FastLane

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

This week we announced that the GM Board has approved the Chevrolet Volt program. Yes, development work has been going on in earnest, but now it’s official. In fact, recently, at GM’s Milford Proving Ground, I drove an official “engineering development vehicle” with the 16-kwh lithium-ion battery pack we’ve been testing for our E-Flex System and I have to say - pun half-intended - it was electrifying.

The first impression of the day, however, was made before I even got into the vehicle. It hit me on the drive out to Milford, as I passed gas station after gas station with prices for regular unleaded hugging the $4 mark: This makes the importance and potential of our all-electric glide through our proving ground roads even clearer.

Now, don’t run to the Chevy dealer and order your Volt yet: The “test mule” I drove - a previous-generation Malibu - wasn’t calibrated properly, and there are an awful lot of tests that this battery must pass before it’s cleared for production. Our battery teams in Warren and in Germany are working hard in our battery labs to determine that these batteries will work for the life of the vehicle. Still, the conditions in a real-world environment - where the battery is exposed to shaking, moisture and rapidly changing temperature conditions - are much more extreme than the controlled settings of the lab.

But I think it’s important to point out that in the six months since we’ve received the battery pack, we’ve tested it in the lab, then on the dynamometer, and now on the track. Eventually, if and when we settle on the right battery, our E-Flex System engineers will have a lot of integrating, tuning and tweaking to do before the Volt is ready for prime time. And we’ll keep you informed of our progress every step of the way.

Upon future drives, when the vehicle is closer to true calibration, I’ll have more driving details. But I will say that, while the car is still most definitely a work in progress, the thrill of driving electrically – that instant, silent torque – is certainly present and accounted for! Of course, as you can imagine, I miss the throaty roar of an engine. Once we get this whole battery thing perfected, our friends at XM Satellite Radio may have to start an Internal Combustion Channel.

The Buick Invicta Concept

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

Recently we unveiled the Buick Invicta concept car at the Beijing motor show. It was a natural choice to have the sleek concept sedan’s debut in China, where Buick is an established, respected premium luxury brand.

The Invicta is a vehicle that GM Global Product Development can be proud of on many levels, not the least of which is, I think, that it’s a beautifully designed car. It shows where Buick design is headed, both in China and in North America, and gives you a strong hint at what the next generation LaCrosse might look like.

In the big picture, to me, Invicta is symbolic of the progress we continue to make revamping GM Global Product Development and rolling out our global architecture programs. The next generation LaCrosse will share an architecture with other midsize sedans from Chevrolet, Saab, Opel/Vauxhall and others. But the key to the whole thing is … it will be very hard to tell they share the same parentage if you didn’t already know.

This is not “badge engineering.” And it goes beyond “common platforms.” This is taking the parts of the vehicle that the customer doesn’t see or come in contact with and commonizing them – and then investing the savings in the sheet metal and the interiors and the other factors that differentiate the vehicles from brand to brand. Dimensions can change, such as length and width and cowl height. Suspensions can be vastly different, changing the character and behavior of the vehicle, depending on brand. It’s all plug and play, with markedly different cars coming from the same Lego set. (Eds. Note: No real Lego pieces are used.)

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Here’s some interesting footage courtesy of Volt Nation from a Q&A Bob Lutz did at last month’s VN conference in New York. - Will Stewart, blog editor.

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

This is a little late coming, but I just wanted to take the time and space to officially thank everyone who traveled to New York, some from fairly far away, for the Volt Nation event at the auto show there last month.

And I’d like to thank Dr. Lyle Dennis, the foundation of Volt Nation, for organizing such a great event, and for his boundless enthusiasm. In fact, all the attendees were rather enthusiastic, and we are very appreciative of that, and of their rabid interest in the Volt program.

As I told the group assembled there in New York, the Volt team feeds off their enthusiasm, it’s a great motivator for us.

Not that we need any extra push to get going on the project. The team continues to make progress, and we continue to be committed to seeing the program through. As I said in New York, we are going to get this done – we are not going to be beaten to the punch like we were on hybrids.

I told the Volt Nation audience that GM had the technology to do hybrids back when Toyota was launching the first Prius, but we opted not to ask the Board to approve a product program that’d be destined to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. In the end, it cost us much more than that; it cost us our reputation for technology leadership and innovation.

We made that mistake once. We won’t make it again. I think the whole company has learned when you step out and do bold things, you win and when you’re cautious and let other people do the bold things, you lose.

Many great ideas die every day because we value the safety of the tried-and-true over the risk that true innovation requires. This is not going to be the case with Volt; we are going for the brass ring.

Further updates to come, but thanks again to Dr. Dennis and Volt Nation for their support.

Make sure to check out FYI for a video post from last week’s press days at the New York Auto Show. -Alicia Dorset, blog editor

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

It amazes me sometimes what kinds of things seem to “catch on” out there.

An offhand comment I made recently about the concept of global warming seems to have a lot of people heated, and it’s spreading through the Internet like ragweed. But I think that the people making a big deal out of it are missing the real point. My beliefs are mine and I have a right to them, just as you have a right to yours. But among my strongest beliefs is that my job is to do what makes the most business sense for GM.

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By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

You’ve already heard about our financial results for 2007. Yes, we posted a sizable loss, but it was not a surprise. As Rick Wagoner noted this morning, almost all of that loss was attributed to a special charge in the third quarter.

Right now, though, I want to share some little-noticed facts about our January sales.

As you may or may not know, General Motors was one of the few automakers to show an overall sales gain in January, 2.1 percent. However, the big story to us, and it’s one I’ve not seen widely reported, was our 11.2 percent in retail sales.

We had a large, and planned, reduction in fleet sales, most of that to daily rental fleets. And yet to do what we did on the fleet side and still see an increase in overall sales means only one thing… retail sales are up. And that’s exactly what we want to see.

I haven’t read a lot about it … in fact today I just read a story about how Impala sales are “sinking” because of the reduction in sales to daily rentals. While that may be true, technically, the real story, I think, is that in January, Impala retail sales were up 44 percent over last January. That’s an astounding number, one that bodes well for Impala and for Chevrolet.

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By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

Before I get to the point, I just want to mention that I think it’s a great and useful dialogue going on in the space below about fuel efficiency and petroleum dependence. Dave Lancaster of GM Powertrain is making some outstanding and very important points, especially about the benefits of E85, and if you haven’t read through them I encourage you to do so.

Speaking of reading, I am compelled to point out that I read a tremendous piece in The Wall Street Journal last week. From time to time I have berated the media, in this space and elsewhere, for a variety of reasons, and so when they print something favorable and accurate, it’s only fair that I recognize that, too.

Jeff Sabatini’s article in the Journal comparing the Chevrolet Malibu and the Honda Accord was really a milestone piece for us, in terms of getting the word about the improvements in our products out there – especially the improvements in our passenger cars.

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By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

Go ahead… make their day. Just try and outrun them!

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

Last week at the North American International Auto Show, I was asked more times than I can count: “Hey, Bob, what do you think?” So I took the opportunity of a speech I made last night to the Automotive News World Congress (or, as some call it, the Galactic Congress) to say what I think about, in this order: global sales leadership, the Detroit auto show, consumer behavior, E85, and electric cars with lithium-ion batteries. The speech covers a lot of things I’ve been meaning to cover in blog posts, so please take a look at it.

Download PDF of speech to Automotive News World Congress

UPDATE: Our apologies to those of you trying to download the PDF this morning. We had a problem with our server, but it’s been corrected. Thanks for your patience! -Alicia Dorset, blog editor