No Love From Wall Street

John & Angela wrote:
It will be interesting to see the amount of R and D money going to electric vehicles from the big three over the next decade. Its one of those technological areas where it is hard to play catchup if they get too far behind. The market for gas cars (not so much trucks or vans etc) will continue to shrink over the next two decades so they want to be sure they have something to offer. One country holland has already moved on not allowing sales of gas or diesel vehicles past 2025 and at least three others are close to setting their own dates. I'm not sure how many vehicles the big three sell in europe but I would suspect within two decades they will need to have a viable line of electrics to compete. It would be interesting to see their long range strategy.

With GM, they are already onto Gen 2 of their Voltec drivetrain and are going to introduce the 200 mile capable Bolt at the end of the year. They've also using that same drivetrain in a Malibu hybrid. They don't need to play catch up. They're already ahead of the game. I wouldn't be surprised to see GM license the platform to other manufacturers who do need to catch up eventually.

Full disclosure: I own a Volt and absolutely love it. It has its share of detractors and there's a lot of misinformation out there, but taken on its own merits as a straight up car, I can honestly say it's the best car I've ever owned.