GM's Electric Cars

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Bob Lutz is a famous marketing executive who has worked at all of the big three. In 2007 they become the second largest car maker in the world. The company keeps saying, forget it, been there, done that. Can't do it unaffordable. It's going to happen this year. GM decides to do something really spectacularly different and take a Hail Mary path.

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.