VIDEO: Volt Nation Town Hall Meeting

Yet another item about the Volt? When's the last time you did a story about a Buick? Even when the Buick Enclave was its hottest in short supply, there was next to nothing here. Some spyshots of the NG Buick LaCrosse (or will it be called "Invicta"?) are appearing, and the car will be completely revealed in Beijing on the 19th of this month. Will you have something here? If GM doesn't talk up Buick, how can we?

There is no question that GM is the innovator in drive train technologies with the Volt, Yukon & Denali hybrids, the Flextreme and so on. In this department you finally have the left and right sides of the brain working properly.

In design, I think it is still a different story, one in which you are comfortable to let others lead and GM follow. BMW and its X6 is a prime example. Here you have a crossover hatchback that is going to (look I'm telling you now) going to make the biggest splash in the marketplace as it is already making great waves in the automotive media preview pages.

GM has great designs, no question, but everyone knows and we are not fooled, there is a distinct difference between design excellence and design innovation and leadership and GM has not crossed that threshold yet.

BMW, Nissan, Mercedes, and even Mazda are the true design leaders and their innovations are often in the realm of crossovers, a realm in which GM was behind and only recently began catching up. Still this realm continues to evolve into variants of crossovers that GM has not even concepted yet like the BMW X6, Mazda CX 6 & CX 9, Nissan Murano and the best selling Lexus luxury compact crossover. And of course, there are a host of Mercedes crossovers, too numerous to mention.

The BRX and Saab 9-4X not withstanding, we are falling behind period. The greatest luxury crossover ever, the Buick Enclave, everybody knows except GM that a smaller 5 passenger version done in the same vein could finally dethrone Lexus's best selling luxury crossover. A vehicle Buick can sell from NY to Beijing. Long before the BMW X6 was ever mentioned we told GM the crossover segment would continue to evolve into segments more akin to regular sedans, wagons, hatchbacks, and even pickups, not just sport ute territory.

The bottom line is this, GM's true greatness was realized when it was recognized as both the drive train technology innovator AND design innovator. Innovation is the price one must pay to be the leader.

I even wonder GM if you can actually be recognized as a technological leader without being recognized also as a design leader. My belief is, probably not, I mean look, putting the new Volt dive train into an antiquated Malibu design definitely does not help persuade your innovation argument.

In short...

The banner of technological innovation is closely aligned with design innovation, indeed to many casual observers it is one and the same. Ask any of these folks who is the technological leader in the auto industry and it will be almost without exception those that are the design leaders like BMW and Mercedes.

Fastlane short...

You design leadership and innovation still lags the industry and it will drag you perceived technological innovation and leadership down with it.

All I can say is that people are very shortly, if not immediately going to want cars that get at least 50MPG. Gas is $4.00 a gallon in SF as we speak. Most of us who live here commute long distances. I was driving a 96 tacoma that got 27MPG. Even so, it cost $80 a week to fill up. We inherited a Prius, but even that is going to cost at least $45 a week. I can only wonder what it is like for those driving full size SUVs and trucks.

I think you all should really consider making not only the Volt, but variants for both small trucks and regular passenger cars. I'd also argue that if fuel prices continue upwards, you can just about guarantee your shareholders that you could very well make a profit on this platform almost immediately because again- if fuel prices keep getting higher and higher, something that gets 50,60, 100MPG is going to be the only choice if people want to actually drive.

GM is great at making presentations and excuses, but not nearly as good at making high-quality high-mileage vehicles.

Remember Bob, the key concept is to UNDERpromise and OVERdeliver, not vice versa.

Otherwise you end up having promised a great new Camaro for several years, only to release it with underwhelming styling that doesn't look nearly as good as the concept, and that gets 15mpg city at a time when gas is approaching $4 a gallon.

Or you get a Volt concept car, which sounds great in theory, but is still just vaporware.

Remember the GM Sequel? The much-touted hydrogen fuel cell car that was supposed to take the American car away from reliance on oil?

Haven't heard much about it lately, and if you guys don't get on the ball, the Volt will share its ignominious fate about the same time that the plug-in Prius comes online and one of the European car companies introduces a clean-diesel hybrid that gets still better mileage.

How much market share does GM have to lose before it realizes that honesty, innovation and quality are the key to success, and not denial, defensiveness and rebates?

As a resident of the NYC metro area, I would like to pose a question for you:

For NYC car buyers, the Volt presents itself as a paradox.

The Volt would be at the top of the list for thousands of NYC car buyers because of some of its traits:
- innovative
- different and exclusive
- practical for city driving
- expensive (hey, there are a lot of high rollers here)

Yet, there is an immediate deal-breaker for millions of New Yorkers:
There's no place to plug the car. If this issue isn't addressed, selling the Volt to New Yorkers will present itself to be a larger problem than engineering the vehicle itself.

...from a Q&A Bob Lutz did at last month's VN conference in New York."

Ah, would be refreshing if Mr Lutz were also to do some Q&A on GM's offcial blog.

One question I'd like to ask is why the pictures of the Volt concept car make it look like something from a video game or from that old Disney sci-fi movie Tron?

Is that really what the final version of the Volt will look like?

I understand the need for aerodynamics and that the design team is trying to get the coefficient of drag as low as possible. But it doesn't have to have such a cartoonish look in order to do that.

V/R

Gary Dikkers

That is one of the best clips from the Volt Nation Conference IMO. Refreshing to hear such openness about GM's hybrid decisions in the past, and the "If you do bold things, you WIN!" comment.

Don't take you eye off the ball. Bring us the Volt!

Part of the reason the Volt surpasses all the competition is its technology of course but also its style.

Don't loose that for a better CD. Americans love the looks of the volt.

Can't wait to see the production version...

In General GM's success will link to its combination of technology, performance and its ability to NOT dumb down the design of its beautiful show cars! (at least not too much)

As an owner of a 2008 C6 corvette and 2008 CTS all I can say is you guys keep coming out with products that drive desire..

IE> CTS Coupe, CTS V, ZR1, Solstice coupe, Malibu, Enclave and hopefully the volt.

Thanks for having this forum to us to share consumers perspective and allow us to hear from the leaders at GM.

Bob Lutz rules!

Thank you for sharing this video. Your speech was really on the mark! I am glad General Motors is intent on reestablishing it's technological and design leadership.