0:36 Intro. Volt is a plug-in electric car. Have to charge $100,000 for an enormous battery or have to compromise severely on the range. General Motors (GM) aims for sweet spot: car drives 40 miles, plugs in at night; after 40 miles it has an onboard generator that charges while it's on the road. Gasoline used to charge the battery. Most days drivers drive under 40 miles. Talking about 50 miles per gallon. Tough to do or someone would have done it already. Big problem with electric cars has always been the battery. Originally 1/3 of cars were electric, 1/3 steam, 1/3 internal combustion. Now lithium ion batteries. GM want to get this car into showrooms by late 2010. Ambitious to try to do it 2 years from now. All started in 2005, GM hemorrhaging money, terrible reputation on environment, fiasco EV1.

5:06 Common idea: that car producers could create an electric car but because it would hurt their gas powered cars they have destroyed their creativity and ideas. Back in 1988 GM's engineers entered an international electrical car challenge and won with Sun Racer. Decided to build an electric car; regulators in California mandated that carmakers had to make electric cars. GM produced the EV1 but its range was 70-80 miles, never more than 110; takes 8-10 hours to charge. GM loses their shirt every time they make one. Practically a hand-made car, but no market for them. Leased the cars, experimental program, 5000-6000 of them. Killed the program. At that point gasoline was pretty inexpensive, as well. Public relations fiasco. Spokesman said we're not destroying the car only to have the car being destroyed, making them look like liars. Within GM they are very proud of the EV1; told by lawyers they had to destroy them if they didn't have an ongoing program. Technological marvel. No good deed goes unpunished. Killed their hybrid program. In 1998 Toyota launches inside Japan without fanfare a little internal combustion car that recaptures energy and recharges its battery, used to extend its gas mileage. In 2000 they quietly bring it to the U.S., and starts become viable. Third generation it starts becoming a hit--the Prius. Toyota lost money on it at first, but has deeper pockets than GM. GM looks at it but can't see a way to make money and kills their hybrid program, walking away from the program just as it becomes viable. Their technology could have kept pace with Toyota. People in the company are kind of desperate. Do focus groups, people like their cars better if you take the name-tag off. Decide they have to do something bold. Churchill: Americans always do the right thing once they've exhausted every other option.

14:12 Early 2006 they put a team together. Bob Lutz, famous marketing executive, worked at all the big three, spent time in Europe, retired from auto business a few years ago, became chairman of Exide, a car battery maker. Golf carts are electric cars; cart-like cars. When you turn an electric car on you get full torque right away, smooth, clean, quiet. Dependence on gasoline is seen as the bottleneck in making the car industry grow. Lutz goes back to GM after Exide, decides he wants an electric car. Company keeps saying no; invested in fuel cell program. Takes hydrogen, catalyst to power the car. A fuel cell car is just an electric car. In 2005, small startup company called Tesla announces its going into production with an all electric roadster, two-person car, superfast, lithium ion battery. Old batteries were too big and too heavy. Lutz lost it in meeting. Calls in his guys and says "I want an electric car." EV1 had too small range, 60-70 miles. Engineers hook up Kawasaki motorcycle engine, put in trailer, hook up to generator and hook that up to the EV1, which can be driven around the test track all day. Zero-emission car; even an electric car has emissions; mandate distorted the market. In 2006, remember experiment, idea for onboard recharger, hybrid. Call it the I-Car, like I-pod. Repackaging. Plug-in with 10 mile range, decide that's not enough; have to do a car that will go so far on the battery that a lot of drivers won't even perceive it as a gasoline car. Decide to go for a 40 mile range. Very complicated software, 20-mile battery would have been much easier to do. Detroit Auto Show: Announced the Chevy Volt at convention, expect it to succeed as a public relations venture. Few concept cars ever get to the showroom, science projects. Volt looked like that; reaction astonishing. GM wins both North American car and truck of the year; attention on the Volt. Now they have to build the car by 2010. Say they are still on time.

25:26 Apparent transparency of GM. How honest were they with you? In article, very honest. Series of discussions over time, iconic company, in 2005 in such deep trouble. Technological challenge is the least of what they are doing. In order to make this car, GM has had to shred the rule book. Did this with the Saturn. From the beginning they have liked to take big gambles, only rarely pulled on off. Using the Volt as a way to increase their risk-taking metabolism. Risks are enormous. Have to train dealers across the country to service this car, etc., what do you do about people who don't have a garage to park in? Keep it quiet is the usual strategy. First make battery, full of software, if one cell doesn't work you compromise the whole thing; normally start with the battery, but with the Volt they are building the whole car. Also, throwing the doors open, going public; this time going to show the world what we are doing so world will at least understand they are doing everything they can. Usually battery lab is top secret, this time gangs of reporters. Production version doesn't look like a sports car, inappropriate for every day driving car. Pulled the sheet off the car without having to ask. In commercials have revealed the front corner, grill. Got to be extremely aerodynamic to squeeze everything out of the battery. A lot of people think they will fail; if so they will fail in full public view. Talked with engineers, who were honest about the challenges. In their interest to explain the challenges. Price point is very ambitious, could do car if you sell it for $50,000; initially were going to sell it for $30,000, now maybe $40,000; will lose money. Financial gamble: if the car is a hit, financially it is a strain. Car for one-car family. Branded it Chevy, brand for the masses. Worldwide. If they sell a lot they lose a lot of money; betting that cost curve on production and the battery will come down fast enough and that gas prices stay high.

35:52 Size of resource commitment: how many engineers, is project growing? Yes, couldn't get precise numbers, ropes in resources from all over GM including pre-Volt research. Half a billion to a billion dollars. Miracle of capitalism that a single automobile ever gets built. Mind-boggling to get everything to the end of the assembly line. Moved to the execution phase, drive something around on a track. Development vehicle: Take shell of existing car, Chevy Malibu, and put the new systems in it. Prototypes, tooling up factories; will be built in same plant from Michael Moore's movie, "Roger & Me."

38:50 Saturn, similar amount of hoopla. Attempt to change the corporate structure at GM. Did not affect GM the way it was intended to. Story is really about the organizational hurdle of changing a corporate culture and commercial hurdle of breaking through with a new product in a market that may not be ready when you may be financially weak. More a business risk than a technology risk. GM does have a pattern of getting behind and trying these Hail Mary technology passes. Roger Smith: massive plant modernization program, robots, money went down the drain. Toyota was slogging ahead of incremental improvements, no big gambles. Saturn: in 1970s when gas prices spiked, GM discovered it couldn't build a good small car. Went into a joint venture with Toyota and launched the Saturn. Whole new car to be designed in record time, 3 years; whole new dealer network, no more haggling; they were going to take what they learned from that and spread it around GM. When the cars came out they succeeded, waiting lists by 1992, 1993, good ads, good cars. Then GM dropped the ball. Follow-through lacking. Cars were successful in terms of numbers sold but struggled to break even. Let program languish, let the cars get boring and mediocre, let it die on its feet. Only now getting its act together again. You can make the Volt, but you have to stick with it past the first few years when it's losing money. Took Toyota almost a decade with the Prius. Have to be patient, hard for GM. GM knows it. By doing it openly, GM is making the price of failure too high.