mean the grocery store closes down the meat counter.


NEWS COVERAGE: THE DAY BEFORE:

WALL STREET JOURNAL: GM Looks for Buzz With Its
Electric Volt; Auto Maker Hopes High-Mileage Car
Will Repair Image," Sept. 15, 2008 By John D.
Stoll http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122143673862434189.html

Detroit -- General Motors Corp. on Tuesday plans
to officially unveil its most important model in
decades -- and possibly the key to its survival.
The Chevrolet Volt is a battery-powered compact
car scheduled to hit the market by the end of
2010. It is designed to give GM the kind of
highly fuel-efficient vehicle it needs to compete
in an era of near $4-a-gallon gasoline. But the
car also has another, more-strategic purpose: to
change minds. GM is hoping the Volt will be such
a technological leap forward that the many
consumers who have turned their backs on Detroit
will give the company and its cars a fresh look.
The auto maker also hopes the Volt will become
its signature product, supplanting the big
sport-utility vehicles like the Hummer and
Chevrolet Suburban that now define its image.

If the Volt fails to work as GM has promised or
its launch runs into significant delays, the
company could lose credibility with some of its
newly won fans, says Elizabeth Lowery, GM's vice
president for environmental and energy issues.
"We have to deliver," she adds. The vehicle is
"very important to our entire strategy."

Along with its domestic rivals and U.S.
suppliers, GM also is lobbying Congress to
approve low-cost loans to the industry. The
company says it would use such a loan to fund the
retooling of a Hamtramck, Mich., assembly plant
to give it capacity to build 60,000 Volts
annually. Some of its suppliers are already
making plans to furnish parts for more than 100,000 annually.

The company also is scrambling to develop
long-lasting batteries. At GM's development
center in Warren, Mich., engineers have set up
test benches with battery packs charging and
discharging continuously to see if they can last
10 years or 150,000 miles. Those tests won't be
complete, however, until March 2010, just seven
months before the Volt is supposed to be ready.


CONTRASTING EXPECTATIONS, SAME DAY, SAME
PAPER: John White, senior editor, writes a
full-page story in a special WSJ Energy
Reportnalysis, "Why the Gasoline Engine Isn't
Going Away Any Time Soon; Blame it on technology,
cost -- and the American way of life"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122123930467228645.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
. White's perspective exemplifies the view of a
person who has recognized the move toward
electrification of transportation, but who
doesn't yet appreciate the impact that of the end
of "business as usual" because of energy
dependence and climate change, and therefore
thinks things will move as slowly as they always
have. The article is accompanied by a table, "The
Road Ahead," comparing the
pros/cons/vehicles/availability of hybrids/mild
hybrids/PHEVs/flex-fuel vehicles/fuel cell
vehicles/electric car/clean diesel -- it could
have been useful, but alas it's often inaccurate or outdated.

An automotive revolution is coming -- but it's
traveling in the slow lane. High oil prices have
accomplished what years of pleas from
environmentalists and energy-security hawks could
not: forcing the world's major auto makers to
refocus their engineers and their capital on
devising mass-market alternatives to century-old
petroleum-fueled engine technology. With all the
glitzy ads, media chatter and Internet buzz about
plug-in hybrids that draw power from the electric
grid or cars fueled with hydrogen, it's easy to
get lulled into thinking that gasoline stations
soon will be as rare as drive-in theaters. The
idea that auto makers can quickly execute a
revolutionary transition from oil to electricity
is now a touchstone for both major presidential candidates.

That's the dream. Now the reality: This
revolution will take years to pull off -- and
that's assuming it isn't derailed by a return to
cheap oil. Anyone who goes to sleep today and
wakes up in five years will find that most cars
for sale in the U.S. will still run on regular
gas -- with a few more than today taking diesel
fuel. That will likely be the case even if the
latter-day Rip Van Winkle sleeps until 2020.

