Detroit Blows it Again


How GM “Lied” About The Electric Car

Wow… what were they thinking. In summary… it seems the claims that GM has been making for years about the design and performance of the Volt were just out and out lies. They claimed it was a serial hybrid.. meaning the gas engine was just acting as an electrical generator and that the electric motors drove the wheels. That’s a lie. They claimed it would get 230 mpg in city driving and have an initial electric range of 40 miles to cover the average commute. All lies. As people are finding out, this is nothing but an american built hybrid that’s not substantially different from what toyota has been building for over a decade.  Actually that’s not totally right.. it is substantially different in one way and that’s the price.. it’s about 50% more expensive. <!-more–> Say what you will about the Chinese and their lack of respect for IP.. but when they want to copy something they just go out and do it. By comparison this ‘revolutionary’ car (that isn’t) has been in development for what.. 4.. 5 years at GM?  Really guys… this is the best you can do… how pathetic.  The only good thing that Might come out of this is using lithium based batteries rather than the nimh ones that the other companies are using.  Of course.. since we don’t have confirmation on that yet either.. I’d hold off on buying more SQM.  At this point I wouldn’t believe any claims they were making.

Now that I think of it.. remember that ad campaign that was around a few months ago where GM was bragging that they had paid back the bailout money? Yea.. that wasn’t true either and they finally copped to it last month. Moving money from one tax-payer pocket to another isn’t really the same as repaying the bailout.

So that’s two strikes against Government Motors now… two very public, very big, and very obvious lies. It’s nice to see the new management is demonstrating the same level of ethics, openness and competence as the rest of our federal government. Now I’m curious to see what will make it a trifecta. At this point it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the new CEO Rick Wagoner held a press conference and announced that he was actually Xenu and had come to destroy the human race (and shareholder value) by selling us little econo-box deathtrap cars for over-inflated prices. That would at least make some little bit of sense for what’s been going on in that company lately.