GM splits with Oil Companies
June 11, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
General Motors has ended its long-term relationship with big oil companies.
Katherine Benoit, GM corporate marketing director, says the manufacturer is set to tackle the issue of oil-price issue head-on, with a little bit of humour.
“Dear Oil,” the U.S. based TV commercial begins. “We’ve had this great relationship for many years. We think we will both be a lot happier and healthier if we see less of each other.” This is a huge change in attitude from the GM we knew a decade ago.
Back in the late 90s, GM developed a working and running full electric car, known as the EV-1, hundreds of cars were initially sold to happy customers under lease plans, however after strong lobbying by oil companies, all but one EV-1 was repossessed and crushed!
GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner admitted last year that the worst decision of his tenure at GM was “axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn’t affect profitability, but it did affect image.”
GM’s Chevrolet brand is also about to launch a new green issues advertising campaign, meanwhile considerable amounts of money has been set aside for increasing advertising for the General’s fuel-efficient models.
With the jury still out on the benefits of hybrid cars, Toyota has managed to pull off a remarkable marketing campaign with the Prius, it now appears GM is playing catch-up!
Print it: 
Yes GM u could have been riding the crest of the bullshit hybrid wave like Toyota with the Piarse.
How come all Hybrids look like VP COMMODORES?
It’s really “in” to talk about hybrids – our govts getting on the bandwagon late as usual. Hasn’t anybody pointed out to them the Prius isn’t as economical as small diesel?
Not that I’m a diesel fan, I just think the Prius is way over rated for what it achieves. (Marginally better fuel economy than a standard petrol engined small car.)
Considering the Ev-1 looks like a mutation gone wrong it is just as well they were all destroyed (bar 1)… :)
as per the prius, it is not about outright fuel economy but more about the carbon footprint or in other words emmissions standards… i agree a lot of diesels are fuel efficient but not sure if their carbon footprint is smaller than a hybrid… don’t quote me on this though…
Correct Silky… to an extent.
Hybrids offer better fuel economy than a normal petrol engine, less carbon emissions, less harmful emissions (diesels are very bad in this department) and most of all…a FUTURE for total eletrics. Yes they can cost more environmentally due to battery materials etc, but at least it leads to a decrease in dependence on fuel. Diesel is a complete dead end.
Probably the best decision GM made in a long time, to reposses and crush those awful looking things, it hurts to look at it.
Yes thats right diesels are bad all this crap about how good thay are.I go to eroupe all the time and you should see the damage the diesels are doing to the place.Imagine if all our cars in australia changed to diesel we would be much worse of.The only thing thay do if give you much better fuel economy true but at what cost to the environment and at over 20 cents a liter more the benefit is all but gone.The day will come when we run much better alternatives.And we will look back and think what the hell were we doing that for so long just like steam trains
haha i agree with BM3 looks like flying saucers, make the pruis look like hot stuff lol.
I agree Diesel is a dead end as they sit side by side with petrol being an oil product. Also its more noxious than its petrol counterpart pound for pound, although you can find its emissions may be less than petrol cars these days. but its particulate matter contributes to cancer etc stronger than petroleum.
Hybrid is a just a transit step until we go fully alternative, I think when the oil runs dry for these oil companies, we’ll start seeing innovation come out of the woodwork in alternative energy.
Topdog – Who the F do you think you are . You are clearly an uneducated with resopect to diesels.
For starters diesel uses 20-30%less fuel per kilometer than a comparable petrol.
Then all your truck run on diesel, as do many ships, trains and buses.
Yes there some pollutants in diesel that do not appear in petrol but many not damaging greenhouse gases. Did you know that petrol contains 16 sustances and chemicals hazardous to health.
Diesels do produce more NOX then a petrol in their early years but over the lifetimes this actually reduces to LESS than petrol. Besides many diesels have a catalyser which scrubs the pollutants to levels comparable to petrol.
Both diesel AND hybrid are only a short term answer to pollution.
So wake up and make real educated statements rather than pathetic antidiesel rantings with no sound base.
