Green Options

At a pre-Detroit Auto Show industry dinner last night, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz announced that GM has definitely green-lighted the virally popular Cadillac Converj EREV. The car, which is based on Volt technology, made its debut as a concept car at last year’s Detroit Auto Show.

Lately, iconic Swedish automaker, Saab, has been the hottest potato in the world of nearly-doomed-but-possibly-still-alive auto brands. On the heels of a collapsed deal with Swedish luxury car maker, Koenigsegg, GM looked set to sell the Saab brand to little-known Dutch-run but Russian-backed luxury car maker, Spyker.

In fact, everything about the Spyker-GM deal started looking pretty rosy as early as last week when Saab announced a major deal with battery maker, Boston-Power, to build an all-electric version of the 9-3. The ZE 9-3, as it would be called (ZE=zero emissions), seemed to have some nice stats: twin electric motors with 335 horsepower, 0-62 mph in 6.5 seconds, and a range of 93 miles with a 26kWh battery pack.

For nearly as long as there have been cars, there have been songs about cars. Seeing as how most cars have radios, music and automobiles have always sort of gone together. From “409″ by the beach boys celebrating the Chevy engine of the same displacement to “Z28″ by Static X, there are many ways to croon about cars.

But really, the all new Chevy Volt song sounds like it belongs on an iPod commercial. Subliminal messaging anyone?

During this morning’s 2009 LA Auto Show keynote, GM’s Bob Lutz, often known for saying what’s truly on his mind, strayed from the script a bit and came right out and gave a gracious and sincere thank you to start-up competitor Tesla for paving the way with the Roadster EV and showing that the political will existed to bring electric cars to market.

It has been twenty years now since GM unveiled its Impact electric concept, which ultimately led to the EV1 electric car. Not everybody heard about the EV1 though, because it was confined mostly to California on limited leasing agreements. We all know how the EV1 turned out.

But with bankruptcy behind them, it is a new day for GM, and a new day for electric cars. The much ballyhooed Volt is making marked improvements as it moves from mule to pre-production models. Just like the EV1 before it, the Volt will enjoy a limited 2011 launch in a few test markets prior to a country wide launch in 2012. The first of those test markets, as GM announced today at the 2009 LA Auto Show, will be environmentally-conscious California.

I’ve got to say, this story strikes home with me; I’ve been repeatedly ignored by Twitter’s “customer service” every time I’ve tried to engage them about parked twitter handles. Now it appears that some major auto manufacturers are considering legal action to get Twitter to deal with username squatters in an attempt to protect their brand names.

Like it or not, at least for the near future most of us are stuck with internal combustion engine powered cars. While a lot of hype is behind future cars and technology, from electric to hydrogen to everything in between, a lot of improvements can yet be made on the ICE engine.

To that end, the Department of Energy has awarded GM with $2.7 million to develop a working prototype of a Shape Memory Alloy engine. In theory, this engine could recycle the waste heat and turn it into electrical energy, perhaps one day even replacing alternators and improving fuel efficiency.

General Motors has revealed that it is still on-track to bring a hydrogen fuel-cell car to market, within the next three years.

Industry insiders had speculated that the imminent retirement of existing boss Larry Burns would lead to the fuel-cell program being mothballed, but according to new R&D chief Alan Taub, GM will continue with its development of the technology.

“Technology leadership is one of the pillars of the company,” said Taub. “That is going to remain, and it will probably be emphasised as part of the brand of GM.”

Editor’s Note: This is a 4-part series covering my trip to Michigan to test-drive the Chevy Volt. See post 1. LiveBlogging from the opening of GM’s New Battery Lab, and 2. Chevy Volt Test Drive: How GM’s Electric Car Works. Disclaimer: GM flew me out for this event. This post is in no way affiliated with the GM ads that appear at the margins.

The real reason we were in Warren, MI wasn’t to test-drive the Volt, but to be on hand for the grand opening of GM’s new battery testing facility. The $25 million Global Battery Systems lab is now the largest battery testing facility in the United States, and is four times larger than the company’s old lab.

GM made a strategic decision to keep battery development in-house, because it will likely be a key competitive advantage in the race to commercialize electric vehicles. The lab already employs 1,000 engineers who work on advanced battery systems like the one found the the Chevy Volt.

The financial woes at General Motors could finally be catching up with its fuel cell vehicle development program.

In a Web-based interview with the media Tuesday, CEO Fritz Henderson said the company may take a close look at what it spends on fuel cell development. When asked by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s Matt Daneman about fuel cells, Henderson said “while we need to be more efficient in this area, we are confident we can maintain the capabilities necessary to win in the market going forward.” Th giant automaker declared bankruptcy this month and is selling off subsidiaries.

I’m coming to the conclusion that there’s very little that’s sustainable about the company known as GM.

It’s frustrating and sad, because I was raised in the auto city and had family members who worked in the industry.  I even spent a summer at the GM Tech Center (working for then EDS as an intern at the time).  I’m perplexed by the company’s name which most of us recognize only as a vehicle company.  But it wasn’t always this way.

There was a time when GM was diversified, and innovative.  I was amazed by the poor decision making at GM when it recalled and promptly crushed their all-electric EV1s after bringing them to market in 1996.  I drove an EV1 in California; it rocked!  The company used to also make refrigerators starting in the 1920s under the Frigidaire brand and airplane components during WWII (my grandfather was an engineer who worked on a few).

So when, exactly, did the General Motors Corporation stop becoming a “generalist” industrial powerhouse making motors and instead, devote all its energies to making only motors in transportation vehicles and to lesser extent, but profitable one, vehicles for the military — you know, Humvees and the like?