GM Dropped the Ball on Hybrids
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Dear General Motors,
You’re a little late to the punch. You have just started to roll hybrid cars off the lines. Meanwhile Honda and Toyota have been rolling hybrid vehicles off the lines for years. Dealerships have waiting lists for the things. They will even be offering plug-in hybrids soon. The EV-1 you invented years ago was a really good vehicle. But it was way too easy and cheap for consumers to maintain those vehicles. You enjoyed the money you were getting by servicing gas powered engines so much that you sabotaged the EV-1. Then you could say “Well, we tried an electric vehicle! It didn’t work!” You then continued to reap the dough in for continuing to support and maintain combustion engines.
The EV-1 was far ahead of its time. Imagine if you continued to produce those vehicles? You would have been raking in the dough since 2000 when gas prices started soaring. You’d be at the top of the heap. Way ahead of Toyota and Honda. Instead, you are closing plants and suffering losses. Did you not learn this lesson in the ’70s and ’80s when American’s made a mad rush to smaller cars before? You blamed the Japanese for taking American jobs back then and encouraged us all to “Buy American!” This time you’re blaming oil prices. How about blaming yourself for making crappy products?
Here’s an idea. How about creating innovative products that consumers actually want. Make them easier and cheaper to maintain instead of trying to squeeze every last penny out of us with maintenance, financing as well as the price of the vehicle.
4 Comments
bem
June 5th, 2008
at 11:11pm
GM dropped the ball 40 years ago when they let an egotistical, publicity hungry young wannabe bluff them out of continuing to produce the Corvette. It was America’s answer to the Bug, the only air-cooled, energy efficient and affordable car built in the USA.
While not as artillery-proof as the behemoths of it’s day, time and testing proved it to be superior to most cars that hit the streets in the early 70’s gas ‘crisis.’ It met or exceeded most of the safety standards of 1972, not 1962.
This move all by itself predestined the tumbling decline of the American auto industry. In light of GM’s costly troubles, all others opted to focus on large, heavy steel cars like those that had come before. The Ford Futura disappeared. The Fairlane, Impala and countless other cars deserted their smaller, sleeker forms for the longer, wider and presumably safer and more lawsuit free forms that they had evolved from. This capitulation to publicity blackmail and the heavy adverstising campaigns that followed created a multi-generational mindset that bigger was better which has brought us to a generation that would purchase an oversized military transport to drive to the corner store in suburbia.
And yes, its a damn shame what they did to the EV1, especially the questionable legal methods use to recover and destroy them all. What a world….
Dan Gray
June 6th, 2008
at 4:09am
I wouldn’t go so far as to say they dropped the ball, but they were certainly late to the game …
GM was stuck in big SUV/Truck mode for too long. Now that the high-profit barges have stopped selling, they’re clearly setting sail in a different direction. They will have to move to full throttle mode to navigate these tricky waters.
I’ve spent a week with both the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid and the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid. Both are excellent vehicles.
The Malibu is solid competition for the Honda Accord. While it is not a full-on hybrid like Toyota’s offerings, it is a first generation, with technology that will soon be updated.
http://www.mpgomatic.com/2008/05/11/chevy-malibu-hybrid-review/
The Saturn Vue Green Line is a pleasant little SUV with European routes … again the present hybrid technology will soon be updated. The Vue was designed on the other side of the pond and it shows.
http://www.mpgomatic.com/2008/05/07/saturn-vue-green-line-hybrid-suv-review/
Doug Rutherford
June 6th, 2008
at 4:20am
Amen to that brother. Sounds like you may have watched, Who Killed the Electric car. I was somewhat pissed off after learning the truth about that.
Micdhael
June 7th, 2008
at 6:53pm
I think bem meant a Corvair. I owned one. It was fun. Sorry, Mr. Naider.
IF anyone at GM can hear this: please do not focus just on tiny econoboxes. Do you have any idea how many 35mpg minivans you could sell? Even if they look like a boxfish? Or used the Artemis Hydraulic Hybrid Transmission or some other odd stuff. You’d certainly gain a high percent of market share over the others. If it had plug in hybrid technology, even better. I’d sell my Caravan and buy my first GM since 1963.
Same goes for RVs. Can you imagine an RV that gets 18mpg? That would make folks sit up and take notice at Winnebago!
I’d really like a vehicle that gets 40mpg and seats all my kids and relatives (8 plus gear) — like a microbus or maybe a mini-stretch-limo? But *SAFELY*! And this from a guy who owned a Corvair, then a Superbeetle! But please! Not some Chinese uglymobile like the Aveo.