Could Chevy catch or surpass Toyota as the greenest auto manufacturer?

Question

Chevy remains on schedule to produce the Volt by the end of 2010. This car will be able to go 40 miles purely using an electric engine, after which point it will act like a gas/electric hybrid. Effectively as long as you don't travel more than 40 miles in a day, the Volt will be an electric car.

GM is requiring a 10 year lifetime for the Volt's lithium-ion battery, and expects to have next-generation lithium-ion battery packs ready for the vehicles by October this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070809/sc_nm/gm_volt_dc

The Toyota Prius is clearly the greenest car available right now

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070727/sc_nm/cars_pollution_dc

although the Honda Civic hybrid is close behind. While Toyota is working on a plug-in Prius model, they haven't yet advanced to the lithium-ion battery stage and thus have fallen behind Chevy in the plug-in market.

Toyota surpassed American companies in hybrid technology a decade ago - is GM finally about to reverse this?

Answer 1

They could if they wanted too, but they are still of the mindset of building big cheap to manufacture high profit SUV's and the like and when they did have opportunity to really go green blew it big time.

All of their hybrid contributions have been pathetic at best and you can be sure their promise of the Chevy Volt with a wopping 40 mile range (ugh) will again be a lease car or the batteries will be so when big oil puts enough heat on GM again they can effectively pull the plug....again.

Foreign companies like Toyota and Honda are and will be the leaders because they like challenges and aren't obliging to big oil while the US good ol boys like re-cycling the same old same old and have no imagination.

Answer 2

*COULD* Chevy catch or surpass Toyota as the greenest auto manufacturer?

Sure they could.  GM is a huge company that has the ability to do almost anything that they set their collective minds to.

*WILL* Chevy catch or surpass Toyota as the greenest auto manufacturer?

I doubt it.

Just because, as of today in 2007, they "remain on schedule to produce the Volt by the end of 2010" doesn't mean that it will be in showrooms on New Years Day 2011.  Ford, sellers of the Hybrid Escape SUV, was what -- 18 or 24 months? -- late in meeting their originally announced date of selling that car.

Still, GM did build the EV1.  I would imagine that they're kicking themselves in the butt today for having ended that program, especially with such finality as they did (crushing all the cars -- wow).  If they have any of those engineers still around, maybe they've got a shot at getting the Volt out the door when they say they will.  I'll bet all those engineers are long-gone though, having retired, or been laid-off, or quit GM out of disgust.

I'm skeptical that the Volt will arrive as promised, as GM has pooh-poohed the whole notion of hybrids for a long time, only becoming a Johnny-come-lately when they saw that they couldn't spread enough FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) among the auto-buying public to derail the Prius and Civic Hybrids.  Instead, they brag that most of their vehicles are "Flex Fuel" which means they'll run on E85 (85% Ethanol, 15% Gasoline).  Nice, except E85 is tough to find if you're not living in the corn belt.  So it's mostly a token gesture, and all GM had to do is use some alcohol-resistant fuel system components.  Wow.  (And they did it for another reason too: Their lobbyists got the US Government to give them "mileage credits" towards meeting the national fuel economy standards, just for making E85-capable vehicles, even though mileage is lower with E85 than it is with 100% Gasoline.)

If GM spent half as much money on engineers as they do on lawyers...

And finally, GM kept trying to make everyone drink the "Fuel Cells are Just Around the Corner" Kool-Aid but nobody was lining up at the punch bowl.

Time will tell!

Answer 3

I actually think this could be quite possible.

G.M. have copped heaps of bad press since the release of  "that movie". What better way to clean up their image than to regain no 1.

Toyota and Honda have proven beyond any doubt that people will pay a premium for environmentally freindly vehicles.

Personnally I don't give a rats as to who has the best as long as they are all trying to better each other. It is probably more likely that a start up specialised company similar to Tesla, Eestor / zenn or even Zap might get the nod for greenest car first. (It will all depend on what is fact and what is hype)

Just as a footnote

I can see no real benefit in trying to be almost as good as Toyota. Civic Hybrid is almost there, but doesn't sell anywhere near as well.

Answer 4

They could.

I doubt they will, they would be reported to the commitee for un-american (US) activities.

they crushed the EV1 despite customer demand

Electric vehicles naturally have far greater torque than infernal combustion; but GM prefer to sell Neighbourhood golf carts.

See http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com

The US has the capability to do better, but big oil/global corps don't want to rock the boat with thier mates at the golf club.

Why give people what they want & need (smooth, quiet, smell free, powerful cars) when they carry on buying whatever the ad men tell them to.

Answer 5

Who cares I want a safe vehicle that has enough tork to pull several ton not a wimping thing that is totaled every time it hits animal, oh watch out for that butterfly "CRUNCH" Because all they are after then its the 100 miles to the gallon and nothing else sure its nice but they should do more then just that..........................

Answer 6

I think now that more people are beginning to accept the idea of smaller and more efficient cars, most manufactureres will produce some great cars.

I am looking forward to small diesels. The can get better mileage than Hybrids and cost less as well. The Prius gets about 45MPG on highway. There are diesels that get over 50. Even years ago, the VW Rabbit diesel got 50. Surely they can do better now.

Answer 7

I hope they fixed the "thermal events" (PR talk for spontaneous fires) they were having with the Volt. Chevy is going to have to improve their safety record though; who cares about green when you're a smudge on the highway? My Jeep Compass may not be the greenest thing to drive but I don't feel like I'm driving a rattling tin can like I did when I had a Cavalier.