• Recoil42@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    And tellingly, Barra also managed to slip in some praise for the company’s internal combustion engine vehicles, which continue to generate profits for the company at a time when costs are rising across the board. “Our strong ICE business that frankly has gotten stronger, and we still believe there’s growth there,” Barra said.

    Sigh. If only GM had actually stuck with the Voltec hybrid powertrain and pushed it forward. 🤦‍♂️

      • Exurbain@alien.topB
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        11 months ago

        That assumes people in charge of crunching numbers at GM are perfectly rational and have even studied the possibility. As far as I’m aware there wasn’t even so much as an off hand comment from an engineer at a trade show about looking into reusing the Voltec system on any other platform before killing off the whole line.

        It’s entirely possible they did look into recycling the tech elsewhere but GM has a track record of just writing off tech right as they iron out the kinks.

    • wowzaa@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      I still remember the GM AUTOnomy concept from 21 years ago. seemed like an incredible idea at the time then it just… went away

    • Exurbain@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      It’s truly is exasperating to think how much R&D went into perfecting that system only for GM to throw it all in the trash. The fact Toyota of all companies is doing a better job selling the concept of the Volt with the Prius and Rav4 Prime trims is just rubbing salt in the wound.

    • ZeroWashu@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      there are big rumors that hybrids may come back in some markets but not necessarily the US but that remains to be seen