The Road Ahead for Cars

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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 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 vice chairman of global product development at General Motors.

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

© 2008

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: n_mcguire @ 04/30/2008 11:14:47 AM

    This column is pretty mind-blowing, considering that a few years ago, GM built and leased an entire fleet of electric cars, then recalled them all and sent them through the shredder. If you haven't already seen it, rent the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" (no one is paying me to shill for this movie, it's just a real eye-opener).

  • Posted By: smokey_joe @ 04/29/2008 6:16:03 PM

    Last night, conservative talk show host Glen Beck interviewed the Governor of Montana who says that his state has a 200-year supply of auto fuel for the entire USA waiting to be extracted from Montana's vast coal reserves. The technology to do this has existed, at least, from the 1940's and environmental safeguards can be applied.

  • Posted By: smokey_joe @ 04/25/2008 9:10:55 PM

    Paul Sancya makes a lot of sense. The development of future vehicles will have to proceed along multiple promising parallel paths until a clearly superior alternative emerges from the pack of choices. But the most promising choices for the immediate future will be the most economical and most compatible with current vehicle technology and fueling infrastructure. For now, that appears to be the ethanol fueled vehicle, fueled by ethanol from cellulosic biomass (non-food biomass) and/or the liquid fuel/electric hybrid. The biggest problem with the hybrid is imagining all the apartment-dwellers dropping electric extension cords out of their apartment windows to charge their cars overnight. So, I tend to think its going to be the ethanol-fueled internal combustion engine for the immediate future.

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