Ever since 2007, the name Al Oppenheimer has been synonymous with Camaro. He’s been the driving force behind everything, from bringing the concept car to the dealership floor, to bringing out monsters like the ZL-1 and Z/28, and he’s done a solid job of making that happen. Having put in plenty of work at GM since 1985, and the company has seen fit to move him over to the newly formed AV/EV organization that will focus specifically on zero-emission development. Seems like a bit of a stretch, jumping from the rowdy Camaro to quiet, green machines, right? Well…yeah, that is a bit of a stretch, alright, but the benefit that GM sees in the move is Oppenheimer’s talent. GM is banking on Oppenheimer’s experiences to help guide the AV/EV program to fruition, something that the company believes cannot fail. There, they aren’t wrong.
Mark Dickens, the current executive director of Performance Variants, Parts, Accessories, and Motorsports Engineering, will be taking over Oppenheimer’s role. Dickens will take over the Camaro role at the beginning of the year, when Oppenheimer moves on to the green vehicle program. Maybe he’ll give the e-COPO program some serious teeth!
I wish people pushing electric cars would quit lying by calling them zero emissions cars, they aren’t and only fools believe they are. Unless they’re totally hydrogen powered some emissions are required to propel them and depending how the hydrogen is produced that production may emit emissions as well. In the case of a thing like a Prius it must use its onboard gasoline engine at times, hardly zero emissions. For a fully electric vehicle that plugs in to charge, the electricity must come from power plants which are not zero emissions. Furthermore the lithium mining in the 3rd world to produce batteries is far from zero emissions. Quit lying, people. The gasoline engine is going to be around for a long, long time..
Something else I will add; With the reduction of motor fuel needed to propel these “zero emissions” vehicles, who is going to pay the road taxes needed to build and maintain our highway infrastructure? Oh, I know, politicians are going to raise the fuel taxes on those of us who don’t drive those things. I think they ought to throw a huge annual tax on them to make up for the fuel tax they don’t pay. Many states do that for propane powered vehicles to make up for lost road taxes.
It’s not that I’m against this technology, I just against funding it through government rebates on these cars and higher fuel taxes because they don’t pay their share. But I do get a kick out of their smug looks being wiped of their faces when their Smart Car is squashed by the truck they cut off.