Green Options

General Motors has been accused of a lot of things in the past year, and personally, I feel like that horse is dead, beaten, and buried. For all intents and purposes, it is a new company now. Or at least that is what we are being told.

One very important aspect of the new GM is its commitment to electric vehicles. The Chevy Volt is due out later this year, and the Cadillac Converj is also on the table. Today GM has announced that it was launching a program to start building its own electric motors in house, improving quality while cutting costs. And even better, GM says that the first vehicle to get a GM electric motor will come in 2013, and will be rear-wheel drive.

The Chevy Volt is in many ways GM’s flagship into the future. Many people are critical of the car, saying it doesn’t go far enough on electric power. Others are critical of its cost, which—between media speculation and hints from GM execs—has ranged from below $30,000 to more than $40,000 before tax breaks. In the past, even GM has seemed rather resigned to lose money when the Volt first comes out, rather than expect to turn a profit.

But in a recent interview with GM-Volt.com, GM CEO Ed Whitacre revealed that GM will sell the Volt in the low $30,000 range, and they will make money off of it. Imagine that… GM making money!

Over the holidays I saw at least two lists dueling it out as to why electric cars may or may not be in your future. Those lists spanned the gamut from “Dude, they’re too expensive!“, to “Oil’s peaking, get off petroleum now!” But, although they brought up some food for thought, what those lists didn’t cover were the practical reasons to consider buying some kind of electric car (pure electric or extended range electric) in the next couple of years.

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?

GM announced today that it is investing $336 million to fix up its Hamtramck assembly plant in Detroit, bringing to $700 million its total Detroit plant investment up to this point in making good on building the Volt extended-range electric car.

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.

Popular Mechanics gets behind the wheel of the pre-production Chevy Volt and first experiences the car in pure-electric and sustained-charge modes.

This post is an excerpt of an article from Popular Mechanics. You can read the full post (with video) on their website. Written by Barry Winfield.

LOS ANGELES—We’ve been following the Chevy Volt as it has progressed through many milestones before it became a development mule based on the 2011 Chevy Cruze last May. That test drive was completed entirely in electric-only mode. Today, we had a chance to slide behind the wheel of a Volt that looks and feels much closer to production. We experienced the car in both pure-electric and sustained-charge modes, when the conventional gas engine powers an on-board alternator to supply the needs of the electric motor when the batteries reach an elected state of discharge.

In recent years, GM stuck the SS badge on more cars than it didn’t. For a long time the Super Sport moniker meant something, but sticking it on a turbocharged HHR delivery wagon did nothing to improve the General’s image. In a bit of an acknowledgment that maybe they went too far with the SS badge, GM has dumped many of these mistakes recently; currently the only vehicle with an SS badge is the Camaro.

So what does any of this have to do with Gas 2.0? GM’s vice-chairman, Bob Lutz, did not rule out the possibility of a Volt SS. Furthermore, the rumor mill is reporting that GM has given the green light to the Volt-based Cadillac Converj, a concept car that debuted earlier this year.

While Chrysler’s alt-fuel plans for the future—and its integrity—seem uncertain at best, its cross-town rival General Motors is trying to make good on its fuel efficient pledges in a different way. This includes (finally) offering a Hummer with E85 flex-fuel capabilities, as promised in 2007.

Oh, and for those who are wishing for a Volt sub-brand, keep wishing. GM has no plans of spinning off the Volt as a brand of its own (as Toyota might do with the Prius). That won’t stop the General from spreading its hybrid drivetrain across other models, however.

From the GM FastLane Blog: Global electric vehicle development chief Frank Weber is moving back to Europe to join the Opel/Vauxhall senior leadership team and Doug Parks will takeover the reins of the Chevrolet Volt development team on Dec. 2. Doug was the global compact car team leader, or more specifically, the leader of the same architecture on which the Volt is based, and we expect he will provide the same tireless work ethic and attention to detail put forth by Frank and the entire Volt team. We’re sure there are lots of questions you have for Frank and Doug, so they’ll both be available here for a webchat later today at 4 p.m. EST to answer as many as they can. Frank has done an excellent job getting the Volt to the point it’s at today, and we wish him well in his new role on the Opel/Vauxhall senior leadership team. - Rob Peterson, Electric Vehicle Communications Manager