Yeh well im reading science mag and thay say thay got proff thats diesel is much more deadly than petrol to humans so go and smoke that in your pipe NO name at least im reading this from respected mag
Joober – Most decent diesels now have particulate filters or as Pugs do “post combustion exhaust treatment”. Remember diesel produce 20-30% les CO2 (the main ozone damaging gas).
Topdog, what a shame you didn’t copy the science mag text word for word. We’d stand a chance of understanding what you just wrote, had you done so.
You want to convince us of something? Write properly, then mount your argument, if you’re hoping for a shred of credibility.
If GM or ford had the balls to keep the ev-1 type projects going to the market, then we would be up to the EV-8 by now and the arguements about this tech would be worked out by now.
Instead they took the easy way out and fell under the knife of the fuel giants, so did the US government.
The EV-1 is still modern looking, weird but modern looking.
Hyundai has the right idea.
They’re working on LPG/Electric hybrids. I’d have one of those.
I wouldn’t have a Prius, because it’s far too expensive for zero gain, and by buying one you’d be accepting all the crap Toyota feeds dumb environmentalists and governments. So much so that in AU, Toyota is getting a gift of $7000 per car they build – when they were going to build them here anyway. They build crap cars but they’re the best in the world at spin.
Now we know where Toyota got the Prius plans – from GM when they did their “bad”.
Both cars are equally ugly, so it’s clear volume sales were never thought about.
For the stupidos posting here about diesel being worse than petrol for pollutants – well, that’s debatable. If you compare the latest bluetec, “e” variants of diesels running through catalytic, and or urea injection, and or particulate filters with the latest petrol engines, I’d say it was line ball.
Damn shame about the recent volcanic eruptions around the world, though – they spewed more rubbish into the atmosphere in a week than transport has in 100 years.
Trouble is, governments can’t tax volcanoes, so they blame motorists who have deep pockets.
Reckless – ha ha thats pretty funny about the volcanos. UK Gov here probably gonna tax farting before long. I might harvest mine and build a power station. Methane Methinks
No Name YOU are wrong. Diesels have about the same CO2 (ie greenhouse gas) as hybrids… but youd have to be down right stupid to think thats the only harmful gas emitted from cars. Diesels have been linked in some cases to causing cancer among all other serious health problems. The fact is hybrids aernt the same as diesel, they will lead to development of better technology…. diesels will NOT. SIMPLE.
the argument has to be about the technology not the styling, and why GM sold the technology. They didn’t just kill the EV-1, but also the Toyota Rav4 EV by selling the patents to big oil. The RAV4 EV was a perfect example of how an existing design can be turned into an electric car. Toyota didn’t crush them either, their just dying a slow death due to no replacement batteries due to the factory being closed by Chevron who acquired GM’s share in the battery maker(and who still hold the patents for the use of large NiMH batteries in the US)
My anti-spam word was Hyundai! so i’ll just say watch out out if Hyundai brings out here its 10 dollar a week LPG hybrid…….Toyota “WATCH OUT”
TP, EVERYTHING gets better. Boffins never stand still. Anyone thinking that a particular technology has reached a dead-end in the automotive world is, I think, very much mistaken.
TP – you have mis-quoted me. I said diesels produce 20-30% less CO2 than a petrol. Hybrid wasn’t mentioned. I agree a Hybrid petrol is comparable to a diesel; but when a diesel hybrid appears on the scene (not long) the emission levels will be less than a comparable hybrid by the same differential as non-hybrid petrol/diesel today. Agreed, Yes I thought so old bean ;)
Reckless1
Funny you mentioned you’d buy a Hyundai LPG/Hybrid combo…
Yet completely takes a HUGE jab on Toyota, who happens to be, Hyundai’s ultimate goal.
Toyota Crap cars? Again, and you PLAN to buy a Hyundai without hesitation, quiet obvious you drive one NOW.
And can you please put up latest quality and manufacturer ratings and compare where Toyota and Hyundai are at the moment.
Can you guys please quit referring to diesel and hybrid as if they are mutually exclusive. Hybrid simply means internal combustion engine combined with electric drive batteries. The IC engine can be petrol, diesel, or as lately proposed LPG.
