GM gets 2nd chance with Volt - Goals: More range, more fun, no baggage

摘要

The redesigned 2016 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid will be quicker, lighter and more fuel efficient than its predecessor. And it will probably carry less baggage. Hastily developed in some of General Motors' darkest days, the first-generation Volt was launched in 2010, carrying a complex powertrain, a heavy price tag and the weight of a tarnished brand. There was also political baggage: Critics of the 2009 government bailout and subsidies for electric vehicles seized on the Volt as a costly science project and a symbol of the strategic blunders that led GM to bankruptcy. "It was a lightning rod," AutoPacific Inc. analyst Dave Sullivan recalls. And there was the burden that GM itself loaded on the Volt with inflated sales targets. Then-CEO Dan Akerson predicted early on that GM would sell 45,000 Volts in 2012. Sales plodded along about half that pace, leading to headlines declaring it a flop. Now, GM is using the redesign as an opportunity not only to optimize the plug-in hybrid technology it pioneered four years ago but also to reintroduce the car in a less hostile climate.