 General Motors'then-Vice-Chairman Robert Lutz said the two-seater sports car being developed by Tesla, the Tesla Roadster, and the rapid advancement of lithium-ion battery technology inspired him to push the carmaker to develop the Volt after the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. Lutz's initial idea was to develop an all-electric car, but Jon Lauckner, General Motors Vice President for Global Vehicle Development, convinced him that to avoid an expensive battery, range anxiety concerns, and lack of public charging infrastructure, they could use a smaller battery pack with a small gasoline engine driving a generator acting as a backup to extend the range, but without a mechanical connection between the gasoline engine and the drive wheels, so it would be a pure electrically driven vehicle without many of the limitations General Motors learned from the EV1 experience.
