Bob Lutz, the “unlikely father of the Chevrolet Volt,” was General Motors product manager at the time of the cars inception, but now the former GM exec says they got the Volt all wrong.
When asked by the Seattle Times if the Volt should have been a truck rather than a sedan, Lutz said that General Motors “started at the wrong end.” He said that because small cars are already very economical, it’s hard to justify a large price jump for a limited increase in fuel economy. However, pickup trucks, which realistically get about 11-12 mpg in the city, have a larger margin for fuel savings.
“It makes less sense to take a 40 mpg vehicle and make it electric than it does to take a full-size pickup or SUV, which in town realistically gets 11 to 12 mpg,” said Lutz. “If you take that to 100 mpg, now you’re really saving money and saving a scarce natural resource and reducing CO2 emissions drastically.”
It’s hard to say if Maximum Bob is speaking from the heart or plugging his current employer. Since his departure from GM, Lutz has been sitting on the board of VIA Motors, which makes hybrid electric trucks, SUV’s and vans. They showed their VTrux concept at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show, which is a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado with VIA’s own plug-in electric powertrain. The truck can travel up to 40 miles on electric power alone and another 300 miles from the energy generated from the 4.3 liter V6 engine.
Comments
This is the same argument made for the 2-mode hybrid which didn’t do so well. While I agree with the argument to make an EREV truck it would be expensive as Mr. Lutz should already know. Personally I still think the Volt was a good place to start. Maybe the ELR should have come first?
Personally I think the new platform underpinning the 2015 Colorado and Canyon would be great for an EREV and second generation Voltec. Also Holden already has an SUV on this platform. As it’s much lighter than the full sized K2XX vehicles it won’t cost a huge amount of money in batteries to give it an 40 mile electric range.
I personally own a 2013 Volt and love it. However if GM came out with a mid sized SUV off the Colorado platform with 40 mile electric range and decent range extender with a decent ~6000lb towing capacity, I would seriously consider it for my next vehicle.
The volt was a must in it’s current form, you have to start somewhere! But GM should of used other platforms already in existence to bring different types of vehicles with the vol tec system.
A volt, equinox, and a Colorado all with similar range!
TFL Truck did a video on the Via electric Silverado! Personally, I think it is a great idea! I think 40 miles on electric isn’t enough for a truck! The Volt is smaller so it can’t fit as much batteries, but the Silverado is much bigger and should be able to go at least 50 miles on electric! I do understand that the truck weighs more too, so that could limit the range. .
@Brian – I think an electric Equinox and Colorado would probably be best! The Silverado is a workhorse (or at least meant to be) and I don’t know who would buy one! Whereas the Colorado is meant for a daily driver truck with capabilities of towing and would work great as a hybrid!
The real issue with doing this to a Nox and Colorado with out them being designed for this is weight. Both are over 4000 pounds as it is and add a battery to it the weight will be at least 5000 pounds so what you gain in battery power will vanish on gas power and performance.
The full size truck has an advantage of the V8 where a Nox would be stuck wit a 200+ HP 4 cylinder. Also the cost of these models would be well past what most would pay when full size truck and large SUV’s can command a higher price more easily.
Just because you can stick the parts together does not always mean It is a good idea. You have to factor in what it would cost and how it would perform as a whole. Also the aero on the Nox and Colorado would leave you with a range of 30 miles if you are lucky. The Volt looks like it does and weighs what is does to get the MPG and EV Range. Anything less than it’s drag and more than its weight will perform worse unless there is a break though.
The largest and most powerful models are the only prime option vs. the smallest and lightest.
Lutz made this argument long ago I think in one of his books saying the larger SUV and Trucks would benefit the best with the improvement over 12 MPG. Now that he is working on his own truck would you expect him to think differently.
Scott,
I do not agree with you. One of the nice things about Voltec is that the gas range extender does not have a whole lot to do with performance. The range extender only needs to be sized to meet the average power demands of the vehicle. This is why VIA motors can get away with using a 4.3L V6 in their trucks and get good electrical performance. And these trucks likely weigh close to 7000lbs.
The Volt weighs nearly 3900lbs and does well with the 1.4L range extender. While I agree a Voltec Colorado would likely weigh close to 5000lbs. A 21KWh battery similar to what is used in the Spark EV would likely give a Colorado close to 40 miles EV range. And a naturally aspirated range extender in the 2.XL displacement would probably be enough to do the job.
Personally I think this is very reasonable and could likely be done in a couple of years at a decent price point.
Erik
While I say it can not be done on the present product I do feel that it could be done on new product designed with the idea of being used with this driveline option.
I own a Terrain and it is a beast for weight. It sits right at 4100 pound FWD and 4200 pounds AWD. To get any real MPG out of it you need to kill weight and that is what the next gen will do.
Also Aero is important as a small change can cost you miles and you already have a limited range as it is. In a vehicle as heavy as Terrain the same Voltec driveline would not see even 30-35 miles in warm weather. Add to the additional aero drag it would hurt it even more.
The Volt is bases on Cruze and Chevy could have just put this driveline in a Cruze but it would never have given the results in performance as it has with the Volt changes.
Even on the Colorado they do have grill shutters but they would have to clean up the underside aero and cover the bed to make for more air flow.
Little things like the added 1/4 to the Volt spoiler and the squared off bumper corners on the rear added near 2 miles of electric range alone. All these little changes add up over the whole car. I would recommend reading The Larry Edsal book on the Volts and learn just how the little things count as it is now.
The other factor is cost. the Terrain right now is stickered loaded at approx. $38K adding the Voltec system would add at least $15K-20K to the price so where would that leave you with the customers? Now if you could do this with a special engineered SRX you may have a better chance of selling it.
If it were as simple as just chucking this driveline in just any car do you not thing GM would have done that. It would have been so much easier and cheaper to do and would have applies to all their cars vs. the silly hybrid system that just eats up the trunk.
I would recommend the Edsal book as while it is a GM approve book it gives the reasons why they did a lot of what they did and the results of it.
Once you see the whole picture you really get a better understanding of why and the limitations of what they did. It is a small box to work in for now and better batteries will open this up more. Even a new lighter platform will give them more room to work.
Cases like this it is easy to work from what we know but the details that you do not read about in Motor Tread or the web are killers in many cases.
Lutz from Volt & again all the eyes of users are on ownership review of the car. The brand is definitely doing good in the market and also won a million of hearts because of their services & quality. The brand is really going good in the market and this model from Volt actually didn’t have that much power to make a comparison with truck. That is really insane.