Volt Birth Watch 83: Gary Witzenburg's Reasons to Be Cheerful
Published: September 4th, 2008
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Gary Witzenburg is a former GM spinmeister who worked on the ill-fated EV1, which was, by his reckoning, “a major success.” Gazza’s enthusiasm for The General’s, well, everything, makes the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders seem like a bunch of under-dressed Eeyores. Anyway, now that The Car Connection has disconnected from Witzenburg’s rants, the man who never met a GM turnaround he didn’t believe in provides a rehash of his Motor Trend EV1 story “ A Progress Report on GM’s Plug-in EV From a Former EV1 Insider.” So, what do we learn? That the professional (though not official) GM apologist is certifiable, with a chip on his shoulder the size of [Roswell] New Mexico. “The Chevy Volt is more than a flying car; it’s a rocket to the moon, GM’s own NASA-style program to reinvent automotive technology and thus assure the triumph of truth, justice and the American Way. And that’s why the Chevy Volt has been on the cover of every publication in the country for the last 18 months. This is not about cars. It’s about America, dammit. Times are tough, and we’re all tired of people in other countries laughing at us.” Uh, OK. Anyway, yada yada yada… this might just work. “Just as with the GM EV1, the Chevrolet Volt’s biggest challenge is to be just as good as everybody expects it to be.” Oh dear.
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Does anybody else think this series should be called the "Volt Stillbirth Watch?"
Are PR people the worst people in the world, or do they just make it seem like they are?
Okay, I guess I'm the only one that immediately got the "Ian Dury and the Blockheads" reference when I saw this headline...or the Gary Numan reference, "Are Friends (Tata Cars) Electric". Gotta love New Wave!
Does everyone realise that the GM Volt powertrain is a copy of the Renault Kangoo Elect'road 2003? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elect%27road The only bits that are new are the GM hype and Li-Ion batteries. "GM’s own NASA-style program to reinvent automotive technology and thus assure the triumph of truth, justice and the American Way" Gary must be having a chuckle that anyone even bothered to write that comment down.