Bob Lutz: The Man Who Revived the Electric Car

Cars for the 21st century are being built by the aerospace industry from carbon fiber materials and aerospace technology. The days of massive 1930's designed 'Detroit Iron' with their huge poured, multi cylinder blocks and heavy suspensions are nearly over. New cars will be bio-diesel hybrid electrics with plug in capability. They are so light they bounce off of one-another on impact and even take flight on impact. They are narrow,, fast and pass each other easily in one lane, preventing gridlock and traffic jambs. They get 100mpg now and as technology improves they have the potential to do much better. The Volt is a last gasp for the heavy steel chassis and will fall into the same category as the Chev Corvair of the 60s, an asinine attempt by narrow minded groupthink engineers to emulate the then dated VW

In the Third paragraph why in the world would you put in parenthesis the sentence about plugging into a wall outlet? That is the main point and purpose of these PHEV cars, if anything the (tiny gasoline motor kicks in to recharge the battery) is what should come in quotes. I suppose it just goes to show the default perspective of most folks, including the author of this mostly well written article, is that buying gas from a gas station (and all that that implies and entails) is normal while plugging in at home (safe, warm, secure, and potentially renewable and CO2 neutral) is the new weird thing that we might do with our cars someday.

PS. Dear Bob Lutz, While some of us skeptics give you grief about the EV1/Volt, Be aware that when/if it does show up in a dealer near me it will go a Very very long way towards turning me back into a domestic Chevy driver from my current state as a Honda Insight driving and Toyota Prius Plug-in Hacker...

Dear Newsweek,

Why are we applauding a supposed "industry leader" and a "visionary company" who was just as happy for decades to provide us with inefficient, unsafe automobile. There was no advances in mileage, pollution and safety for years until pressed by government to do so. Even then, they obstructed and lobbied against any federal standards in these areas whenever they could. And why.. profit.

And now they are jumping into the electric and hybrid arena late, because of a rival company beat them to the punch! Why? Because their profits are getting hit. That is what we are talking about here. If they see lesser profit in one method than another, they take the higher profit. Because they are not here to make us great cars.. they are here for their stockholders first, customers and society second.

And It's not that they wouldn't make money. It just that they would make more profit by not going greener... or so they thought. When the could have been leaders... they followed the money, and are now a little weakened because of it. Couldn't have happened to a better company for a better reason. I hope others learn from it and consider it in their decisions for the future. Do what is right or do what is most profitable.

And now, over a decade after their research, they see the future of hybrid and electrics literally, getting run over by a Toyota Prius. A novelty car I believe they called it.

$30,000 for an small electric car? Are they nuts or greedy or both? I know there is research and development. But that much for a small electric car and in 2010... three years from now? I would go the extra $20,000 and get a Tesla 2008 or 2009, or wait for the Prius plug-in to come soon.

GM and companies in collusion with Big Oil are partly to blame for holding auto progress back for years because of self- interest first and foremost. They should not be awarded by good publicity. They should be the footnote in economic history. A footnote that explains how they and their ilk kept us from where we needed to be all along, in the name of corporate influence and high profit.

Thanks GM and you too Lutz! For helping Toyota!

Has the author of this article actually seen the documentary "Who killed the electric car?" because to make the statement "after being burned by the failure of the EV1 CAR..." is the reason Mr Lutz gets that hate mail. The Ev1 wasn't a failure. It was a car that was a huge success with people begging to buy it that was taken away from the people who leased them and destroyed.

I applaud Mr Lutz for his work on the Volt - even if it a self serving PR move. But WHY does the public have to wait until 2010? This is NOT some crazy new technology. It is simple, it works and they know how to do it. I have a charging station in front of my office that sits unused. We need electric vehicles NOW.

Has the author of this article actually seen the documentary "Who killed the electric car?" because to make the statement "after being burned by the failure of the EV1 CAR..." is the reason Mr Lutz gets that hate mail. The Ev1 wasn't a failure. It was a car that was a huge success with people begging to buy it that was taken away from the people who leased them and destroyed.

