When you turn your ignition key, what turns you on?
For all of the right reasons, we are devoting a great deal of investment and energy to ensure that our next generation products are both fuel efficient and environmentally friendly. All GM products will offer the latest fuel efficient technologies- for example, a start-stop system- as well as a broad line-up of hybrid propulsion systems to significantly reduce fuel consumption. But let me pose a question: will meeting substantial improved energy requirements be enough? People still want to feel a sense of thrill and emotion about the driving experience and GM has plenty of examples where it introduced provocative innovations on vehicles. The fun to drive Tigra basically established a new market segment. Then there's the panoramic windshield on the Astra GTC and the Saab 9-3 with XWD. Moving forward, where should GM focus its innovation resources? How can we make you say WOW? Is it flying cars, self-cleaning cars, driver-free cars - you name it. We want to hear your thoughts. Push the limit with us.
Jamal El-Hout
GM Europe Vice President, Product Planning
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- Posted in Design |
- Comments (11)
Comments (11)
Jean-Charles Jacquemin said:
Mr El-Hout,
Thanks for asking your readers and customers.
Being convinced that we should get rid of oil as soon as possible, as well for ecological as economic and political reasons, I'm an unconditional advocate of new means of propulsion like the E-Flex architecture, combining electric drive with a range extender fueled by different possibilities even a fuel cell in the future.
And that in a car that gives us at least the performance and comfort we are used to. As I said before a Corsa D with an electric drive and some options you find only in bigger cars would satify me.
It should have the power of the 1.3CDTI 90hp engine and an equivalent or better torque.
But a car like the Flextreme concept with more room for luggage and able to carry five passengers has also my favors.
When the first of those cars will appear in the dealership windows (with an affordable price tag of course) then I 'll say WOW and go immediately to buy one to replace my excellent but old fashioned Astra wagon or my Corsa C.
Please give us the Eflex quickely.
Thanks for your attention.
Scott Jensen said:
Two things.
1) What you're doing right now with Volt. You should make ALL of your vehicles plug-in hybrids. This alone will change the image of GM like nothing else. Your company image would move from being viewed as a dying gas-guzzling smog-producing dinosaur to being on the cutting edge of technology and pushing the industry in this new direction. In fact, I have contacted Chris Preuss of GM with an idea for this. Give him a ring and I'm sure he can tell you about it.
2) Driver-free cars, a.k.a. autonomous vehicles. If you offered these, I'd buy one right away. Every year over 40,000 people are killed on our roads and highways in the US alone due to human error. Over three-quarters of a million world-wide. Autonomous vehicles would save those lives. Unfortunately, the only people pushing this technology in the US is the US military due to the 2015 congressional mandate. However, if you were to spearhead this movement for civilian cars, you could get the public to view you as a car company that cares. Cares about saving the lives of them and their families. If you wait for the US government to force you to offer autonomous cars, you'll be viewed the opposite, as was the case with air bags.
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Thomas Schmitt said:
Dear Mr. El-Hout,
you are absolutely right, whenever I have the chance to drive different cars from GM, it is like there is an angel sitting on my left shoulder and a devil on the right. To drive a Corsa 1.3CDTI and looking on the actual fuel consumption on the board computer, makes me battle the fuel consumption always to a new personal record. But on the other hand, driving an OPC Vectra, makes you almost forget the high prices of oil by giving you back such a thrill.
But talking about innovations, let me tell you that I think GM and especially GME is on the right way to environmental friendly innovations, with the E-Flex and Flex Fuel as a middle term solution and also with the HydroGen as a long term solution.
But speaking of innovations we shall not only looking on important innovations for the environment and safety, because every car company in the world try to achieve these goals. GM has to come up with solutions which makes the feeling in a GM car unique. From my experience working for an automotive market research and my personal experience there are small ideas which are already there on a technical level, but have to be integrated in the car. For Example: Why is there no external connection to the BoardComputer/Navi screen, I think about hook up an external portable Navi or the Ipod. Another idea would be to get the complete control panel to a digital screen, so that people can make their own “Themes” and get only the information that they need, because people want to have simple and clear overview of the interior. Well that are just some thoughts, I believe you and your company already have perfect innovations in the pipe. So I believe a “WOW” will already be at your next prototype.
Best Regards
Ubermich said:
50+ miles per $5 (of any fuel you'd like). THAT would make me say "wow". That's really not that unreasonable if you think about it. Of course, 100+miles per $5 would REALLY make me say WOW!
High-quality interiors (which don't include cardboard in the seats, you know what I'm talking about), with ergonomics really taken into account, make me say wow.
Give me something that handles like a Solstice, with equal or better power, and the mileage above, and I'm sold.
Other bonuses include:
Bluetooth
"clean" energy
Nav with wireless connectivity to eliminate the need for $1000 update DVDs.
Optional "sport" seats made for people who don't weigh 300lb+
Interior fit and finish - snapping things together and putting hot glue on them just doesn't cut it in my world.
The more data inputs and outputs (and power outputs) the better. Anything from ipod jacks, auxillary jacks, to headphone jacks for passengers and 120v power outlets for passenger laptop use.
Oh, and cupholders are overrated.
Your loyal Saab customer.
-ubermich
ubermich said:
Oh, and one more thing for everyone who deals with Saab in any way professionally. Read www.trollhattansaab.net religiously, because your religiously Saaby people are constantly telling you exactly what they want to see in their next cars.
A. Woodruffe said:
We can comment all day on flying cars that clean themselves but the bottom line is that it just won’t happen, not in our lifetime anyway. I think the biggest innovation that GM should look at is how to educate the ‘bean-counters’ in the company.
