The Chevy Volt, GM's new plug-in hybrid electric car. For a customer driving about 40 miles a day or about 15,000 miles a year, compared to a 30 mpg car, the Volt would save about 500 gallons of gasoline per year. If the car is charged every night, the driver should be able to achieve that mileage using virtually no gasoline. That same example would also save 4.4 metric tonnes of CO2 every year from each car. All it needs for mass production is a supplier for its untested lithium ion battery concept.
posted by Brian B. on Jan 7, 2007 - 68 comments

General Motors is cutting 9% of their workforce. Some fear it is too little, too late. Chicago Tribune fear this is only the beginning. Detroit News has an FAQ for those affected. A sad day for the US automotive industry indeed.
posted by SharQ on Nov 22, 2005 - 79 comments

GM in trouble: "If you erased the company name from the balance sheet and showed it to a forensic accountant, the recommended treatment would probably be to seek protection from creditors by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. " GM's troubles are as much a result of the exploding costs of health care as they are due to the company's dropping market share. In Canada increasing health care costs (PDF with many charts) are taking a greater and greater share of government expenditures. In the US it's hurting big employers and regular people. But either way the problem doesn't seem likely to get better any time soon.
posted by bowline on Mar 23, 2005 - 44 comments

GM are looking to the future with plans to get a fuel cell vehicle (dubbed AUTOnomy) on the road by 2010, unlike past attempts where fuel cell powerplants were shoe-horned into conventional cars GM are redesigning it from the ground up with a six inch flat chassis that contains the fuel cell and powertrain allowing them to plonk a variety of different bodies on top all the while cutting costs by being far simpler to produce than conventional cars.
posted by zeoslap on Jul 9, 2002 - 16 comments

The Day My Car Ratted Me Out.
Dear Winston Smith,
Your 1984 Corvette has informed us that over the past month, you have failed to obey the speed limit 36 times, at times reaching speeds exceeding 130 MPH. As A result, we feel that we can no longer provide you with coverage. We have also supplied this information to the proper authorities, their jackbooted thugs should be in your driveway momentarily. Thank you.
INGSOC Insurance

First it was the rental car companies, now it is GM and the Insurance companies. This is the top of a very slippery slope of privacy issues and technology, specifically GPS.

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow on Jul 27, 2001 - 45 comments

GM encourages new SUV owners not to drive. "No injuries yet." But how bad does the defect have to be for them to tell their customers not to drive the damn things?
posted by aflakete on Apr 5, 2001 - 47 comments

The next Java frontier: your car. Sun Microsystems announced Monday it would partner with General Motors' dashboard technology division, OnStar, in an effort to make Java the computing standard for the automotive industry.
posted by Zool on Oct 16, 2000 - 5 comments