I applaud Mr Lutz for his work on the Volt - even if it a self serving PR move. But WHY does the public have to wait until 2010? This is NOT some crazy new technology. It is simple, it works and they know how to do it. I have a charging station in front of my office that sits unused. We need electric vehicles NOW.

The Volt or something like it is just the next step. For those with negative remarks concerning the Volt, I offer the following:

One key point everyone keeps forgetting is that the Sun produces all our energy today and all the energy of the last few billion years as well. Oil was just an easy way for a few lucky people to make a living over the last couple hundred years.

The best thing to have happen is to build solar capture and energy storage systems as fast as we can. To do that we need financing systems in place for homes and businesses. Higher priced oil would likely help in this process. We need to keep building these systems rapidly until we get to the point that we have produced sufficient energy to produce all the future solar capture and energy storage systems we need.

It behooves oil companies and oil exporting countries to keep oil prices as low as possible as long as possible. They might be able to get another couple generations through this gravy-train. None of them really care that future generations might actually need some of this oil for future unknown needs not yet defined. Over the last couple decades our politicians seem to have solved zero problems. In this case, the politicians should love the fact they can keep taxes higher on a product - since it will actually do some good (in addition to keep their pork programs running).

This concept car has the possibility to be a global product desired by all. It will help reduce carbon emission and allow people to use their car guilt free - something of a luxury in today's world of global warming.
Ed

There is a product that coverts sunlight into electrical energy by simply applying it to glass. the auto industry uses lots of glass in its products, why not look into this renewable source of energy. look into XSUNX they have the right idea,

No more oil changes? No more trips to the gas station, you say? The Volt DOES employ a gas and oil eating engine to charge the battery, sir. So does my 2007 Camry Hybrid. And it doesn't matter if the Volt's gas engine never comes on to charge the batt, because if you plug-in at home, that electricity STILL comes from an oil-run power station, so you WILL end up using oil, and you WILL pay via your monthly electricity bill. I am not knocking hybrid vehicles (since I drive on myself), but hybrid vehicles only reduces, not eliminates, our dependence on oil. We must be coldy realistic when it comes to these issues.

There is a product that when placed on glass can produce electricity, why cant the auto companies see the merit in using this power for the electric vehicles. this is a renewable source. XSUNX produces this film, it could solve a lot of our problems.

You guys used the term "Skunkworks" Hypertexting that to some wikipedia entry would educate some people about the Li'l Abner/Lockheed origin of the term.

Why are we talking about being green? Talk about how much this will save consumers in the long run. No more trips at the gas station or wasting time filling up. A more reliable car that uses a powerfully efficient electric motor instead of a complicated and limited gas engine. No more oil changes. No more fighting in Iraq for oil. No need to pay Iran or Venezuela blood money. American coal instead of foreign oil. More use of powerful diesel vehicles.

From what I understand, the carbon footprint caused by the consumable resources to produce a "green" car vs. it's fossil fuel counterpart outweighs the amount it saves over a lifetime. I have not verified this, but it bears looking into.

No catzenjammer. These plug-ins will be charging at night when the $ per KW hour is way low and power plants are extremely under utilized. This really is win-win.

Plug-in electric cars make nice headlines these days, but there are some serious drawbacks
that don???t get a lot of press. Consider, for example, the greater Los Angeles area. Every summer for the past several years, there have been reports of power crises with the utility companies begging industry and consumers to conserve electricity use. There have been rotating brownouts and occasional blackouts. Imagine the same area a year or so after these
all electric cars go on sale. Imagine some 90 degree August evening about six pm when several hundred thousand Angelinos plug their new Volts into their garage outlets to recharge.
Unless the power companies have made a major effort to upgrade their generation and transmission capacity, that should be enough to fry the entire system. Another thing to consider is GM???s management. GM has a considerable history of great concept cars that flopped on the market. Remember the Corvair? Remember the Fiero? Unless they have gotten some senior management who can see beyond dollar $ign$ and bonu$e$, I predict a very rocky future for the Volt.