Young people, old people, people with beards, Americans and the foreign press - all of them want to know if the Chevy Volt, the plug-in hybrid car that Boniface designed inside and out, will rescue the most American company this side of US Steel. "What's good for General Motors," as the company used to preach, "is good for the United States."
Well, the credit crunch has been bad for both and uncertainty at the pump has been worse. The special press preview of the 2010 Chevrolet Volt came on a day of record humility for Detroit's Big Three, with the millionaire CEOs of Ford, Chrysler and GM seated at the same table, petitioning Congress for alms. And the competition has showed no signs of retreat: the Volt was displayed on the eve of the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, where Toyota is expected to debut their third-generation Prius hybrid. Worst of all, the pile of money GM has pushed towards R&D for the Volt might have been better spent on keeping the lights on and the plants open: With gas prices as cheap as they were two years ago, nobody really knows if there is a market for a $40,000 Chevy compact, even if it is one that can travel 40 miles without burning any gasoline.
And yet they all came - young people, old people, people with beards, journalists, fathers ready to show their sons a piece of American history, just like the Bell X-1 or the Farnsworth TV - all of them ignoring the free food and booze, all of them crowded around the car, all of them asking the same question.
Boniface's reply is simple: It has to.
Originally in Los Angeles Magazine
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