Lightning Strikes
Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman of global product development, switched his electric car polarity about a decade ago. The epiphany came while he was CEO of Exide Technologies, a leading lead-acid battery maker. "I used to be a huge opponent of electric vehicles," Lutz recently recalled, "and I delivered thoughtful speeches about what nonsense they were. But at Exide, I learned about battery technology. As is the case with internal combustion engines, constant development has yielded a two-percent rise in lead-acid efficiency every year.
"I became fascinated by the idea of a fully electric car, but there was no budget at Exide to build the advanced lead-acid concept car I had in mind. I believed that when lithium-ion came onstream, it would be possible to store enough energy to get it done."
In January 2006, Lutz summoned Jon Lauckner, GM's VP of program management, to discuss building a pure electric car for the 2007 Detroit auto show. Instead of saluting the boss's proposal, Lauckner objected. "I felt that a battery/electric compact with 300 miles of range would have no room for passengers," he remembers. "So I proposed an alternative, which became the Volt: a battery just large enough to cover daily commuting needs backed up by a small engine-driven generator for longer trips.
"Since that meeting, we studied various alternatives but kept coming back to the Volt's configuration. In contrast to technologies aimed at more efficient uses of fuel, this approach begins to sever the link between petroleum and the automobile."