Volt's 3 Vehicle of Year Awards as Game-Changer; New National Plug-In Info Site: GoElectricDrive

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Felix Kramer

In the same week that GM returned to the stock market with the largest U.S. Initial Public Offering ever, returning half of the federal stake, the Chevy Volt

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, Nov 18, 2010

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In the same week that GM returned to the stock market with the
largest U.S. Initial Public Offering ever, returning half of the
federal stake, the Chevy Volt continues to gain recognition as a
breakthrough vehicle.  Three top industry players have unanimously
crowned the Volt as Vehicle of the Year.  Decades after Andy Frank
began designing plug-in hybrids, and eight years after we started
CalCars to promote their commercialization, we're seeing Motor Trend,
Automobile Mag and Green Car Journal all describing the Volt and the
PHEV approach the same way: "Game-Changer."  Plus we bring the news
that the electric drive industry's trade association has stepped up
with GoElectricDrive.com, a national information center for buyers of
all plug-ins.  And a pointer to a thoughtful broad analysis of GM's
marketing approach by CleanTech analyst Joel Makower. 

General Motors is proud of its impending success -- and the company
showed it.  On the morning of the company's IPO, the readers of the
Wall Street Journal and Tthe New York Times came upon full-page ads
on pages 11 and 13.  One in red was headlined, "The future is here and
America is back in the game" -- Motor Trend.  At the bottom of the
page, "Introducing the 2011 Motor Trend Car of the Year, the all-new
Chevrolet Volt.  It's more car than electric.  And it's just the
beginning."  The other, in green, said, Is it just us, or is there
electricity in the air? " Automobile of the Year" -- Automobile
Magazine.  And at the bottom, "Turns out people get pretty excited
when you change the world.  The all-new Chevrolet Volt.  It's more car
than electric."  The stories cited below are all online; print issues
will be out next month.  We present the primary sources and the URLs
for the stories; you can find more details easily by searching news online

MOTOR TREND 2011 CAR OF THE YEAR The auto industry's most prestigious
award introduces the Volt as "A Car of the Future You can Drive
Today."  The Volt topped all others on the combination of the award's
six criteria: engineering/design/efficiency/safety/value/performance. 
Motor Trend's multi-day 299-mile test cofirmed 126MPG plus
electricity, or 73MPGE.  See Editor Angus MacKenzie's three-minute
video and the long report athttp://www.motortrend.com/oftheyear/car/1101_2011_motor_trend_car_of_the_year_chevrolet_volt/index.html
(Click Print to see the entire article on one page, and click on
Gallery to see 23 photos.) 

Here's the wrap-up: "It is a fully functional, no-compromise compact
automobile that offers auto consumers real benefits in terms of lower
running costs. 
The more we think about the Volt, the more convinced we are this
vehicle represents a real breakthrough.  The genius of the Volt's
powertrain is that it is actually capable of operating as a pure EV,
a series hybrid, or as a parallel hybrid to deliver the best possible
efficiency, depending on your duty cycle.  For want of a better
technical descriptor, this is world's first intelligent hybrid.  And
the investment in the technology that drives this car is also an
investment in the long-term future of automaking in America. 
Moonshot.  Game-changer.  A car of the future that you can drive today,
and every day.  So what should we call Chevrolet's astonishing Volt? 
How about, simply, Motor Trend's 2011 Car of the Year. 

GREEN CAR OF THE YEAR 2011: The Chevy Volt received the award from
the Green Car Journal's jury including top leaders of four national
environmental groups, Jay Leno, and Caroll Shelby.  Publisher/editor
Ron Cogan told the Detroit Free Press, "This is the game-changer...It
says as no car ever has before that you can have an electric vehicle
without limitations. It doesn't get more important than that."  http://www.freep.com/article/20101118/BUSINESS0101/101118055/ . 

While the hostility toward "Government Motors" won't dissipate
anytime soon, the Volt's arrival should at least silence those who
insisted that the car couldn't or wouldn't be built.  Those who argue
it shouldn't exist have yet to drive it.  Despite the Volt's
imperfections, it takes only a single mile behind the wheel to
realize that you are reveling in the experience.  Forty, eighty, and
200 miles later, you'll still be marveling at the seamless
technology.  It is not fast nor is it fun in the typical sense, yet it
still has all the brainwashing abilities of a Porsche Cayman.  The
Volt is unique, but more convincingly, it instills an overwhelming
sense that you're driving something significant.  Complex ideas can't
be revolutionary until they're accessible enough for mass
consumption.  There are three separate thermal loops to heat and cool
the powertrain components.  GM applied for more than 200 patents
during the Volt's development.  And the advanced battery pack is
believed to cost somewhere around $10,000.  Yet the Volt packages the
game-changing technology in a manner that's nothing short of revolutionary. 

Over the past century, the evolution of the automobile has been about
more content for less money, faster lap times, more luxury, or better
fuel efficiency.  The Volt's accomplishments aren't even in the same
realm.  It won't just change what we drive, but also how we drive. 
Owners will plug in at night, heat or cool their cabin before they
leave the garage, and adopt new driving styles to maximize their
electric range.  Then, when the battery is depleted, they'll
mindlessly motor on, free of the limitations that accompany
pure-electric vehicles.  This is the most sophisticated, most
important vehicle on the road today.  The Volt model could very well
be the standard of the future: a smartly sized battery backed by a
frugal range extender, whether that's a diesel, a turbine, or a gas
engine.  In fact, several automakers already have plans to develop
similar plug-ins with usable electric driving range and supplemental
fossil-fuel power.  For being an automotive pioneer, the Chevrolet
Volt is the 2011 Automobile of the Year. 

JOEL MAKOWER ON GM STRATEGY: We've always been impressed at how
CleanTech analyst Joel Makower thinks deeply about the connections
between business, technology, marketing, and the environment.  GM has
just announced it will invest $40M in carbon offsets for the
Chevrolets it builds.  While we're delighted with the Volt, we've at
times questioned some of the company's strategies.  Here Joel (who has
in the past consulted with GM) discusses that news, and gives his
take.  We don't always agree with Joel, but here we think he's on the
right track.  We excerpt from his conclusion, and we hope others will
comment at Joel's blog: http://makower.typepad.com/joel_makower/2010/11/can-general-motors-save-the-planet-.html

Can General Motors truly change the conversation on carbon and
climate?  It's an audacious, almost unfathomable notion, particularly
when you think about where GM has come from: suing state carbon
regulators, lobbying against federal action, stonewalling activists,
selling Hummers, and all the rest.  I, for one, will be anxious to see
how that works.  Certainly, there will be critics on both sides --
environmentalists who blindly charge greenwash, because that's what
they do; and conservatives who will rail against this somehow as a
misuse of taxpayer bailout money -- because that's what they do. 

Personally, I wished the company's messaging had taken this head-on. 
I would have preferred that GM had said, "America, you invested in
us.  Now that we're back, we're returning the favor.  We're going to
invest in schools and communities around our 3,100 showrooms.  We're
going to put people back to work -- not just making greener cars, but
making greener buildings and greener energy.  We're going to invest in
a more sustainable future, in clean air, in energy independence. 
We're going to turn the tables on that old adage: 'What's good for GM
is good for America.'"