GM CEO talk on the future of GM
Jack May
Francisco by Rick Wagoner the GM Chairman of the Board and CEO. (I am a
member)
He is an excellent speaker. The speech will be on radio and on the
Commonwealth Club site as a podcast. The URL to have iTunes connect to the
CommonWealth Club podcasts is:
http://audio.commonwealthclub.org/audio/podcast/weekly.xml
Being San Francisco, we of course had a couple of loud protestors interrupt
the meeting. The very protest experienced SF police pull them out of the
room before we could even understand what they were protesting. Maybe you
can figure it out on the podcast. It was something about one of his
"myths". I mainly remember the girl was very cute.
He says the next 20 years will be exciting with a lot of changes in cars to
make the transition away from oil to other fuels. He is most excited about
the Chevy Volt which will be on the market in 2010 if I remember correctly.
The Volt will allow any fuel to be used to run the same automobile
architecture.
Fuel cell, diesel, gasoline, natural gas, plug in to the wall batteries,
hydrogen, ethanol engines are being developed and tested. They need to
develop another two generations of fuel cells before they will be good
enough and cost effect to market. 100 fuel cell cars are being given or
sold to consumers to be tested.
They are running very tough tests on lithium ion batteries for full electric
cars with a range of 40 miles. 40 miles is enough for most commutes. So
far lithium ion batteries are looking like a very good solution in the
extremely tough tests. Of course they will offer a larger number of
batteries if you want a longer range. They are using interconnected small
batteries as the best solution. They work well and offer flexibility.
It seemed he was talking like different engines would be easy to switch out
for example if you wanted to take a long trip. Rick favors hydrogen because
the fuel can be produced in any country from any of many power sources. 59%
of GM sales are outside the US. GM sells more 30 MPG and above cars than
any other company in the world, mainly outside the US. The US high MPG
market is still not as big as it is in other parts of the world.
Big cars and truck sales have cut in half for GM, so they are very aware
that they must adapt. His says his wife is the main person that keeps
pushing him on topics like this.
For example GM sell more total cars in China than it does in California.
He pointed out that GM does sell cars in California although you would not
realize that from what we see on roads in California.
Steve Sobol
On 2008-05-01, Jack May <jack...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Just got back from a speech at the California CommonWealth Club in San
> Francisco by Rick Wagoner the GM Chairman of the Board and CEO. (I am a
> member)
GM has a future?
(I'd love for the Big Three to right themselves and actually stop being
stupid, but that ain't gonna happen. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to be able to buy
a Honda hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle in a couple years...)
--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, CA PGP:0xE3AE35ED www.SteveSobol.com
Geek-for-hire. Details: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevesobol
jerry warner
Jack May wrote:
BULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL SHIT.
THE FUTUE IS NOW MORON!