When Bob Met Elon ... and Chris

Thursday, January 14, 2010
The Revenge team filmed a historic meeting in Detroit today -- getting GM Vice President and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk together on camera for the first time. More details after the jump : Detroit’s Electric Avenue: The Street of Dreams?
From the NY Times post: "Mr. Paine, who produced the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” arranged the historic meeting. He is reportedly in production on a sequel, “The Revenge of the Electric Car.” Mr. Lutz — whose company was accused in Mr. Paine’s original movie of being the prime suspect -– is now a strong proponent of E.V.’s and a prime mover behind the development of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. And Mr. Musk is helping to revive the fortunes of the electric car industry with his stewardship of Tesla Motors. The meeting went off as scheduled and proved to be a congenial gathering for the three men. A small crowd of curious onlookers followed them on their short stroll. Mr. Paine was joined by a video crew, presumably shooting footage for “Revenge.” And while he seemed to be trying to create tension between Mr. Musk and Mr. Lutz, they didn’t seem to be buying into it. Mr. Paine asked Mr. Musk if he felt being in Detroit was akin to being “behind enemy lines.” Mr. Musk smiled and said, “No, I really don’t think of it that way.” Mr. Lutz spent most of his 30 minutes with Mr. Musk sharing almost inaudible comments about various electric vehicles and features that caught their respective eyes."
Here is the full text of the entire article, in case the link goes bad: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/detroits-electric-avenue-the-street-of-dreams/ 
January 12, 2010, 4:58 pm Detroit’s Electric Avenue: The Street of Dreams? By JERRY GARRETT

DETROIT — Which would be a stranger sight: Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean sharing a late snack at an all-night diner, or the filmmaker Chris Paine; Bob Lutz, the General Motors vice chairman; and Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Motors, taking a stroll down Electric Avenue at the Detroit auto show? Either situation seems pretty far-fetched. Thanks to spoofs of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” painting, the scene with the actors is a little easier to visualize. But the highly implausible Detroit situation actually happened Tuesday afternoon. 

Mr. Paine, who produced the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” arranged the historic meeting. He is reportedly in production on a sequel, “The Revenge of the Electric Car.” Mr. Lutz — whose company was accused in Mr. Paine’s original movie of being the prime suspect -– is now a strong proponent of E.V.’s and a prime mover behind the development of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. And Mr. Musk is helping to revive the fortunes of the electric car industry with his stewardship of Tesla Motors. 

The meeting went off as scheduled and proved to be a congenial gathering for the three men. A small crowd of curious onlookers followed them on their short stroll. Mr. Paine was joined by a video crew, presumably shooting footage for “Revenge.” And while he seemed to be trying to create tension between Mr. Musk and Mr. Lutz, they didn’t seem to be buying into it. Mr. Paine asked Mr. Musk if he felt being in Detroit was akin to being “behind enemy lines.” Mr. Musk smiled and said, “No, I really don’t think of it that way.” Mr. Lutz spent most of his 30 minutes with Mr. Musk sharing almost inaudible comments about various electric vehicles and features that caught their respective eyes. Mr. Lutz put in a plug for the “range-extending capability” of the Volt, which can travel about 40 miles on electric battery power alone and another 300 miles or so with a recharging assist from an onboard gasoline generator. 

Mr. Musk said he had looked into that capability for his Tesla E.V.’s, but discarded the idea as unnecessary. “We’re in the E.V. business –- only,” he said. Tesla Motors used the 2010 North American International Auto Show, its first, to make a multifaceted statement about the viability not only of the company, but of the electric car as well. 

Three vehicles were on display in the Tesla booth at the Detroit auto show: a white Roadster Sport with chassis number 750 that was driven from California some 3,600 miles to the show; another white Roadster Sport, with chassis number 1,000, which signals a milestone in the number of electric cars manufactured and put into service since the company started delivering cars to customers in mid-2008; and the latest iteration of the 2012 Model S, the sedan that is scheduled to go into production within two years and be priced at $57,400.

GM's Volt Program = $700m

Tuesday, December 29, 2009
GM to invest $700m in Volt rechargeable electric car  
 By Richard Kessler for Recharge News
"GM is spending $336m to upgrade the Hamtramck plant; $202m for a new plant in Flint, north of Detroit, that will build 1.4 litre engine-generators; $43m for a plant in Brownstown Township outside Detroit that will manufacture battery packs; $37m for a camshaft and connecting rod plant in Bay City, north of Flint; and $27m for GM’s Tech Center in suburban Warren, a Detroit suburb, location of Volt’s battery laboratory."
Here is the full text of the entire article, in case the link goes bad: http://www.rechargenews.com/regions/north_america/article200963.ece 

GM to invest $700m in Volt rechargeable electric car General Motors will invest $336m in a Detroit-area assembly plant, bringing to $700m total investment in eight Michigan facilities to begin mass production of the rechargeable Chevrolet Volt electric car in late 2010. Related Stories GM is spending $336m to upgrade the Hamtramck plant; $202m for a new plant in Flint, north of Detroit, that will build 1.4 litre engine-generators; $43m for a plant in Brownstown Township outside Detroit that will manufacture battery packs; $37m for a camshaft and connecting rod plant in Bay City, north of Flint; and $27m for GM’s Tech Center in suburban Warren, a Detroit suburb, location of Volt’s battery laboratory. 

“We expect the Detroit-Hamtramck plant will be the first facility in the U.S. owned by a major automaker to produce an electric car,” says Jon Lauckner, vice president of global product planning. Michigan has approved $135.2m in tax incentives for those sites and others. 

The state has the highest US unemployment rate at 15.2%, largely a result of the depressed automobile industry that has resulted in thousands of layoffs in the past 18 months. The Volt is an electric car designed to drive up to 40 miles on electricity without using gasoline or producing tailpipe emissions. When its lithium-ion battery is depleted of energy, an engine-generator seamlessly operates to extend the total driving range to about 300 miles before refueling or stopping to recharge the battery. Richard A. Kessler Published: Tuesday, December 8 2009

GM puts $336m into Volt plant

Wednesday, December 09, 2009
GM to invest $336 million in Volt plant General Motors Co will invest $336 million in a Detroit-area plant to produce its heavily anticipated Chevrolet Volt electric car beginning next year, the No. 1 U.S. automaker said on Monday.