General Motors wants to be greener

Robert Lutz, the vice chairman of General Motors, is developing a new vision: the Chevrolet Volt, a hybrid show car that may turn out to be one of the most important cars the company has ever developed.

 
 
 
Robert A. Lutz, the vice chairman of General Motors, has been considered for many years one of the most influential figures in the automobile industry, and for whom no car is big, powerful and fast enough for his taste. He is considered the father of Chrysler's V-10-engined Dodge Viper, and the one who promoted the development of the Cadillac Sixteen show car, with a 16-horsepower 13.6-liter V-1,000 engine, which was intended to represent America's answer to the fastest cars Made in Germany.

However, now Lutz, sometimes known as "Maximum Bob", is developing a new vision: in an interview he gave last week to a US radio show, Lutz stated that the Chevrolet Volt, a hybrid show car unveiled by General Motors at the recent auto show in Detroit, may turn out to be one The most important cars the company has ever developed.

"Today, I am more excited about the Chevrolet Volt than the Dodge Viper," said Lutz. "This is a car that may cause a revolution, free us from dependence on the oil of foreign countries and solve many other problems." With the same enthusiasm with which Lutz previously described huge, high-torque engines, Lutz talked about the Volt's economical fuel consumption, which should achieve about 64 kilometers per liter of fuel - through a combination of an electric motor and a gasoline engine.
 
Many were surprised to hear Lutz talk about the green vision: after all, this is someone who previously claimed that "except for a few crazies in California", no one cares about the impact of cars on the environment. In 2003, after declaring that the large sports car Corvette was General Motors' most important car, Lutz described the Prius, Toyota's hybrid car, as a public relations exercise - but admitted that he would like General Motors to develop a similar car.

Indeed, alongside cars like the Pontiac G8, a large rear-wheel-drive show car that Lutz unveiled at the recent Chicago auto show, General Motors is also promoting the Volt - even though it has not yet developed the necessary lithium-ion batteries for it. According to Lutz, the car will arrive in showrooms in 2010. "We definitely intend to produce the Chevrolet Volt," said Lutz. "It may turn out to be one of the most important cars we've ever developed."

However, it seems that Lutz, the man who until recently doubted the existence of the greenhouse effect, does not intend to serve as a personal example in regards to reducing the emission of polluting gases: he still owns two fighter planes - one Czech and the other German, a helicopter and a large collection of sports cars, Among them is the second Dodge Viper that came off the production line (the first belongs to the former CEO of Chrysler, Lee Iacocca). In response to the moderator's question, Lutz refused to commit that his vehicle fleet would be idle from now on.