'60 Minutes': Chevy Volt Video
'60 Minutes': Chevy Volt Video Transcript
>> Outside of Detroit everybody thinks Detroit is dumb.
>> Well, they think you're hidebound.
>> Yes, exactly the same thing.
>> Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors is the man-in-charge of developing their new products. And he says he owes Tesla and its Roadster a debt of gratitude.
>> If a small Silicon Valley start-up believes that they can do a commercially viable electric car, are we gonna sit here as General Motors and say well, a guy in California can do it, but we can't. That doesn't sound very good.
>> That's embarrassing.
>> Yeah.
>> And so the race was on, with Lutz overseeing the research and development of the Chevy Volt, which is a four-door family electric.
>> So you see that it's got twin screens.
>> The Volt is not purely electric. It's called the plug-in Hybrid. It will drive on battery power alone for 40 miles. Go beyond that and a small gasoline engine kicks in to recharge the battery while you keep driving.
>> Seventy-eight percent of trips in the United States are under 40 miles a day. If all those people had Volts, you would have 78% of Americans basically never using another drop of gasoline.
>> Everything about the Volt he says works like a conventional car except there's no noise.
>> There's one thing we can do for people who miss the sound of the engine. We'd sell them a CD...
>> Of the car.
>> With various engine sounds to be able to pick Ferrari V-12 or you know Limo or Corvette. ^M00:01:31 [ Clock ticking ]
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