G.M. Puts $41,000 Price Tag on the Volt (If you had the money, would you buy?)

New York Times ^ | 07/27/2010 | Nick Bunkley

[SeekAndFind]

DETROIT — The Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in car capable of driving about 40 miles at a time on battery power without using any gasoline, will have a sticker price of $41,000 before a $7,500 federal tax credit, General Motors said Tuesday.

G.M. will also lease the Volt for $350 a month in the hopes of attracting consumers who want lower monthly payments or would hesitate to buy the vehicle until they are more comfortable with its technology.

The carmaker has begun taking orders for the Volt, using the Web site to direct consumers to a participating dealer. Dealers in selected states, including California, New York and Michigan, are scheduled to begin receiving the vehicle in November.

G.M. had kept the Volt’s price a secret since introducing the model as a concept more than three years ago, though executives had hinted that it would cost about $40,000. The price is considerably more than the Nissan Leaf, a pure electric car that goes on sale for $32,780 in December, but G.M. insists the Volt is a better value.

“You can drive it cross country, and our competition can’t do that,” Joel Ewanick, G.M.’s vice president for United States marketing, said. Nissan’s Leaf is expected to have a range of about 100 miles on a battery charge. The Volt has a small gasoline engine — which will require premium fuel, G.M. said Tuesday — that will give the car a total range of about 340 miles and allow drivers to fill up at a gas station if they cannot immediately charge the battery.

Both G.M. and Nissan are counting on the government’s $7,500 tax credit for plug-in cars to go a long way toward making their vehicles more affordable.

[isthisnickcool]

What an ugly reVOLTING car.

[maddog55]

I like the custom built golf carts much better... besides a golf cart with a roof like the Volt is useless !!!!

[JenB987]

Once these things become mandatory to own under the Obama Regime, we’ll hear about the evils of BIG ELECTRIC!

[Myrddin]

At 12 cents a kilowatt hour the calculation might work like this:

Two bad assumptions. 100% efficiency in the charging process and the actual cost of the electricity. I pulled this table out of the SDG&E web page for residential rates. If you are charging that car daily, you'll be bumping your rates up. At 131% of baseline, your rate doubles. That puts the price even with gasoline, but with poorer performance by every useful measure including range and initial acquisition cost.

Residential Electric Rate	Tiers	Total standard electric rates per kWh
		Summer	Winter
Baseline *	Tier 1	13¢	13¢
101% to 130% of baseline	Tier 2	15¢	15¢
131% to 200% of baseline	Tier 3	27¢	26¢
Above 200% of baseline	Tier 4	29¢	28¢

[wolfcreek]

Yep. Call me when they add another *zero* to that total.

[bill1952]

Hell, you shoulda changed the clutch on my Mustang - I needed about 5 different tools just to reach the bolts, let alone drop the trans. :)

[Myrddin]

I was one of those guys (”fools”, if you will) who 30 years ago was buying CP/M computers at $3,000 with 64K of RAM.

I still have a couple H8 computers around that boot CP/M, HDOS or UCSD Pascal. They were expensive at the time, but served to launch a whole new career.

[Don Corleone]

G.M. Puts $41,000 Price Tag on the Volt (If you had the money, would you buy?)

I have and I won't! 40 miles in AZ won't get you to the next town.

[Born Conservative]

Damned expensive way to express your narcissism.

AND environmentalism....

[Puddleglum]

oh boy - a $41K Chevy Vega.

[slorunner]

I will NEVER, Never again buy anything from Government Motors

[domeika]

The wife and I both drive Dodges, and really like them (bought new from the same dealer, both at once, 3rd time). But after the bailouts, we will, as another freeper put it, be buying "Ford or foreign" in the future, and no sale or credit will change that even if they are giving them away.

No mas.

[Gene Eric]

Plenty of new cars today for less than $15k that get high mileage.

At 30 MPG driving 15k miles annually, paying $4/gallon, you could get 13 years of free gas for the cost difference of $26k (without accounting for VOLTage costs).

[Cobra64]

[The Great RJ]

If the Volt uses a small gasoline engine to keep the battery charged wouldn't a less expensive and more practical hybrid make more sense?

Note the estimated 40 miles per charge for the Volt or 100 miles for the Nissan Leaf are likely figured at moderate temperatures with no use of heaters, defrosters air conditioners, stereo system or windshield wipers. If temperatures drop below freezing range would further be reduced. Recharging the battery takes at least 30 minutes from and electrical outlet. I can't imagine anyone finding these as practical and in the northern part of the country they would be almost useless during the winter.

[Howie66]

lol

[al_c]

What they showed...

What we get...

Actually, the production model looks like this ...

But still a far cry from the concept.

[olepap]

I would dislike messing around with a power cord...

[Cobra64]

,

.

[Hoffer Rand]

Someone with Al Gore's money??? Now I'd like to see if he actually puts his money where his mouth is.

Al's too busy putting his money where his second chakra is...