General Motors’ shift from an internal combustion engine-producing company to one that makes electric motors is sputtering. EV sales are up, but growing slower than expected. The company’s next-generation Ultium platform, in particular, isn’t meeting expectations. GM’s new electric trucks and SUVs seem perennially delayed — or full of buggy software.

I think I have an easy solution to a lot of these problems: bring back the Chevy Volt.

Remember the Volt, GM’s scrappy Toyota Prius fighter from the mid-2010s? The company was lauded when it first came out in 2010 as a prescient bet on vehicles with electric powertrains. And it was undeniably a very good hybrid. The first-generation model got 36 miles of electric range before the gas kicked in, while later versions would get a whopping 53 miles of electric range.

  • Smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    They can’t just turn the Volt tap back on. Suppliers aren’t supplying the parts anymore, GM likely doesn’t have the dies/stamps anymore, it’s all gone save for low volume replacement parts. They’d have to design it new from scratch. And that is a 4 year process, from design concept to production.

    Know what else they can do in 4 years? Ramp Ultium. And that’s what they’re going to do.

    You’re not wrong, it’s just not as simple an idea as one would think.

    • hardaysknight@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      You don’t think they could make a die in 6 months with cad drawings? It’s not like they’ve forgotten about and deleted all relevant documents about a vehicle they designed.