SUMMARY: Here's a quick spin past the article's
subheads: In "Free to Drive," he says,
Technological change is best done incrementally.
In "Integral to Modern Life," he says, we'll also
have to use mass transit more, use smarter urban
design, and respond to consumers' desires for
mobility and freedom. In "Desire Isn't Enough,"
he says there's plenty of innovation left in
internal combustion technology. In "Cheaper Than
Water," he say gasoline is still a bargain.
Seeing hydrogen and natural gas as unlikely, he
does acknowledge, "Among auto-industry
executives, the bet now is that the leading
alternative to gasoline will be electricity." and batteries are still costly.

When White gets to "The Costs Add Up," he gets
pretty enthusiastic, "A world full of
electricity-driven cars would require different
refueling infrastructure but the good news is
that it's already largely in place, reflecting a
century of investment in the electric grid. The
refueling station is any electric outlet. The key
will be to control recharging so it primarily
happens when the grid isn't already stressed, but
controllers should be able to steer recharging to
off-peak hours, likely backed by discount rates
for electricity. Big utilities in the two most
populous states, California and Texas, are adding
millions of smart meters capable of verifying
that recharging happens primarily in periods when
other electricity use is slack. Studies show the
U.S. could easily accommodate tens of millions of
plug-in cars with no additional power plants.
Three big utilities in California are planning to
install smart meters capable of managing off-peak
recharging. The estimated cost: $5 billion over the next five years.

Finally, in "Remembering the Past," he says "This
idea [Manhattan Project/Apollo Project] lives
today in General Motors Corp.'s crash program to
bring out the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid by
2010 -- even though the company acknowledges the
battery technology required to power the car
isn't ready. Even if GM succeeds in meeting its
deadline for launching the Volt, the Volt won't
be a big seller for years, especially if
estimates that the car will be priced at $40,000
or more prove true. Moon-shot efforts like the
Volt get attention, but the most effective ways
to use less energy may have less to do with
changing technology than with changing habits. A
20-mile commute in an electric car may not burn
gasoline, but it could well burn coal -- the fuel
used to fire electric power plants in much of the
U.S. The greener alternative would be to not make
the drive at all, and fire up a laptop and a broadband connection instead.


NEWS COVERAGE: LAUNCH DAY (HEAVILY CUT EXCERPTS)

VOLT WATCH: GM SAYS 2011 PLUG-IN HYBRID COULD
LOSE MONEY (FROM AUTOMOTIVE NEWS), Sept. 16 by
Andrew Strieber : The development of the 2011
Chevy Volt has been extremely impressive -- after
a massive investment, GM is managing to bring the
revolutionary car from far-fetched concept to
production-ready game changer in just a few
years. And while many competitors doubted it
would be built at all, today the automaker is
already showing off a final design even though
the car won't hit showrooms until late
2010....Since its introduction, speculation on
the Volt's MSRP has ranged from an original
target of $30,000 to nearly $48,000 without any
government tax breaks. Presently the consensus
seems to be around $40,000, though this could
still change down the line. However GM COO Fritz
Henderson believes that even with $10k more than
anticipated, this won't be enough to help the car
turn a profit, saying "most of our Gen-one
technologies, I don't know that I've ever seen a
situation where we make money, particularly when
you load all the costs in." Considering that Volt
development has been far costlier than your
average car, it would be a surprise if the
plug-in hybrid bucked that trend. Yet contrary
Henderson's opinion, GM vice chairman (and
unofficial Volt ambassador) Bob Lutz still holds
out hope the first-generation plug-in hybrid will
be profitable.
http://wot.motortrend.com/6283327/auto-news/volt-watch-gm-says-2011-plug-in-hybr\
id-could-lose-money/index.html

GM REVEALS CHEVROLET VOLT, NEW DETAILS DETROIT
FREE PRESS by Jewl Gopwani Standard features in
the Volt will include a touch screen to display
vehicle information, and Bluetooth capability for
cell phones and music streaming. Drivers will be
able to configure the instrument display, which
will be shown on a LCD screen, GM said in a
statement this morning. The vehicle will be able
to seat four, and have a top speed of 100 miles
per hour. The vehicle will also include
touch-screen climate and infotainment controls,
and an optional navigation system with an onboard
hard drive for maps and music storage. After
Lutz rolled out the Volt, Wagoner said: "GM's
second century starts now."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080916/BUSINESS01/80916036&imw\
=Y

