Dear GM CEO Mary Barra:

A revolution doesn’t happen overnight.

It took Thomas Edison more than 1,000 light bulbs before he found the right one. Henry Ford’s wife, Clara Ford, drove a Detroit Electric car in 1914 that once went 241 miles on a charge. Women refused to ride in the gasoline-powered horseless carriage because the soot soiled their dresses and frankly, many feared it would catch fire!

Which brings me to your decision to stop making the Chevy Volt. The battery-powered car with the small gasoline tank and generator that powers the electric drive train when battery juice runs out was the first of its kind in the modern era.

This was no ordinary hybrid. It was an electric car that gave you the ability to drive more than 400 miles without stopping. No more “range anxiety.”

Ironically, you say GM wants to focus on pure electric vehicles, like its newer Chevy Bolt (with a “B”) that gets 238 miles on a charge and sells for about $37,000? Fine.

But killing the amazing, versatile Volt — a bridge car I own that gets me to work using only battery power but also to assignments across the Southland without stopping for a charge — is a huge mistake.

Not everyone is ready to drive an all-electric car. There is “range anxiety,” not knowing whether you can make it back home. And there are not enough public charging stations, not even close, to accommodate every EV driver’s needs.

The Volt closed that gap for hundreds of thousands of revolution-minded owners. Your decision is premature. You are killing a fantastically engineered car that became the basis for the Bolt.

Frankly, this move is a headscratcher. It makes me question your commitment to electric vehicles, as well as electric autonomous vehicles.

I get the other decisions, even though they are painful for the soon-to-be laid off 14,000 workers. Closing up to five plants and stopping the production of poor performing gasoline sedans such as the Cruze, Impala and Cadillac models makes sense.

But you speak out of both sides of your mouth when you say you want to focus on electric vehicles but are killing the Volt.

Moving away from ICE sedans because America is hooked on gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs? That is a business decision, as much as it is a disastrous one for the planet.

I say, keep making the Volt for five more years. Lagging sales are your fault. You did not promote it in your ads. You didn’t educate your sales force. I leased my first Volt in 2013 and the dealer didn’t know much about it.

“You know more about this car than I do,” he told me during a test drive.

I am on my second one, a black, 2017 Volt LT that can get 63 miles per charge on a warmer day, has virtually zero maintenance costs, drives like I’m floating on a cloud and handles as a sports car. But I assume you already know all this.

But did you know how about the loyalty of Volt owners? Isn’t loyalty to the Chevy brand what you sell in your ads? Now you are destroying it.

I became evangelistic about the Chevy Volt. I convinced three co-workers to buy one and they love theirs. I was spreading the gospel of Chevy’s commitment to electric vehicles ever since interviewing Bob Lutz at the L.A. Car Show, the living legend (now 85 years old) who helped engineer the Volt after making iconic ICE sports cars.

The message was perfect: Help dump gasoline. Join the clean energy revolution. But you don’t need an all-electric car to hop on board. You don’t need to lay out $50,000 or $60,000 for a Tesla to save the planet.

Again, revolutions take time. And that’s OK because Chevy has your back. Or so I thought.

Maybe it is not you, it’s me. No, wait. It IS you; it’s not me. I have been loyal. I did my part. Lutz did his. And now, you are breaking up with me.

I will have to look at the 2019 Nissan Leaf or at the lower-priced Tesla Model 3 when my Volt lease runs out next spring. You know, my dad had a 1962 Impala — a car for that time.

I wanted to stick with Chevy in honor of him. But now, you’ve lost me. I guess time will tell if you still are leading the way or have retreated in favor of higher profits.

Will I see you at the revolution? Or, maybe we should just become friends.

Signed,

A loyal Chevy Volt owner

Steve Scauzillo covers public health, environment and green transportation for the Southern California News Group. He’s a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @stevscaz or email him at sscauzillo@scng.com.