Category: General Motors

In an interview with Reuters, the car czar, Bob Lutz has revealed he will retire from GM when the Chevrolet Volt hit the showrooms, sometimes in 2010.

The Volt appears to be an obsession for the 75 year old executive who declared that the car is “an absolutely critical product“, but also said that health and board decision will have an impact on his retirement date. “You never know about your health. You never know about the needs of the corporation,“ Lutz continued. “You never know what the board wants to do, or Rick wants to transition to a younger team. All of those things are possible.“

Bob Lutz has been credited for the GM turnaround which presented more appealing models the past few years. Unfortunately, GM sales doesn’t show any improvement, but with the new Malibu aggressively priced and well made, and the crop of future models, the efforts will likely pay at one moment.

Hummer is not officially sold in Japan, but among the imported models, the brand is quite a star. For Japanese young buyers, it represents the supreme achievement of the American way of life. Despite the tiny potential market, Hummer CEO Martin Walsh has announced that the iconic brand would go to the sun rising country.

Due to be launched in next Spring, the future range remains unknown but it is likely that the H3 will be the core model. Later the H4 will follow to reinforce the lineup. Unfortunately, the success of the brand there looks hypothetical. Maybe Hummer should sign a partnership with Suzuki to produce the Suzuki MR Hummer. After all, the Japanese car maker has been selling a MR Stingray!

Japan will not be a big market for Hummer, but with only 14% of its production being exported, foreign markets will become critical to its ambition at a time when its sales are down by 22% this year because of rising gas prices and the American debt crisis.

India appears to get attention from all car makers recently. After Volkswagen which will build the Up! in India, General Motors has opened a new Design Center in Bangalore. The Indian Designer is the eleventh design studio based abroad for GM and is located at the GN technical Center-India, one of the four technical centers GM owns in the Asia-Pacific region.

The studio, which will initially have about 60 employees, comes at a time when GM is having some success after struggling for years to penetrate the Indian car market thanks to a modified range that take sinto account the local tastes. Until recently GM only offered saloons while Indian market favours compact cars. In 2007, GM has more than tripled its sales over the same period in 2006. In 2008, the American car maker will open its second factory. The current plant manufactures the Chevrolet Tavera, Optra, Aveo, Aveo U-VA, SRV and the Chevrolet Spark. Almost all models are also sold in Europe.

Without a doubt, the Chevrolet was the star of the 2007 Detroit Motor Show as GM promised to bring the plug-in hybrid to production in 2010 at the earliest. The American car maker has released a teaser of the front fascia and changes have been made to ensure that the Volt will have a better aerodynamic drag.

Indeed, early wind tunnel tests of the concept car revealed a bad drag coefficient. It is even rumoured that Bob Lutz, so disappointed by the results, suggested to “put it in the wind tunnel backwards“ to get less wind resistance. Engineers worked hard to decrease the coefficient and the production Volt has 30 percent less drag than the concept car. About 60% of the power required to cruise at motorway speeds is taken up overcoming air drag so the Volt has all interest to have a low coefficient to remain efficient.

From the teaser, it is difficult to guess the overall shape, but GM appears to have kept the styling of the concept car but dropped the sharp lines in order to decrease the drag coefficient. GM engineers will focus on improving the aerodynamics.

The final car will likely appear at the end of 2010 and will feature a small engine which will recharge the batteries and won’t power the car unlike hybrid cars. Tesla is also considering this architecture for its future saloon. The Chevrolet is expected to cost around £15,000.

European Hummer fans can rub their hands as the importer of the iconic SUV has launched a limited edition of the H3 model called Black Edition. Only 50 units will be sold in Europe and, of course, the vehicle will feature a black paint and a black interior.

Oddly, this limited edition will be available with two versions. There will be a basic version based on the H3 Adventure model which will add the black trimmings and a set of black accessories such as a black grille, tubular assist steps, roof crossbars, lockable fuel door, door handles, mirrors and black powder-coated wheels. The upper version limited to twenty five units will add the large electric sliding sunroof. While the added equipment has been valued at €6,150/£4,434, the customer will only pay those €1,250/£901. In Germany, the H3 Black edition will cost €49,950/£36,014 including VAT.

The H3 is powered by a 241bhp 3.7-litre five cylinder engine which has a torque of 242 lb-ft at 4,600rpm.

December means Christmas and GM thought at its customers in its own way! The American car maker will recall 90,000 vehicles to operate several fixes.

If you are one of the 20,514 happy owners of a 2001 model Saturn L-Series equipped with a 2.2-litre engine, you will need to go to your closest Saturn dealer to get the timing chain fixed. It might separate while the engine is running.

If you didn’t choose the roof airbags option or the sunroof option when buying an Equinox, pictured, or Torrent SUV, GM is expecting 57,100 of you to come to install more foam in the windshield pillars to prevent head injury in the event of a crash.

Finally, 11,974 owners of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra will have to go to the dealer to fix a faulty crankshaft position sensor, which could cause the engine to stall

In an interview given to the CNBC, GM CEO Rick Wagoner declared that the American carmaker will release a new hybrid vehicle every three months until 2011. He said: “We will have one new hybrid coming out every quarter for next four years. We’ve got four on the market right now. We are getting in the game with a range of technologies.”

With such a high rate of new hybrid variants, GM might become the biggest seller of hybrid cars on the American market and Toyota might lose its leadership.Added to the current 16 hybrid vehicles already available, GM will have 32 hybrid cars in its range.

Oddly, we will not see any of these future hybrids in Europe as GM plans to focus on developing efficient diesel engines. GM does not see any demand for hybrid cars in Europe as the diesel powertrains offer similar, if not better, efficiency than hybrid engines.