GM Woos Sustainability Execs with Electric Vehicle Test Drives

At a gathering of 1,000-plus business executives in Arizona this week, golfing and scenic walks through the nearby botanical garden were on the agenda for most attendees.  Seemingly out of place was a pitch by General Motors to test drive its Chevy Volt.

GM views attendees of the annual GreenBiz sustainability conference as influencers who understand why a top manufacturer of vehicles running on internal combustion engines is accelerating toward electric at full throttle.

3BL Media interviewed GM’s sustainability director, David Tulauskas, learning about the automaker’s all-electric "game changer" Chevy Bolt, slated for release in late 2016. After federal tax rebates for electric vehicles, the cost will be around $30,000.

"We really feel like we've cracked the code on a mass market EV that's going to democractize EVs," Tulauskas said in the interview.

Tulauskas also shared the business rationale around formation of GM’s new Maven unit, a “personal mobility brand” that is a first step in providing a network of on-demand autonomous vehicles in the United States. GM has invested $500 million in the ridesharing service Lyft to get started.

"We are evolving what the definition of what personal mobility is," Tulauskas said.