All yee Prius critics should put the current status of Hybrid performance into perspective – what we are dealing with is the Model T Ford equiv of the Hybrid world. Hybrid will surpass straight IC engine cars (whether petrol, dieselor other) – its just a matter of the time/iterations required to refine & improve the technology.
Battery technology will continue to improve, energy recovery & control systems likewise and yes even the styling of hybrids will improve.
As I’ve stated before – Hybrid uptake will drive improvements in battery technology and once you can get 500km range on a robust battery platform the IC engine will be dropped and we will all be recharging from home.
No more diesels, no more petrol, fuel cells/H2 will never even get a look in.
Oh and I don’t buy the idea that GM spent $500m developing the EV1 with the intention of it failing to make money.
If it was technically possible to build an economically viable electric vehicle with 90\’s technology/oil prices then another car manufacturer would have filled the void, built em and sold em – capitalism is a wonderful thing.
Even big oil’s pockets aren’t that deep (I know – I used to work for one!)
Awaiting Moderation- Does that mean it gets moderated, or scrapped by default coz it contains a link? Assuming it loads up, that makes more sense than a hybrid to a private consumer- it also sidesteps the energy involved in manufacturing a new car, let alone a new car with a substantial amount of extra componentry.
Market maker – you said “No more diesels, no more petrol, fuel cells/H2 will never even get a look in.”
That statement contradicts your other statement above where you infer the Hybrids are the way to go. By its nature a Hybrid runs on either petrol or diesel with electricity generated by the same,so by your own statement no petrol no diesel you should add no Hybrid. Think about it and come back when you make more sense.
So, Marketmaker, Utopia is where we all plug our cars into the wall and charge them up from mains power that’s fuelled in turn by…what, dirty coal? Clean coal? Nuclear? That’ll require uranium, then. Something else that comes out of the ground?
Petrol and diesel engines will never, ever stop improving. Some people here – not you, necessarily – seem to think they have. Puzzling.
No Name
Let me clarify my shorthand…
Near Term – Hybrids keep improving, better efficiency, better looks, better batteries (read cheaper, lighter, greter energy capacity)
Medium Term – Plug in hybrids – still use IC engine, but rely less on petrol/diesel etc and more on grid power
Longer Term – Range on batteries improves to the point where you don’t ever need to use your petrol/diesel etc – when people get comfortable with this manufacturers respond by dropping the IC engine altogether.
Hence my post – Hybrids will continue to grow but will be phased out when batteries improve.
Think about it – between mobile phones, PCs, hybrid cars, off peak power storage – all driving toward better batteries. Its inevitable. May not even be batteries as we know them – latest R&D is in area of “ultracapacitors”.
Oh and those who think electric equals lame – check out the Tesler. 0-100 in 3.9 sec, looks great – but costs Euro 100k – for now!
Golfy – Grid power need not mean coal clean or otherwise. If you are looking to reduce CO2, a fixed generator, is always much better. Natural gas fired combined cyle gas turbines run at 60+% efficiency vs what 20% for an IC engine in a car?
In fact plug in electric vehicles will actually help with the economics of renewables – since they can store excess power produced in off peak periods. Its even been suggested utilities may be prepared to pay you (up to $4k/yr!) for this if they can buy the power back from you at peak times.
If you live in China, or don’t mind accepting Chinese made cars:
Nearterm = Now
Medium term = 1-2 years
Long term = 3-5 years
Check out China’s BYD display at Geneva Motor Show!
I retract what I said above about coal fired grid power not being the likely outcome of plugin hybrids – the Chinese are already building a new one every few days! Oh dear.
What happened to BMW’s hydrogen powered cars? The only exhaust was water.
Those cars might look ugly, but they might be what future cars will look like! The lower drag coefficient like those cars had means far better fuel economy!
At the end of the day the burning of all fosil fuels and coal will hopefully in the future all be gone when thay invent some sort of new way to make energy and i just hope im around to see it.It will be the best thing for us humans and the planet full stop