Jonathan Rauch on the Volt, Risk, and Corporate Culture

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2008

⏱️ 58 minutes

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Summary

Jonathan Rauch, of the Brookings Institution and the Atlantic Monthly, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the evolution of the Chevy Volt, GM's planned electric car. Due to the transparency of GM's effort, Rauch was able to spend a great deal of time on site at GM writing a piece for the Atlantic Monthly on GM's plans and hopes. Rauch discusses the huge risks, GM's past failures, and GM's hopes that the Volt might change the company's culture. The conversation closes with a discussion of competitors and the implications for energy policy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ
0:13.4	Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:18.6	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on
0:24.5	this podcast, and find links to other information related to today's conversation.
0:29.9	Our email address is mailadicontalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.
0:37.8	My guest today is author and journalist Jonathan Roush, guest scholar at the Brookings
0:41.8	Institution, a calmness for the national journal and a correspondent for the Atlantic
0:45.8	Monthly. Jonathan, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:48.2	Thanks Russ. I'm very happy to be here.
0:50.6	Our topic for today is a fast-standing article that you wrote in a recent issue of the Atlantic
0:56.1	on a new venture by General Motors called the Volt. Tell us what the Volt is.
1:01.7	The Volt is a plug-in electric car which aims to be the first mass market car that you
1:07.9	can drive around most of the time without burning any gas at all.
1:13.1	How's it going to avoid burning gas and where does the gas burning part come in?
1:17.6	Well, here's the problem. If you want to build an electric car today, you have to do
1:24.0	one of two things. You either have to spend basically charge $100,000 for an enormous
1:30.2	battery or you have to accept severe compromises in the range like a car that only drives a few
1:37.3	miles and then needs to recharge. GM decided to aim for a sweet spot. What they do is the
1:46.0	car will drive 40 miles on a charge. You plug it in at night. It charges up in an ordinary
1:52.7	electrical socket in six to eight hours. You drive it up to 40 miles and then after 40
1:58.9	miles, it's got an onboard internal combustion powered generator which recharges the battery
2:04.3	on the road. So all the wheels ever see is electricity. That's all they know. It's an electric
	...

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