When you have a premium brand car where the wheel nuts rust after 6 months the answer is not procure plastic caps that cover the rusty nuts. The answer is procure a better quality nut that doesn’t rust for 10 years. You also don’t use clearly seen staples on the underside of a centre armrest to attach the leatherette in a premium brand car either. You use real leather for start and if staples must be used they should at least be hidden. To go further should a premium brand vehicle share the same radio as Chevrolet when other GM brands have a unique multimedia interface of there own. This isn’t a fault of the design team, neither is it the fault of marketing departments and senior management. This boils right down to the point that for the sake of 20 cents per item or on a larger scale, ridged budgets set by people who generally see a vehicle as a mode of transport. A group of people who may well see their job as just a means of earnings and that although they carry out their tasks with the utmost proficiency in meeting deadlines and targets, they could well just as easily work for Toyota or L’Oréal. The point that I am making is that there is no passion, no pride of ownership. This in turn leaves the design team fumbling in finding new solutions to try and replicate the original concept. Unfortunately with such stringent budgets where the finance team will just not show any leniency, sacrifices have to be made that are detrimental to the brand.
With share prices currently less than $11, for GM to design, engineer and produce vehicles, precise budgetary measures are absolutely necessary. Especially when operating with a plethora of what can be seen as 13 brands. Listening to your design team however; who understand what is vital in building that brands image coupled with some common sense will ultimately result in better quality vehicles, with a design language that will generate a desire to own amongst the Generation X and Y demographic, where image is everything.
For my own personal preference I do not want a Chevy Volt or an OPEL flexstream. I want to buy a Saab 9-1 bio-hybrid. Just like the concept albeit with conventional door mirrors. I want the ‘shooting-break’ design, the active aerodynamics and the versatile ‘fold-flat’ seating that has the capacity for 5 adults. I don’t want a ‘downsized’ engine I want a ‘rightsized’ 1.0ltr 150ps Bio-Power because I want to be able to drive at 230km/h and feel like I’m on the ride of my life but I also cruise between 120-140km/h and achieve 3 ltr./100km. I don’t need some fussy computer telling there’s a 50km/h limit coming or that there is a car on my left. I was born with a set of eyes and too my information is a distraction. I don’t need a built in SatNav system either with a USB / Bluetooth / Wifi interface for my mobile applications. I just need a flush mounted docking station for my i-phone.
As for the flying car; with all that aircraft heritage I’ll be half way there.
Gereon Langlitz said:
As I heard on the radio today, there's an incentive, related to the purchase of new Opel-models: For 2 years the price for 1 liter of gasoline is limited to 1 Euro (granted by Opel). At the first glance this sounds really compelling, but I'd prefer if Opel would offer a free-of-charge LPG-retrofitting on its new gasoline models instead. That would bring much better benefits for the customers, considering that LPG is available everywhere in the meanwhile and is less than 50% of current gasoline-prices! The same I would recommend, regarding the latest commercial for the Chevrolet Captiva. To boost its sales, at times of more than 1,50 Euros at the pump, a free LPG-system would also make more sense instead of cutting the price below 20.000 Euros.
My wife and me both are driving LPG-fueled Chevys (2001 Alero and 2006 Kalos) and we really know, what we are talking about. My wife's driving her car as inexpensive as if it were a Smart and my car (Alero) can match a Prius in fuel-costs.
Jean-Charles Jacquemin said:
Well Gereon, I agree partly with you because I had a LPG Mitsu a long time ago.
Ok the driving costs were low but the problem was that it was forbidden to park the vehicle in private as well public closed parking lots. And we found this very embarrassing here in Belgium where it is difficult to park in open air in a lot of cities, shopping mails, and even in my case, at work. Moreover it was the sole car in my life for wich I broke the engine ...
I think that the European Union must quickly give incentives to implement public recharging stations everywehre so that electric drive vehicles could be a credible alternative to traditional ICE ones.
Gereon Langlitz said:
Dear Jean-Charles,
since the revision of the regulations for public parking-buildings in 1993, it's not forbidden anymore to entering corresponding public garages in Germany with an LPG- or CNG-vehicle. I am wondering about the restrictions in Belgium, as you are telling. Why can't those regulations be harmonized for all EC-Countries...?
However, LPG rules. My colleague also will retrofit his car soon! I can do without this 1,60 EUR-madness.
Jean-Charles Jacquemin said:
Well Gereon,
I'm glad that regulations have changed in Germany and, as you said , that should be (with a lot of other ones) an EU regulation.
In Belgium, a law is in discussion since May 2008 to find more incentives to increase the use of LPG. But even if the public regulation against LPG vehicles in public parking lots has been abolished, a lot of private parkings still forbid the access of such vehicles because insurances and firefighters are still convinced that LPG vehicles are more dangerous that gas powered ones.
Gereon Langlitz said:
Dear Jean-Charles,
also in Germany there are sometimes privately owned parking-facilities (e.g. at Fraport AG), which still do not allow the entry for LPG-Vehicles. But that's a minority (thanks to God). The assumption of insurances and fire-preventing authorities, that LPG-fueled cars are more dangerous, is simply stupid and lacks of any logic. Their opinion is just based on the fact, that LPG is heavier than air, what might lead to an undiscovered distribution of this gas on the floor in case of a leakage. So what...? The vapors from gasoline are ALSO heavier than air...! Then they consequently would have to forbid the use of those garages for regular gasoline-fueled cars as well, whereas here's a leakage much more likely than at an LPG-System, which has to undergo very strict tests. LPG-tanks not even burst, when a car is burning or encounters a rear impact, as the ADAC figured out! In Poland there are more than 2 million LPG-fueled vehicles today and I never heard about any explosion or an LPG-Car caused fire. These restrictions for LPG-Vehicles are absolutely nothing but pure nonsense! It's a scandal that drivers with environmental-friendly cars still could be hassled that way in Europe!