The Road Ahead

People still have a need for trucks in America and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere. People still buy them for work. People still want them to haul boats and horse trailers. Not everyone is suddenly going to switch to very small cars, or tiny little pickup trucks, unless they suddenly decide to haul tiny little horse trailers carrying tiny little horses.

And there will still be a desire for high-performance vehicles like the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The global automotive market is a big place, after all. There is and will be room for green and mean. Just because a grocery store is greatly expanding its line of organically grown vegetables, that doesn't mean it shuts down the meat counter.

Another area that this grocery store will be expanding in the future is the battery aisle. That's where propulsion comes in.

I am quoted in these pages saying, "The electrification of the automobile is inevitable." I stand by that, and believe it more every day. Regardless of global location, the ultimate goal is to have vehicles that do not use petroleum, for a number of reasons, including energy independence, energy security, energy efficiency and emissions concerns.

That's why at GM we're pouring engineering resources into developing our E-Flex system, which will underpin a generation of electrically driven vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is not a hybrid. It's an extended-range electric vehicle. Hybrids have an internal-combustion engine driving the wheels, aided by an electric motor. The Volt's wheels are driven by electricity, solely. An internal-combustion engine is there only to help recharge battery power if necessary. And that secondary source of energy could be powered by anything—petroleum, E85 ethanol, diesel, biodiesel or even a hydrogen fuel cell. All our future extended-range electric vehicles will be driven by electricity.

This system allows a driver to travel 65 kilometers on electric power alone. And given that 78 percent of people in North America have a daily commute that's 65 kilometers or less, and the percentage is even higher in other parts of the world, all those people could drive a car like the Volt to and from work every day without ever using a drop of gasoline.

When the lithium-ion-battery technology required for this system is ready—and we have agreements in place with battery partners to speed development—we will bring this vehicle to market. We'll be testing running prototypes this summer. And then you're going to see, gradually but emphatically, this vision of the future of the automobile turn into the present.

Lutz is General Motors’ vice chairman of global product development.

© 2008