Vintage Video Vendition: The Wild World of GM’s Research Laboratories
Steam engines? Turbine cars? Handling radioactive materials without HAZMAT suits? All was par for the course in GM's research labs four decades ago - or so it seems from Progress of Power, a 1969 propaganda promotional film showcasing the company's advances in alternative powertrain - including early stabs at fuel cell and hybrid vehicles with the ElectroVan and 612, respectively.
Although it's got plenty of that stereotypical '60s promo-reel feel (dig that peppy elevator music), it's worth sitting through the "advances" in combustion-engine emission reductions (commonplace these days) in order to see these experimental wonders - including a steam-powered Grand Prix, an electric Corvair, a Stirling-Hybrid Kadett, and a gas turbine-powered bus - take to the streets of GM's Tech Center.
Comments
MJK
A steam powered Chevelle!? Sign me up! I love these old films from car companies. But the 40 mile range for the Corvair is not far from were the volt will be before the gas engine kicks in. It seems battery technology has been a hurtle they have wanted to jump for 35 odd years.
Palmer M
This film is an almost verbatim prelude to "The Water Engine", an exhibit in the TransCenter section of GM's World of Motion pavilion in 1982's Epcot Center.
That film presentation also concluded that the best path forward was continued refinement of the IC engine.
I saw an article the other day comparing the cost of memory today to 1988: 1 MB in 1988 would cost $35; today it costs $.00003. A terabyte in 1988 would have cost $5.8 million!
It seems to me that GM has been smart to keep alternative propulsion on the back burner until it could be profitable. I understand Toyota still has to subsidize the production of the Prius and other hybrids.
Now that memory is cheap, and high technology is actually cost-effective, maybe with the Volt GM will retake the popular lead in innovation that some of us know they never lost.
The press does a disservice to GM in practically ignoring things like OnStar, Head Up displays, multiplex wiring, touch screens, anti-lock brakes, traction control, etc., things that were science fiction 20 years ago and are now found on base models, and still not available from other manufacturers.
Thanks for this old clip. GM should excerpt it when they debut the EFlex platform just to remind everybody who the real innovator is!
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