They call him “Maximum Bob” — and he's here to save America. Admittedly, he's not the typical red, white and blue hero: at 75, he's getting on a bit, and his Dad was a Swiss banker, not a Wisconsin cowboy. And then there's the small matter of the $39 billion that he and his colleagues somehow lost over the summer. Still, he was once a pilot in the US Marines, and everyone's forgotten about the money — because when Maximum Bob rode into Los Angeles this weekend, he showed America the future: a future with no more pollution and no more oil.

There's only one tiny problem: some believe that Maximum Bob is engaged in perhaps the most elaborate fraud in modern American history.

It's a theory that Maximum Bob himself likes to perpetuate. “We are headed to a showdown at the OK Corral!” he boomed on Sunday. “Next year, about the time the Easter Bunny brings us our eggs, we will find out who is right, and who is scamming whom!”

In case you're wondering: Maximum Bob is Robert Lutz, vice-chairman of General Motors (third-quarter loss: $39 billion); and the product he is hawking is the Chevy Volt — a slant-eyed, low-slung saloon that is powered by electric motors, driven by either lithium-ion batteries or an on-board petrol generator. Unlike a Toyota Prius, the Chevy Volt will be rechargeable from the grid, and its “E-Flex” drivetrain will be upgradable to accommodate future power sources, such as hydrogen fuel cells. It is, in other words, the perfect car.

If any of this sounds familiar, you may remember the EV1, which was leased to celebrities, then recalled and scrapped amid widespread protests from its drivers, inspiring the conspiracy documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? Guess which company was responsible. Ah, yes — GM.

But technology has come on a long way since then... hasn't it? All we know is this: when the Volt was driven on to the stage at this week's LA car show, it did so using a petrol engine, because the batteries were still in the lab.

Indeed, it's getting hard to avoid the comparisons between Maximum Bob and Preston Tucker, who 60 years ago launched a car called the Torpedo, which, on paper, was revolutionary. In reality, it had an engine that wouldn't fit in its bay, suspension prone to collapse and no reverse gear. Tucker had to ad lib for two hours at the car's launch in 1947 while his mechanics got it into fit-enough shape to be pushed, by hand, on to a revolving turntable. Tucker was later investigated for fraud (he sold $2 million of Torpedo accessories before the car had been built), but was acquitted. In the end, only 51 of his cyclops-headlamped cars were made.

So is the Chevy Volt the Tucker Torpedo of the new century? Is Lutz headed for ruin? I certainly hope not — if only for the irony of the man who helped to kill the electric car bringing it back to life on Easter Sunday.

Times Recommends

• Nerdy cafés no longer maid in heaven
• Cameron will not break marriage vow
• Avatar will make the case on climate