It’s a magazine cover that evokes Star Wars and highlights General Motors CEO Mary Barra.
But more importantly, this Wired article highlights the fact that with their new Chevy Bolt, GM is turning the corner on a technology that, especially when gas prices rebound, will be key. The whole thing is a great piece and dives in deep around the process and tech, but below is a key paragraph you shouldn’t miss.
For GM, the Bolt stands to offer a head start in a new kind of market for electric cars. But for the rest of us, there’s a broader significance to this news. It’s not just that Chevy will likely be first. It’s that a car company as lumbering and gigantic as GM, with infrastructure and manufacturing capacity on an epic scale, has gotten there first—and is there now. Tesla is nimble, innovative, and fun to watch, as companies go. But the Bolt is far more significant than any offering from Tesla ever could be. Why? Think of the old saw about how long it takes to turn an aircraft carrier around: It’s slow, and there’s not much to see at any given moment. But the thing about people who actually manage to turn one around is: They’ve got a freaking aircraft carrier.
So even though a lot of the buzz is focused on Tesla and their rock star CEO Elon Musk, Detroit’s engineering muscle quietly made it happen.