I've seen a number of them (not many) and play softball with a retiree who owns one. For his purposes, he loves it....
With that being said, electric cars will eventually increase in popularity and this is the automaker's first venture into that area of the industry. So of course it is expensive and of course there were limited numbers produced and of course there were limited numbers purchased since the public is currently not receptive to expensive electric cars.
I don't consider that a failure at all. In fact, with all the problems Tesla has been thru, had it not been their own receipt of a $465 million bailout for their single product, they would likely be either out of business or just selling their battery packs.
The writer is unfairly comparing GM's first attempt at electric cars to a singular vision company that has been in the industry for a number of years now.......
As as a side note, I've never seen a Tesla.............
I don't consider that a failure at all.
From a business perspective, the Volt has been a failure at GM. They have lost money on it. If you are implying that they will parlay this failure into success in a growing market, then you are presuming that their simple presence in the market is their success. While there are a great many examples of business and product failures being credited with eventual successes, GM's prospects are not positive. GM does not have a strong record of learning lessons (that I am aware of). This story is about how GM seems to be going in the wrong direction with what they learned from the design, production and sales of their flagship product in the electric car market.
Currently there is not a very large market for electric cars. But it is undoubtedly growing and can be expected to do so. I don't know what % of that very small market GM has cornered. But there are both more economical products, more stylish products and higher performing products out there that are far outselling the Volt. The volt doesn't fill a demand or fit a niche. You have defined the success of the volt by it being their first venture into that area of the industry. This electric Caddy will be their second. Does that still make the Volt a success in your mind? Maybe only time will tell.
“writer is unfairly comparing GM’s first attempt at electric cars”
Second attempt. First attempt was the EV1 in 1996. A couple of years later GM recalled all of them and crushed them except for a few in museums.