GM’s electrification efforts have been a total gong show

EVs are terrific and they may very well be the future, but given the infrastructure challenges of both public and at-home charging, they are not realistic for a great many at this time. Their high costs also represent an iffy financial decision when you start running the numbers on EVs versus comparably sized hybrids and plug-in hybrids: yes, you’ll save money by running on electricity, but probably not enough to counter the much higher cost of entry.

Because of both the infrastructure and financial challenges, hybrids and plug-in hybrids are an obvious bridge technology to the full EV future. This was obvious years ago and it’s obvious today. And yet, car companies mostly eschewed hybrids and plug-in hybrids in favor of a full EV push. Why? Electric cars are REALLY expensive to develop. Investing in a bridge technology at the same time as the ultimate goal … well, speaking of iffy financial decisions.

As such, the only companies really making hybrids these days are those who were making them before the recent EV push: Toyota/Lexus, Honda, Ford, Hyundai/Kia, BMW and Porsche. The company formerly known as Chrysler is the rare exception to this as it has more recently invested in and introduced new plug-in hybrids.

One company not listed there, of course, is General Motors. It dove head-on into electric and swore off hybrids apart from the recently introduced Corvette E-Ray. GM, however, not only had hybrid technology, it had exceptional hybrid technology. The Chevrolet Volt came out in 2010, and while the car itself was flawed, the powertrain and its general concept were exceptional. The non-plug-in version of the Voltec hybrid powertrain was also very good, but it wound up in virtually nothing. I’m one of only a handful of journalists who ever tested a 2016 Chevy Malibu Hybrid, and you know what? It was really good!

That was the most perplexing thing about GM’s decision several years ago to move beyond hybrids. How could it not see that EVs were not going to be for everyone? How could it not see the short-sightedness of the decision? Those were questions myself and many others covering the automotive industry were asking back then. And it’s why I have nothing to say but “well, duh” when GM recently announced it was throttling back on EV development and dusting off their hybrid tech from the vault.

This is just the latest example of General Motors completely bungling its electrification strategy. The engineers have done their jobs over the years, but the combination of mistakes, miscalculations and missed designs by everyone else has rendered those efforts pointless.

In the beginning, General Motors came up with the first electric car in basically a century. Then they killed it … both the EV1 and the general idea of producing an electric car.

A decade later, General Motors effectively invented the plug-in hybrid, the Chevrolet Volt. Its 40 miles of electric range would still be among the best on sale today, and the well-executed powertrain’s overall concept had the same benefits as modern PHEVs: Run on electricity for your commuting and daily errand running, have the gas engine on hand for longer trips. It worked and it worked well. Good job engineers! However …

As cool as the original Volt concept was (picture above), the eventual production model was decidedly not, disappointing everyone. It was also cramped with four seats only, thereby limiting its widespread appeal. The second generation was better-looking and more conventional, but that also meant it wasn’t able to declare its greenness to the world. Both further suffered from minimal marketing support and dealers uninterested in selling something more complicated than “V8 makes truck go.”