TOUGH TO SWALLOWTOUGH TO SWALLOW THE NEW,
PILL-SHAPED CHEVY VOLT HUFFINGTON POST by David
Burdick: Though the photos had been leaked
before, GM just officially sent out, far and
wide, new images of the much-hyped Chevy
Volt. The electric car, on which much of GM's
future is pinned, was originally shown off with
an aggressive, race-car looking design...In any
case, the old Volt design was something like
this...Ooh. Very slick, right? American. You
could buy that thing in a mid-life crisis, if you
had to....The new design, unveiled this week, is
rounder, as if to protect a five-year-old from
hurting himself while playing with it. It
probably helps with aerodynamics but the net
result, I'm sure, will be lost when no new
consumers buy it. [Followed by lively exchanges
among readers on the question of Looks versus
Benefits.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-burdick/tough-to-swallow-the-new_b_126828.htm\
l

CHEVY VOLT, HONDA INSIGHT OR TOYOTA PRIUS,
JALOPNIK: a similar debate over looks and value.
http://jalopnik.com/5050542/chevy-volt-honda-insight-or-toyota-prius

GM RELEASES 2011 CHEVY VOLT PHOTOS &
SPECIFICATIONS! (TONS OF PHOTOS) AT TREEHUGGER
[best set of photos]
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/gm-volt-electric-plug-in-hybrid-car-phot\
os-specifications.php

GM'S NEXT CENTURY RIDING ON MORE THAN CHEVY VOLT
ASSOCIATED PRESS by Tom Krisher: [this story
begins with the loan package -- we're wondering
when the other automakers besides GM/Ford/Chrysler will start to complain....]
On its 100th anniversary, General Motors workers
cheered as the company revealed the
electric-powered car intended to make GM a
vehicle technology leader. But after all the
hoopla surrounding the Chevrolet Volt, executives
also say a government loan package and access to
credit are important parts of GM's next century.
Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, speaking to
reporters at Tuesday's centennial celebration
inside GM's world headquarters, said the recent
turmoil in the financial markets should not
affect the loan package now before Congress. The
$25 billion in loans were approved last year as
part of an energy bill and should now be funded
to help the industry build next-generation
automobiles and meet government fuel economy
standards, Wagoner said. "Really a relatively
small fraction of the investment the industry
will have to make to achieve these improvements
was to be provided for by direct loans," Wagoner
said. "We're just asking that those loans now be
funded and that the rules and procedures to be
able to draw against those loans be finalized
promptly."... Lutz told reporters that GM will be
able to develop products like the Volt even if it
doesn't get the government loans, but the company
would prefer to have the financing as it faces a
difficult balancing act between spending to meet
government regulations and developing new
products. "Obviously it's clear that government
loans would take a lot of the stress off," he said.

The Volt even converted one of GM's biggest
critics, director Chris Paine, whose 2006
documentary film "Who Killed the Electric Car?"
accused GM of conspiring with the oil industry
and the U.S. government to cancel its 1990s EV1
electric vehicle. Paine, invited by GM to attend
the centennial, took part in a panel discussion
about the future of transportation. GM paid his
expenses, he told reporters. "My film wasn't
supposed to be a grudge match with GM," he said.
"It was about why we weren't able to begin to
transition to a new automotive generation 10
years ago when we could have." Paine said he
still believes GM was wrong in killing the EV1,
and he concedes that taking part in the
centennial could give the appearance that he's
part of the GM public relations machine. But he
was intrigued by the Volt and a resurgence in
electric car interest. "The corporation isn't
always wrong. If they're doing this and it's more
than press, then I want to be here to cover it,"
said Paine, who is making a new documentary about
the "revenge" of the electric
car. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iP4u5H9zy-lvMr4n7TThdeF-043gD9381S280

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
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