Consumers Reject Chevy Volt

National Legal & Policy Center ^ | March 10, 2011 | Peter Flaherty

[jazusamo]

Part 4: GM by the Numbers

Last week, the Volt, GM's signature hybrid vehicle, turned in a lackluster performance in its first series of road tests by Consumer Reports. CR told Reuters on Monday that "when you look at the finances, [the Volt] doesn't make any sense." The publication went on to note that the Volt was "not particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and not particularly good as a gas vehicle... This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer."

GM and the Feds are betting the farm - and their credibility - on the Volt. As Truth About Cars editor Edward Niedermeyer wrote last year in the New York Times, the history of the Volt was never about making a "best in class" green vehicle, it was always about making the bailout look palatable - whatever the cost. And according to Niedermeyer, it's quite a cost:

Start with the $50 billion bailout...add $240 million in Energy Department grants doled out to G.M. last summer, $150 million in federal money to the Volt's Korean battery supplier, up to $1.5 billion in tax breaks for purchasers and other consumer incentives, and some significant portion of the $14 billion loan G.M. got in 2008 for 'retooling' its plants, and you've got some idea of how much taxpayer cash is built into every Volt.

More troubling still is that the average American taxpayer who foot the bill for GM's massive bailout, isn't even getting a car they can afford. In 2009, Obama's Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry reported that the Volt "will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term."

A Washington Post editorial last August echoed the sentiment, describing the Volt as far too expensive for average Americans and suggesting the only way to sell Volts, even to the well off, was with a large federal subsidy. It argued that that each Volt subsidy comes at the cost of federally supported income redistribution... to America's most wealthy.

But all of the bellyaching and criticism WILL be irrelevant if consumers actually embrace the new hybrid vehicle. How's it going so far? See below.

Related:

Consumers Reject Chevy Volt

GM Gooses Sales With Incentives

GM Boosts Lobbying; Hires Bailout Specialists

GM Shares Will Likely Never Break Even for Taxpayers

GM Shares Hit All-Time Low

[Georgia Girl 2]

I’ll bet the Chi Coms are ticked off. I think they bought a whole bunch of GM stock during that IPO. Between the cheesy GM stock holdings and the US TBills China is going to be bankrupt soon. LOL!!

[Liberty1970]

Unfortunately, a lot of what I've seen from conservatives on the Volt is ignorant and erroneous. You are going to look foolish when GM actually starts producing them in earnest. They are talking to suppliers (I am a supplier quality engineer) about doubling production plans, not cutting back from their original plans.

(See for example http://www.gm-volt.com/.

I agree the Volt is an ill-conceived, oversold car and it is incredibly obnoxiously that taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for it and to pay each buyer of a Volt. But enough with the wrong-headed attacks on it. (And the next person to claim it can only go 40 miles gets a wet fish smack to the noodle...)

[Mier]

Isn’t the Volt supposed to help conserve energy, like the globull warming nut jobs want? The last time I checked my electric comes from a coal burning power plant. So the Volt burns gas and coal, without all the smoke. So how does this help their globull warming cause? It’s time we start drilling in this country. Drill baby drill!! We’re setting on 300 years of oil. What are we waiting for?

[jazusamo]

LOL! I sure hope the ChiCommies bought a bunch, they can help finance the loss.

[tcrlaf]

“I think FedGov is going to make it THE car to buy for government service. Post office, ICE, FBI...thousands and thousands sold.”

That should make Avis and Hertz very, very rich...
They’ll be renting cars by the 10’s of thousands for missions these cars can’t do, like they did the NatGas cars of the early 80’s

[jazusamo]

Drill baby drill!! We’re setting on 300 years of oil. What are we waiting for?

Amen! Worth repeating.

[peeps36]

The Volt is the perfect symbol for Barrogant Obama. It's a lightweight, weak, gay, overpriced, over hyped piece of crap that sucks a big one.

[jonrick46]

The first thing I thought of was the charging station installation cost. If you move, you have to dish out the cost of another one in your new place. Sometimes, you move from a house to an apartment. Not many apartments will set up a charging station just for you.

These charging stations will cost $1475 plus the cost of the $490 240-volt cord. Two thousand dollars can buy you 500 gallons of $4/gallon gasoline (25 mpg x 500 gallons = 12,500 miles). And that charging station may cost you more if it you don’t have your main panel located in the garage or if you want it located out in the driveway which will require a special outdoor set up.

Next, is the cost of the replacement battery. You cannot pin a Chevy dealer down with the cost of battery replacement. That’s because they don’t want you to know that a replacement will cost around $10,000. They try to put you at ease with an 8-year or 100,000 mile warranty on the battery. Will that warranty carry over to another owner if the car is sold? And, once that warranty is up, you either have a worthless Volt or a car costing $10K which will add to all the other things you will be paying for with a 100,000 mile car.

[wrench]

GE ordered 25,000 of them for their employees. That will spike the sales numbers.

[jazusamo]

You said it very well. People have no idea of the ongoing costs because they won’t say, they won’t say because it’s out of sight.

[TribalPrincess2U]

Good description.

[Pontiac]

CR told Reuters on Monday that "when you look at the finances, [the Volt] doesn't make any sense." The publication went on to note that the Volt was "not particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and not particularly good as a gas vehicle... This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer."

The very idea of a hybrid car to me is unworkable from the beginning if you want an affordable efficient car.

When you set out to design a hybrid car you are starting with the idea that you must have two power supplies (electric and gasoline motors) and two energy storage units (battery and gas tank).

Having twice as many of anything is going to add performance and efficiency robbing weight.

And by the way it is also going increase price to the consumer by two times because of the doubling of the most expensive part of a car the engine.

Some manufactures have eliminated the transmission and electric engine drive only designs. But this means that they need a large generator attached to the engine. So in reality they have not gained much if anything in weight savings and have added an expensive single purpose generator that has utility nowhere else.

Then there is the limited life span of the battery. The expected life of the lithium oxide battery is less than 8 years and the battery begins to loose efficiency immediately.

The idea that you could produce a hybrid car that would be more efficient than a conventional car and be affordable was doomed on both counts from the beginning.

[Lorianne]

General Motors plans 2nd shift for Detroit-Hamtramck plant to crank out Chevrolet Volt
http://www.freep.com/article/20110309/BUSINESS0101/103090333/1318/business/General-Motors-plans-2nd-shift-crank-out-Chevrolet-Volt?odyssey=mod|lateststories

GM Boosts Lobbying; Hires Bailout Specialists
http://www.nlpc.org/stories/2011/03/08/gm-boosts-lobbying-hires-bailout-specialists

[VeniVidiVici]

I agree the Volt is an ill-conceived, oversold car and it is incredibly obnoxiously that taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for it and to pay each buyer of a Volt. But enough with the wrong-headed attacks on it.

I think there is a quality Monty Python skit in that statement somewhere.

[Jack Hammer]

They’ll sell well in Cambridge and Berkeley.

[snowsislander]

The new numbers for Volt sales in March are out: 608 units for March.

You can find them on page 2 of http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2011/488366146327MarDel.pdf.

[jazusamo]

Thanks much for the info and link, s.

A little over doubling sales of last month isn’t going to cut it for them. They’re hurting.

[FreedomPoster]

GE has announced they will buy some thousands, as many as 10 or 12 IIRC. I’ll believe it when it is reflected in the sales figures.

Of course, GE is pretty much just another arm of the government now, given the Obama-Immelt axis.