GM's Design Lab: Maybe Too Little, Way Too Late

From the "billions too little, decades too late" archives, GM has decided to open up a public-facing "design lab" so that the public can look under the hood at their design process, according to Mediabistro's Steve Delahoyde.

This could have been a great way to offer the buying public some transparency into all the planning and costs built into the price tag of your favorite Chevy, GMC Truck or Buick, had it come earlier. We've been well-versed for years in the role that union health care costs (as an example) play in causing the Big 3 to lose money on every vehicle, but the role that design and marketing costs play has been glossed over until far too recently.

So this effort to show how such breathtaking models as the Buick Century come to fruition smells a bit of an attempt to persuade buyers that the design process at GM is as lean and collaborative as it would be at the supposedly imminent generation of small, independent automakers (of which, only two - Tesla and Fisker - come to mind. But there is hope in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize, as Joseph White of the WSJ reported in April, spurring such small-team innovation.)

Fuzzy (but good) MPG Math

Not sure what to make of the math in calculating the gas mileage of the new electric plug-in powered Chevy Volt, per this CNN Money story by Peter Valdes-Dapena. Alternative automotive technologies and fuels is sure to be another favorite topic at the Toledo Rust Removal Company, especially due to the number of available resources (i.e. unemployed automotive talent) in our hometown and that little city just to the north, Detroit. It's my belief that Detroit should move QUICKLY to attract and/or incubate as many alternative fuel start-ups as quickly as possible while doing anything to support production of similar efforts by the Big 3- such as the Volt.

Anyway, the math is actually sound: since the Volt gets 40 miles out of its 10 kwh electric charge (costing about $.40), and only then starts using its fuel reserves. Since, after 50 miles, the car will have only used .2 gallons, we land at this very attractive MPG of 230. Its great for marketing, and even though it seems doubtful that will be the final number on the sticker, its a nice twist in the evolution of the key metric in the future of automotive: Miles Per Gallon.