Consumers Reject Chevy Volt

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.

Volt sales chart

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

1 posted on 03/10/2011 5:59:23 PM PST by jazusamo

2 posted on 03/10/2011 6:00:21 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Obama: Epic Fail or Bust!!!)

In other news the GM FCO announced his retirement today effective April 1st. No explanation was given for is departure only xx months after taking the job.

3 posted on 03/10/2011 6:01:24 PM PST by gov_bean_ counter (I am declaring 2011 the year of ME.)

All that for 1000 sales. Amazing. We are doomed with these people running the country...Doomed.

4 posted on 03/10/2011 6:02:01 PM PST by screaminsunshine (34 States)

To: gov_bean_ counter

Oh man. CFO!

Second glass of wine alert...

5 posted on 03/10/2011 6:02:19 PM PST by gov_bean_ counter (I am declaring 2011 the year of ME.)

This boondoggle at Government Motors is the reason two of their top brass quit yesterday. Can anyone say, “Giant fail”? I knew you could....

6 posted on 03/10/2011 6:02:34 PM PST by kittymyrib

To: NormsRevenge

LOL! That’s what it may come to.

7 posted on 03/10/2011 6:02:34 PM PST by jazusamo (His [Obama's] political base---the young, the left and the thoughtless: Thomas Sowell)

To: gov_bean_ counter

Yes, I read that, they’ve got real problems with their top people.

8 posted on 03/10/2011 6:03:42 PM PST by jazusamo (His [Obama's] political base---the young, the left and the thoughtless: Thomas Sowell)

Just pass a law requiring people to buy the car. That way it will become affordable.

A little “nudge” to help us stupid people go in the right direction.

9 posted on 03/10/2011 6:04:55 PM PST by Aglooka ("I was out numbered 5-to-1, I got 4.")

GM and the Feds are betting the farm - and their credibility - on the Volt

No, they are betting our farm and "their credibility"

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa < POP > Oops, that was my gut. Gotta go now.

10 posted on 03/10/2011 6:04:55 PM PST by Aevery_Freeman (It's not the *Prince of Fools* but rather the *fools* that are the problem)

They couldn’t ‘pay me’ to have one.

11 posted on 03/10/2011 6:05:04 PM PST by TribalPrincess2U (They don't need to do another 911. They have BHO and the Fleebaggers.)

To be fair it wasn’t rejected by just any consummers, it was rejected by people who intend to drive.

12 posted on 03/10/2011 6:05:30 PM PST by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))

To: screaminsunshine

And those sales were with a $7500 rebate from the taxpayers.

13 posted on 03/10/2011 6:05:41 PM PST by jazusamo (His [Obama's] political base---the young, the left and the thoughtless: Thomas Sowell)

A bigger failure than Cash for Clunkers. Can we get cash for this presidency?

Pray for America

14 posted on 03/10/2011 6:06:32 PM PST by bray (Vote for Palin and against the Country Club)

What GM should do is take all the powerplant and drivetrain from the Volt and install it into an Aztek body.

15 posted on 03/10/2011 6:06:32 PM PST by Eye of Unk ("These people are either at your neck or at your knees" A quote by Winston Churchill)

This is a rejection of the FRAUDS running us into the ground.

16 posted on 03/10/2011 6:07:18 PM PST by omega4179

To: screaminsunshine

Seriously, 1000 cars sold?!?! Yup, chart does not provide any conversion such as “in hundreds or thousands” :(

17 posted on 03/10/2011 6:07:40 PM PST by Freedom56v2 ("If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait till it is free"--PJ O'rourke)

18 posted on 03/10/2011 6:07:40 PM PST by screaminsunshine (34 States)

This was all predicted years ago.

19 posted on 03/10/2011 6:07:57 PM PST by quantim (Victory is not relative, it is absolute.)

Didn’t see this coming. Gosh.

20 posted on 03/10/2011 6:08:09 PM PST by Bosco (Remember how you felt on September 11?)

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