GM’s “new” electric car is just another hybrid

June 5th, 2008 · 7 Comments

With the news that Ford and General Motors are experiencing massive losses this quarter and GM’s announcement this week that they will be shutting down 4 truck and SUV plants, it seems that now more than ever there’s an opening for someone to make a huge impact in the small-car market.

Indeed, Ford’s F-Series pickup trucks just lost their spot as the most popular car in America this quarter after an astounding run of 26 years! The Ford pickup not only lost their spot, however, but were beaten out by four separate small cars - the Honda Civic, the Honda Accord, the Toyota Camry, and the Toyota Corolla in that order.

Just one day after announcing their rapid scale-back in the SUV market, GM has announced a comprehensive plan to get an electric car on the roads as soon as possible - the Chevrolet Volt, which would be the only mass-produced electric car by a major automotive manufacturer, runs entirely on electrical power, can be plugged into a standard home electrical outlet, and will be available for sale in the US by 2010.

GM is not alone, but they’re taking a huge first step. While the Tesla Roadster is already available, at $100,000 thousand dollars it’s primarily a boutique item; the Chevy Volt is a mass-production car for the everyman. Nissan and Mitsubishi are close on their heels, with the MiEV from Mitsubishi debuting in Japan next year, and Nissan announcing this Spring that they would have an electric car in showrooms by 2010 and getting it on the roads by 2012, but two years is a darn big lead for GM.

The irony, of course, is twofold:

The reason GM has a two year lead is that they had an electric car ready for mass-production already…in 1996! As was well-documented in the awesome documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, GM leased thousands of the EV-1, the first consumer electric car, more than 12 years ago, but yanked the car off the market for a variety of reasons - oil companies, political pressure, and their own bottom line - and instead sat idly by as gas prices, global climactic temperature, and air pollution steadily climbed over the last decade.

It’s a glorified hybrid - can the Chevy Volt operate solely on electric power? Sure, for 40 miles per charge. Is the Volt gasoline-independent? Hardly. GM has still included a gas tank on the car and are already lauding how gasoline can be used to recharge the battery and that the car’s total mileage will be 640 miles per tank. That’s well and good, but the 2008 Prius can already get 570 miles!

GM is certainly on the right track, but it’d be nice if they stopped acting like they’re single-handedly saving the world. It’s about time the American carmakers caught up with the rest of the world. GM hasn’t turned a profit since 2004 and are finally getting back into the business of saving their own asses. If the Prius can get 570 now, imagine what Toyota will be getting in two more years - the next generation batteries are already estimated to move the Prius to 125 miles per gallon. Eat your heart out, Detroit.

Th!nk Motors, a Norwegian company dumped by Ford in 2003, has got new financial backers and will have their Th!nk City car on American streets by the end of 2009! The car can hit 65mph and gets 110 miles per charge, but what more do most people need in an average American day?

Photo by momentimedia

Priced at $25,000 thousand dollars to start, it’s the first earnest attempt by any carmaker to get a real electric car out there and running. The Th!nk City might not be perfect, but it’s a great first try, something that GM didn’t have the courage to do ten years ago. Who knows how different things would be if they had?

Does it offend you when companies try to pull a bait-and-switch like this? Please feel free to comment!

Technorati Tags: electric car, GM, green, hybrids, SUVs, prius, chevy volt

Tags: green living · green technology

7 responses so far ↓

1 Clayton // Jun 6, 2008 at 6:03 pm

I think you’ve got to give more credit to General Motors for the Volt. It has game changing potential in the same way that the Prius made hybrids “cool”.

But it’s not “just another hybrid,” it’s a different type of system entirely that doesn’t require any gasoline to be used for the first 40 miles. That means that for most of us it actually will get infinity miles per gallon.

It’s already way more accepted and anticipated than any car I’ve been made aware of in my lifetime. Just take a look at http://gm-volt.com/
2 C // Jun 6, 2008 at 8:19 pm

The gas engine does not power the wheels whatsoever. It’s a large generator. It’s actually a very nifty hybrid, if it’s a hybrid at all.
3 Science Says has moved to www.ScienceSays.net « ScienceSays.net // Jun 10, 2008 at 3:46 pm

[...] GM’s “new” electric car is just another hybrid [...]
4 grklein // Jun 11, 2008 at 1:31 pm

Only in the USA would the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry be considered “small cars”.
5 sciencesays // Jun 11, 2008 at 4:22 pm

Thanks for all of your responses.

@Clayton - I would find it easier to give GM more credit if they hadn’t made a real electric car and dumped it more than a decade ago.

I am glad that it’s been accepted and anticipated and I DO think it’s a step in the right direction - I’m still bothered, however, by the implications in GM’s announcement that they’re doing this because they care about the consumer.

@C - that part is certainly very innovative and a big step forward in auto technology

@ grklein - that is absolutely true and an interesting point. Living in LA, I see a fair number of “smart cars” that people have imported for themselves and it’s crazy just how small they are.

While GM is clearly trying to do something new here, making their first big move with a car that still relies on gasoline for so much of its appeal seems counter-productive to me. Even the shiny new system, cool as it is, describes performance very similar to the Prius.

It’s a landmark moment for American cars, but for to GM to act like the People’s Car Company or eco pioneers is silly.
6 Joe // Jun 15, 2008 at 9:17 pm

As for an engine that acts only as a generator to power an electric motor, its a fantastic idea. In fact, its such a fantastic idea that is been used almost exclusively since the mid-1900s in diesel trains all over the world, as well as most non-nuclear submarines. New ideas? I think not. The only thing that amazes me is that we haven’t been doing this since the 50’s.

Now granted, there would be fewer moving parts with no transmission, but i still see mechanical problems with this design if you usually drive fewer than 40 miles between charges. You would have to add a ton of stabil or sea-foam to the tank to keep the gas from going bad and gumming up the fuel injectors.
7 Energy Week: John McCain’s Anti-Environment Buzzwords // Jul 4, 2008 at 8:46 am

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