Popular Mechanics (PM) reveals that GM's tri-channel brand strategy hasn't eliminated the usual corporate infighting. Susan Docherty, GM's Veep of Buick, Pontiac and GMC, stakes her claim on company resources. "My personal take: I think [the Volt] would make a great Pontiac. What greater brand than Pontiac to charge ahead with that technology?" Is that a bad pun, a trick question or a trick question based on a bad pun? PM answers: Pontiac could torque-bias a electric – gas plug-in hybrid model to fit the brand's increasingly dubious performance remit (say goodbye to that headline 40-mile EV-only range). Meanwhile and in any case, PM warns that all this green goodness could exact a heavy toll on GM's dwindling, Volt-biased product development budget. "We've already heard that GM may offer a Cadillac version of the Volt. And since the Volt's "E-Flex" powertrain has been such an expensive project for the company, it will need to badge engineer the Chevy Volt as quickly as possible diversify those resources across at least three brands. In fact, GM has said the Volt is its single most important future project. So much so that we recently reported it could lead to less engineering resources for the next-gen Corvette (the one after the Corvette ZR1)." Your TTAC takeaway: even $50b of your hard-earned tax money can't fix stupid.
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I’ve always thought that the Volt concept as concept has been more appropriate for the Saab brand. What could have been better than avantgarde hybrid technology to save that quirky brand? Saab could have spearheaded GM into the future, be the beta-tester of all new technology. Be the brand where GM buyers could go to be first with everything.
Hi there, this is EV1 bailer calling. I am already smacking my lips in an anticipated delight to cut through that epic volted steel carcass. MMM, the delicous crust of a-pillars with smooth juicy filling of nickel cadmium preserves. Crusty crunch with galvanized glazing.
Shouldn’t this be Volt BW 81?
God I hope they don’t just scrape off the badge and call it a Cadillac. I don’t mind sharing drivetrains (especially one as expensive as the Volt’s) but it won’t help Cadillac’s recent success if they start selling a Chevy. Even if it costs $40k.
They’re siphoning away Vette money to make the Volt? That’s throwing away the baby with the bathwater!
sean36280:
Shouldn’t this be Volt BW 81?
And so it is. Now.
So the choice is between a market shaping moonshot to try to leapfrog the Japanese in technology and green credentials, or a surrogate comb-over for picking up cheerleaders. If I ran a car company it’d make nothing but monster sports cars, but then it’d probably be in as deep trouble as GM is. I think they made the right choice here; as good as the Corvette may be, it’s sales (or halo affect of attracting buyers for the Aveo !) can never pull GM out of the hole they’re in.
The next big advancement in autos will be when the manufacturers figure out a way to sell their cars without franchised dealers.
The Volt shouldn’t be a Chevy, Pontiac, Saab, or Cadillac but a completely different brand sold through Amazon.com, Best Buy, NewEgg, etc.
It would be great fun reading about GM’s current brands on Woot.com as they are phased out.
GM management has been trying to kill the Corvette for something like a decade now, guess they have found a good excuse for it. Didn’t the Corvette become insignificant during the 80’s when they cut their budget with the same kind of thinking.
I think all this talk of all the badge engineered Volts is just to convince the governement they plan to make enough of them so they can get their bailout money. The crooks in Washington have no idea how the car business works and I’m sure think more badge engineered is better=more will be on the road. I’m not saying this wouldn’t end up being GM’s plan regardless since they are addicted to badge engineering but the mouth flapping about it now is for the idiot crowd in DC.
Are we all sure that is the Volt in the picture, even I didn’t think GM was so stupid to dumb the car down so much from the concept. That car looks like nothing at all special. And if that is what the nicest, most expensive car riding on the Cobalt/Cruze platform looks like I shutter to think what the production Cruze in plain jane trim will be like. The one they are going to cost cut like crazy to try and make the most profit they can for a small car.
What could have been better than avantgarde hybrid technology to save that quirky brand?
God, yes. Saab has (or had, back when they still sold cars) the perfect demographics: left leaning, affluent, accepting of quirkiness. A number of former Saab owners I know have defected to Priuses.
Of course, GM, being GM, put the hybrid powertrain in the GMT900s, and notably, the Escalade.
Hmm…after thinking about it, I’d actually like to see a Saab Volt (9-V?). And please, GM, no more Chevrolets turned Cadillacs!
As a personal aside, I always thought Saturn and Saab should be positioned together as GM’s “quirky” offerings. If that relationship had been established in the 90s (back when Saturn was selling, though not making profit), Saab could’ve been the luxury car for people who didn’t give a damn about GM’s traditional hierarchy. It would’ve given returning Saturn customers different offerings (which they certainly needed) as well as something to aspire to own. A little off topic, but just my thoughts…
billc83 you sir have a better branding strategy that the bozos running the show at GM. That’s a good approach for Saturn and Saab I never even imagined, provided Saab’s kept their design and engineer seperate from GM’s and didn’t become the mess it is now. The problem is it wouldn’t solve GM having too many brands under one umbrella.
As a personal aside, I always thought Saturn and Saab should be positioned together as GM’s “quirky” offerings.
They do this in Canada now, but it hasn’t been terribly successfuly because, well, Saturns comparatively sucked from 1995 to about 2005; Saabs from 2000 onwards.
The theory is sound, but when you’re talking about a luxury brand whose flagship will be eleven or twelve years old (and riding on a fifteen year old chassis), there are certain, ahem, core issues that need to be addressed first.
GM needs the E-Flex program to be far-reaching and sucessful WAY more than improvements to the Corvette. Get real — no one enters a Chevy dealership lusting after a Vette and happily drives off in a 4-cylinder Cobalt.
Two entirely different customer bases — a small group of sports car enthusiasts and the millions of bread-and-butter mainstream customers that GM desperately needs.
The Vette is the antithesis of GM’s traditional product strategy. A long term product with gradual improvements over each year. GM just has to do a gradual improvement on the Vette and they’ll still make some money on it. The horsepower wars are over, and the product should mature with the times.
I think it’s important to keep the Vette and focus refinement of all their cars. My G5 rattles like a tin can and highway noise inside cabin like a sprint car on a flat track. This is unacceptable for a 62K car. Secondly, how about dropping some of those brands no one is buying like Pontiac, Buick, GMC and Hummer. Focus like a beam on refinement and ergonomics of the remaining brands.
Saturn – low line.
Chevy cars and trucks – mid line no cheap stuff Saturn has that, which would then incur residual sales from the best price/performance car in the world – Corvette.
Cadillac – high end. – Like Lexus not a blinged out sububan,
Fire the likes of Susan Docherty and all her lackies.
If the MSRP of the Volt creeps up any higher, they’ll have no choice but to sell it as a Cadillac.
What greater brand than Pontiac to charge ahead with that technology?
If you ever wanted proof that the head of Pontiac doesn’t understand Pontiac, here it is.