Dan Akerson Sounds Like Musk

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

While other carmakers, including electric pioneer Nissan, are downgrading their EV euphoria, GM’s CEO Dan Akerson suddenly sounds uncharacteristically gung-ho on the issue. At an industry conference, he says GM is working on developing an electric car that has a range of as much as 200 miles.

“There will be breakthroughs in battery technology, they’re on the horizon,” Akerson said at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference, while Bloomberg was taking notes. “We’re actually developing a car today which is really anathema to the way the auto industry works: We’re running a dual play on the technology to see which one will succeed. One will result in a 100-mile range, the other will be a 200-mile range.”

Even the true believers at GM-Volt are skeptical. Said one commenter:

“Musk talk from Akerson. Sounds like the battery experiments have not crashed and burned yet. Or just get a Model S today.”

I have talked to several large OEMs, and none of them sees a battery breakthrough on the horizon, at least not on an horizon that is visible with the naked eye. Toyota and BMW are collaborating on a lithium air battery, but they aren’t sure whether it will work at all.

Both a 100 mile and a 200 mile EV can be built today. Just load a lot of batteries in it, then, charge a lot. In all senses of the word.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • E46M3_333 E46M3_333 on Mar 07, 2013

    If you invented a new battery technology TODAY, it would take a minimum of 10 years to prove it out under real world conditions and to develop a robust manufacturing process. Depending on how you do it, cycling a battery 1000 times could take a year. Change the formula? Cycle again, +one year. Change the manufacturing process? Cycle again; results one year later...

    • Russycle Russycle on Mar 07, 2013

      Sure, but you don't have to wait until you've cycled formula A 1000 times before you change it and start testing Formula B. And there are new, unproven battery technologies being worked on all the time, it's certainly possible that GM has a couple promising prototypes in the R&D pipeline, although in this case I share Bertel's skepticism.

  • Redmondjp Redmondjp on Mar 07, 2013

    In your dreams! You do a couple of years of life-cycle testing along with field testing (cold, hot, city, highway) and so on, you throw it on the market, and see what happens. No different than any of today's automakers - kind of like how us consumers are now testing gasoline direct injection, DEF/Adblue/Urea injection on diesels, Ecoboost, Skyactiv, etc. [edit - this comment meant as a reply to the comment above - why do I keep having this problem?]

  • E46M3_333 E46M3_333 on Mar 07, 2013

    A battery is quite different than urea injection. If you mess it up, they can flame out or explode; people can die. Or you can be sued into oblivion. Ask Fisker about the impact of a couple of battery incidents--and they were using an already proven chemistry.

  • Geozinger Geozinger on Mar 08, 2013

    OT: Well, there goes six minutes of my life I will never get back (CNBC interview)... What did that have to do with the topic in the OP? Akerson never once mentioned the battery issue in that interview. Who at CNBC thinks all of the flying dissolves are a good idea when you're actually trying to pay attention to the inteview itself? So, some guy on the Volt board compares Akerson to Musk and we get a whole post out of this? Really? Really? No wonder why this site is becoming less relevant...

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