from M-Live dot-com press article:
Louis Chevorlet and William Durant co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Company on November 3, 1911. One hundred years later, General Motors is celebrating the brand's history while gearing up for its electric future.
"Everything we do is not to build the company for the next month or the next year," GM CEO Dan Akerson said this morning on WJR-AM 760, "it's for the next 100 years.
"When you look ahead, one of the things that we came out of bankruptcy with was a very strong balance sheet. And it couldn't have come at a better time for the company, because right now we need to invest for the future -- research and development, engineering -- because advance propulsion is going to be the key.” While Chevrolet already produces a hydrogen fuel-cell Equinox, Akerson said electric vehicles are the wave of the future, noting an all-electric version of the Spark is expected to go on sale stateside in 2013 and other EVs are in the works.
The Volt, meanwhile, has earned rave reviews but generated modest sales, begging the question: Is GM dragging customers into the electric future or meeting them where they want to go?
Akerson admitted the company is doing more pushing than pulling at this point, but he compared the Volt to the iPod, noting that consumer demand for new technology often builds over time.
"All great companies innovate," Akerson said. "In Steve Jobs' case, he innovated in technology. And I believe this company has the wherewithall and the technical ability to innovate into the 21st century so that it fundamentally changes how cars are made and how they're powered. I do think this is a game changer."
GM sold 1,108 Volts in October, more than any month since the vehicle's launch. But the all-electric Nissan Leaf is still outselling the Volt, and GM will struggle to meet its goal of selling 10,000 units this year.
Nonetheless, Akerson said the company is moving forward with plans to ramp up production at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, hoping to ship 60,000 Volts next year.
"Developing this car took literally hundreds of millions of dollars," he said. "It was a huge bet. And it is different. But quite frankly, we needed to gear up."
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2011/11/as_chevrolet_celebrates_100_ye.html
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