How Did GM Create Tesla’s Dream Car First?
Now that the Bolt EV is entering the market and the EPA range has been announced, you can be dang sure the Tesla Model 3 will beat it. I live around DC and have done trips to Ohio, Montreal by way of upstate New York, and south Florida, and all would require detours to accomplish with SAE Combo chargers. It’s really not surprising that established manufacturers can create worthwhile products if they choose to, it is just that they typically won’t bother to try. Persuading other manufacturers to make electric cars is, after all, consistent with Tesla’s mission (accelerate the advent of sustainable transport…).
This article insinuates GM is beating Tesla to the punch on the “everyman” electric car as though it’s some big surprise that an auto manufacturing giant is able to produce something at scale much quicker than a scrappy upstart. Model 3 is aiming towards the luxury market and the Bolt is the mid level economy car that looks hilarious. He was invited to witness the launches of the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Model S. While TM3 may be worth waiting, Tesla is going to be slow meeting the domestic demand, not to start going internationally.
The pressure has been reduced somewhat since the bailouts, but the car industry does enforce a perceptible hierarchy to keep lower-end models from poaching sales from high-margin vehicles/brands. The bigger story is that it took this scrappy upstart and its “[c]ocky billionaire” CEO for this lumbering behemoth to inch their rudder 1 degree away from cranking out SUVs. Until GM/BMW/VW/FCA/Ford/ETC start with a real electric platform designed for both efficiency and driving dynamics they will never succeed. This article is overlooking just how important that functionality will be in Tesla’s vision for the Model 3 (and all of their other future offering).
Without reading the article, I’m gonna go with “100+ years of experience designing and building cars”. “Tesla’s car has more luxury options, can upgrade to the autopilot, has access to the supercharger network, has brand cachet, and will be more profitable at scale is a fanboy “ Bob Lutz (GM Vice Chairman Global Product Development — Retired) credits Tesla with the existence of the Volt Plugin Hybrid. Part of me thinks they realize that electrification will largely lead to commoditization and remove a big chunk of the profits that are derived from ICE differentiation, and they don’t want that.
As the article mentions, the Bolt is being built on the same Gamma platform line as gas cars. “Tech start-ups”, like Tesla, are disrupting lots of companies that have been doing seemingly nothing for consumers because they haven’t needed to or, when they did, things it were half-assed. While larger SUVs, crossovers or even sedans might have more total cargo volume, they may be narrow in a certain dimension (why I hate trunks vs. 5th doors) or just are much deeper. I grew wary of GM the moment I read that news and watched Jon Stewart butcher them on Daily Show.
I think the current (huh, pun) Bolt looks fine, but then I drive a 1988 Mazda 323, paid $900 for it. If you need that spaces less than a few times a year, you’re better off renting a large vehicle for those jobs or trips. GM can put different sheet metal on top of electric drive if they see a market. I also like how the wheels tend to the corners on hatches, it gives them great driving dynamics and still leaves a lot of room for legs and shoulders for 4 adults.
What this article misses is that part of Tesla’s stated goal is to force the hands of established manufacturers into doing precisely this. (YC-type business opportunity: get public charging points to report their status (available, in-use, broken) and transmit that to cars and phones. SAE Combo may theoretically offer speeds similar to Superchargers, but in practice it’s far worse. I hate how manufacturers feel the need to design all EV cars with black shiny plastic trims all over the place, weird lights and a hatch door that is ugly and non functional.
I agree, but my point was that the Bolt actually does look like something people take seriously, as demonstrated by the fact that the roads here are crowded by cars that look exactly the same. Im not 100% sold on their viability long term, but glad that they are in business if at least to spur the incumbents into innovation. Without supercharging infrastructure, this vehicle will be bound to relatively short distances and then a long charge time. I’d argue that these comparisons, while obvious to make, are missing an absolutely critical piece of Tesla’s long-term plan: autonomous driving capability.
Isn’t GM the same company that knew about a faulty(possible fatal implications) ignition system and let it be because it wasn’t cost effective to fix it publicly? I think there’s going to be an SAE combo option for the Bolt, which will mean about 90 miles range recharged in 30mins. The field is maturing quickly, but the Bolt and other cars like it are really just electric versions of existing ICE platforms. It’s obviously more complex than that, but I would give more credit to the threat of dying than (what was at the time) a niche electric sportscar manufacturer run by a guy with extremely divided attention.
I remember the bolt announcements happening during some massive criticism of Detroit automakers for asking for bailouts, and them needing some justification for congressional intervention to keep them alive. GM Chevy Bolt or Opel/Vauxhall Ampera-e should help with the electric car adoption in the US and Europe which I look forward to. Hatchbacks (and wagons, although they are harder to make sporty/fun) give you cargo room rivaling smaller SUVs in a lighter platform.
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