Posted on 12/23/2011 12:23:12 PM PST by jazusamo
Recently the Chevy Volt, General Motor's (GM) venerable electric-hybrid car, turned one-year old. This marks an important occasion for GM that they have been able to sell and bring to market this electric-hybrid car. The real question for GM, what's next?
To date GM has fallen short of it's lofty sales target for the Volt. They expected to sell 10,000 Volts in a one-year period, but they have fallen short of that goal by about 40%. They have only sold around 6,000 Volts around the country. (Not surprising from a company that keeps making promises it cannot keep.)
For GM, the Volt is an important car that represents technological advancements and goals for the future. It also has helped keep up the company's image against rival automakers.
GM felt the impending power of the Toyota Prius and all the love, attention, and prestige Toyota got from building that hybrid. The Prius is undeniably the most recognized “green” vehicle on the road. Toyota now plans to turn Prius into a whole line-up of vehicles.
As well the pressure also came from Tesla, a silicon valley upstart that is building slick and fast electric cars. Tesla has changed the car industry for the better and forced GM to rethink how they think about building cars.
While GM's image has improved with the Volt, to a certain degree the company's image is still marred by the EV1 disaster. It is hard to forget how stupid a decision that was. As well as the imagery of the cars being crushed and EV1 drivers protesting GM taking the electric cars back.
GM now longer has to fell behind in the electric car market. (GM execs, should be on your hands and knees thanking Bob Lutz for that!) However, the Volt represents a big dilemma for GM.
While it makes good PR, will it make money? The answer is most likely “No”, even with the $7,500 a consumer can apply for when purchasing a Volt.
GM still owes huge debt to the government and Treasury. It has yet to payback large portions of the taxpayer backed loans, and GM's stock price is not going anywhere, anytime soon. Most likely meaning the government will not be able to divulge shares, unless they want to take substantial losses.
If the company wants to actually make money, they need to be focusing on cars people can buy and drive everyday. They have had good efforts, such as the new Chevy Sonic. However, having driven the Sonic against the competition, there is no way I would recommend buying one. Ask a majority of automotive media and they will tell you that the 2013 Chevy Malibu feels dated. This is a car that will not even be available to buy for awhile.
GM made the right decision building and selling the Volt. Dan Akerson, GM's CEO, hopes to get 60,000 Volts on the road. Of course this is just another empty promise from a company that needed my money and your money to stay afloat.
Without massive government support, it would not have made it this far and it doesn’t deserve too
There are some phenomenal cars available at that price point, and choosing a Volt over a BMW 5 series, Mercedes C Class or GM's own Cadillac CTS takes some serious priority adjustment. That, and people that buy $45k cars don't really care about gas prices.
Uh... How does a one year old car become “venerable” when it has yet to accomplish anything more than ripping off the tax payers? For that matter how can anything that “new” be considered venerable? Or did he mean vulnerable? This guy needs a dictionary.
I agree on the Tesla. They’ll have to have a lot more investors to keep going at the cost of them, there just isn’t enough car nuts out there for them to make a go of it.
Volt turns......
Stomachs!
Amen to that. For taxpayers to subsidize the sales of these vehicles is pathetic. Companies should stand on their own and let the market determine a product, not the mandate of the government.
The Stimulus gave Tesla something like a half million for every car they ever built.
Insanity.
You left out the fact that ALL electric vehicles are solutions to a non-existant problem.
Agreed, the price of the volt is way out of reason.
It’s a 4 passenger vehicle that’s easily priced 15K to 20K too much for the market. GM can’t rely on the enviro buyer that wants one for a status symbol.
A few days ago I read a piece that said GM would drastically reduce the price of the Volt, I believe it was the GM CEO that said it. I just can’t believe it because they are supposedly losing money on each one now.
For the same money, no car guy would choose Tesla over a 911 or M3.
Tesla/Fiskars are seeking a niche market inside of a niche market, but it could work if they keep production costs under control.
“Recently the Chevy Volt, General Motor’s (GM) venerable electric-hybrid car, turned one-year old”
I’ll bet it never turns two.
That V-8 is now a 400hp clean burning monster that drives a 6-speed transmission and gets 20MPG.
A public school journlist.
GM produced 200,000 Corvairs a year for the first 6 years of production. I believe that totals to 1.2 million just for the first six years. I don’t believe I would call that a failure.
The Volt however is a total failure.
>> “However, if a willing manufacturer makes an EV, and a willing customer buys it — with no government subsidy involved anywhere — then I wouldn’t say that it’s a solution to a nonexistent problem” <<
.
Not likely to happen on any measurable scale.
Electric vehicles for public highways lack a valid reason to exist (unlike rental golf cars on private courses). Electric vehicles actually add pollutants to the air because electric generation above the normal level is taken up by inefficient burning, as compared to the internal combustion engine, which by itself produces nothing that is legitimately labeled a pollutant (although the catalytic converters attached thereto produce pollutants by burning substances not normally subjected to oxidation in the engine)
I think GunsareOK was refering to the diesel conversion of the olds 350, which was truly a disaster.
Now as far as gas engines go, we had efficiency in 1969. I had a dodge 440 ci with three duces that produced 520 HP when demanded, and got 22 MPG crusing at 80 MPH. you could stand by the tailpipe of that rig as long as you wished and never inhale any undesirable substances, but five years later that became impossible when they added a catalytic polluter.
The enviro nutzies didn’t like the clean burning version.
Very true and his book was nothing but lies. The Corvair’s safety record was no worse than than any other car at the time.
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