Monday, December 20, 2010

GM CEO Calls the Prius a Geek-Mobile, Wouldn’t be Caught Dead in One


In the admirable arrangement of things, General Motors is a little backward in the purpose-built amalgam ambit continued electric agent game. Toyota has afresh launched its third bearing Prius and Honda its additional bearing Insight. At worst, the soon-to-be-released Chevy Volt is a analytic move from a business perspective; if the customer wants frumpily styled eco-cars again who are we, the automakers, to say otherwise?

So it’s a little adamantine to absorb back GM’s accepted CEO, Dan Akerson, describes the Volt’s above adversary – some may alike say raison d’être – as a geek-mobile. Here are his exact words:

“We frequently accredit to the geek-mobile as the Prius. And I wouldn't be bent asleep in a Prius."

If the Prius is a geek-mobile, what does that accomplish the Volt? Is it a me-too-mobile? And the chat “geek” is so decrepit in our 21st aeon world. In the United States, 74% of the citizenry use the internet, 27% own an Apple iPhone and about bisected are on Facebook or MySpace. And Avatar, blur broadly advised to be the best acknowledged blur anytime made, is a affiliate of that archetypal beatnik genre: science fiction.

Is it any admiration that added than two actor Priora accept been awash back the nameplate came into existence? In a way, there’s a little beatnik in all of us. We shop for organic, we tune into Lost and we use our Smartphones to argument our accompany what we’re bistro for lunch.

It seems to me that GM wants to ambit the Volt as abundant as accessible from its Japanese stablemate. Accept you noticed how no one at GM, Chevrolet or in the columnist calls it a hybrid? It’s a ambit continued electric vehicle. If that isn’t a aberrant delicacy I don’t apperceive what is.

The Volt, which according to Akerson "actually looks good,” compared to the Prius, goes on auction afore the end of this year. With a starting amount of US$41,000 (€31,016), the Volt will be added big-ticket than its capital rival, admitting some buyers will be advantaged to a US$7,500 (€5,674) federal tax credit.

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