A Golden Spike for GM

Whatever the history books will say about GM and the way it navigated through 2009, the carmaker has made a huge contribution, only a year after bankruptcy, to the shaping of the future automotive world. And there are enough those who acknowledge that.

The National Alliance for Advanced Technology Batteries announced today that it decided to award GM for its involvement in the introduction of the electric vehicle. To give its words a little more weight, the alliance handed GM a Golden Spike Award.

Meant as a mean to thank GM for the Volt, the gold-plated, seven-inch spike is inscribed with the phrases “In Commemoration of the Launch of the First Plug-in Electric Vehicles in United States” and “May this Spike Mark the Beginning of a New Transportation Age – the Age of Electric Vehicles”.

“The achievements the spikes mark will one day be seen as being every bit as historic as the joining of the first transcontinental railroad,” said James Greenberger, executive director of NAATBatt.

More precisely, the alliance is very pleased with how the lithium-ion battery which is fitted in the Volt turned out. The battery, developed together with LG Chem, is aided by a battery management system which helps to maximize the electric driving range of the Volt.

As for the spike received by GM, it has more of a historic value than a marketing one. The first spikes were handed in the US in 1869 to the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad for the creation of the first transcontinental rail line.