Who Exiled The Electric Car?

The recently-debuted Chevrolet Volt ads are built around the same basic assumption that drove the design of the Volt’s extended-range electric (EREV) drivetrain: Americans will not tolerate running out of vehicle range. So severe will be America’s Range Anxiety®, GM is guessing, that its electric vehicle (EV) consumers would be happy to lose some electric range and pay a significant price premium compared to the pure-electric competition in order to fill up on gas when they forget to plug in. But while we wait for this psychological insight to prove true across the broader market, recent news seems to show that GM has forgotten about another beloved American freedom: the freedom of choice. For example, the choice to buy a GM-made “pure” EV. To find that kind of freedom you have to go to China…

GM and its major Chinese partner, SAIC, recently signed a memo of understanding allowing the two firms to

share technology and experience more widely to support the joint development of electric cars and components.

The first fruits of that relationship is an electric version of the “the first passenger car created in China by a Sino-foreign joint venture,” the Chevy Sail (shown above). Reuters [via ABC] reports that the Sail EV is already under development, and prototypes will start testing by year’s end. And no wonder. The Chinese government is pouring tens of billions into greentech and EV incentives, with the particular goal of increasing technology-sharing between foreign firms and Chinese partners. Mystery solved. What’s still puzzling is that China will get Volts as well as the Sail EV, giving (theoretical) Chinese EV intenders the choice of a Range Anxiety®-inducing “pure” EV and a brilliant but expensive (even by American standards) EREV. Too bad the search for a Chinese plug-in buyer is still ongoing.

And China isn’t the only faraway land that GM has exiled pure-EV development to. Electrified versions of the Chevrolet Cruze are being tested in Korea by GM-Daewoo, and GM India reportedly took over development of a Chevy Spark-based EV when Mahindra bought out Reva. But of the three Asian EV projects, the Korean Cruze EV seems the only possible US-bound model, and its similarity to the Volt (drivetrain aside) would complicate branding and pricing decisions. And it would make spreading Range Anxiety® considerably more difficult. The Volt’s complete reliance on a specific interpretation of human nature (more specifically, American nature), means GM almost has to keep the pure EVs out of the American market until it has completely given up on making the Volt a mass-market hit.

To preserve our freedom (to use gasoline), GM hasto destroy our freedom (to choose a pure EV). Or force their buyers into the waiting arms of Nissan, Ford, Coda, et al.