Chevrolet Volt Fatigue Setting In

Business Week ^ | 07/30/2010 | David Welch

[SeekAndFind]

The Chevrolet Volt may be wearing out its welcome. General Motors has been hyping the gasoline-electric car ever since the company showed it off to the public 1,300 days ago. The company has let countless reporters into its battery labs and given interviews with its engineers, all in a very credible attempt to show that GM has smart people with good ideas. And it has worked. GM has picked up some technological credibility and fostered goodwill with the environmental crowd.

Now that GM is finally, after three and a half years, getting close to selling one, the commentariat is taking shots at the Volt. In an editorial in the New York Times today, Truth About Cars Editor Edward Niedermeyer panned the car as “GM’s Electric Lemon.” He criticized the car for, among other things, having bland styling and because it will likely lose GM money. Before that, “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, a well-known car buff, also took a shot at the Volt’s styling, telling the Detroit news that, “if you didn’t know, you might think it’s a Cobalt or a Camry.”

What gives? It could be a case of Volt fatigue. Sure, documenting the tale of the car’s development gave GM a great story to tell. But in the past few months the company has amped up the noise on a car that has been hyped for years. I count 14 press releases on the Volt since June, including an announcement today that GM will boost 2012 production from 30,000 to 45,000. Some of those releases were absolutely necessary, like vital information on pricing, warranty and ordering options.

[Niteranger68]

Your problem is that you listen to a guy who knows nothing about automobiles. Rush Limbaugh probably has never changed the spark plugs or oil in a car. He made so many errors and misstatements on the radio the other day it made me sick.....You need to read up on the Volt @ GM-Volt.com instead of listening to the blow-hard Limbaugh. Limbaugh doesn't know which end he's talking out of.

So how stupid does it make GM look for using him as a spokesman?

[TexasFreeper2009]

lol no one is going to buy that obama lemon.

A golf cart would be a wiser financial decision.

[mdmathis6]

The fact is most houses don’t have 220 volt connectors in their garages or on the out side of their homes...they will have to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars having these outlets placed in a location where it would be useful enough to plug these cars in. They can use existing 120 volt lines but as you said...10 hours, not remotely useful.

You sound like a GM shill! We’ere supposed to believe GM’s own propaganda without questioning their premises?

[truthguy]

The had several 2010 Focuses, each with more passenger space, more reliability, and better performance than a Volt, on sale for between $14,000 and $18,000.

How can you make that statement the the Focus has better reliability when the Volt isn't even out yet? Do you have a crystal ball? How can you say it has better performance when you don't have the specs? Yes the Focus has a little bit more room. And yes the Focus is a lot less expensive but when you put on all the options on a Focus that you have on a Volt (standard) the price will go up to $23K or higher. Besides this is the first version of an EREV car. Remember how expensive flat panel TVs were. They started off at $10K. But as time went on the price came down dramatically. It will be the same with the Volt and other EREV vehicles. Do you think it would have been possible for the Wright Brothers to start off with a 747? Go to GM-Volt.com and learn something before posting stupid comments.

[TigersEye]

Do you think it would have been possible for the Wright Brothers to start off with a 747?

How many of those planes that they flew at Kittyhawk did they sell? ROTFLMAO

[FlingWingFlyer]

I think that the Chevrolet POS would have been a much better name than Volt. Just my opinion.

[norraad]

People like TV, only lame brain green brains like electric cars.

The Volt will fail, . .miserably.

[truthguy]

Any fool knows this has about of much chance of being a success as flatus in a whirlwind. If I didn’t know better I would say you were a gummint motors “hack”.

You are well qualified to talk about fools. In an earlier day you might have been one of those complaining about the horseless carriage. Do you think technology stands still? Do you think the Wright Brothers could have started off with a 747? No the Volt is the wave of the future and I just wish I could be around people like you when it succeeds big time.

And remember the Volt was started in 2005-6 time frame. Obama wasn't president at that time.

[Seeking the truth]

The Volt requires a 220 system.......wonder how many garages have that setup.......mine does but I bought that as an option and it is new construction....not related to the Volt Game Changer either!

Wonder what a 220 install costs? $500, $750...more...are permits needed?

This is the EVI all over again...they will have to give it away and rely on government fleets to buy them.

[decimon]

Forty grand for a mouse car which will travel nearly 40 miles before running out of juice, after which you’ll have a nice 4 cylinder mouse car.

Kinda. IIRC, the engine is a 1.4 liter, four-banger. Since the Volt is a series-hybrid (Range Extended Electric Vehicle, according to GM), the engine does not drive the vehicle but maintain the charge of the batteries.

If that actually works then I give them credit but I don't see how it can work for more than propulsion.

[norraad]

People like to go home, get out of their car and forget about it.

No one wants to have to "jump" their car everyday.

Plus, Big Oil & Sneakyman Inc. are joined at the hip, right about when the golf cart rolls out gas will miraculously nose dive in price.

[Brookhaven]

President Obama gets a demonstration of the world's largest flashlight, which is designed to resemeble an automobile.

The female GM representative is explaining to President Obama that the new GM Volt flashlight will have important military and government uses.

For example, the GM Volt flashlight can be transported by train near to its intended illumination point, from which it can travel 40 miles to its final destination (at which point it will need to be recharge for 8 hours before it can actually provide illumination).

President Obama has ordered the military to purchase 100,000 of the GM flashlights to be used in Iraq as military flashlight vehicles, guranteeing the Volt's success.

[GonzoGOP]

How many of those planes that they flew at Kittyhawk did they sell? ROTFLMAO

And if you happened to be trying to cross the Atlantic in 1906 you went by ship. The fact that a 747 would be able to do it faster and cheaper in 1960 didn't help you one bit. The planes available at the time couldn't to the job.

It doesn't matter that an economically viable plug in Hybrid or EV will some day be available. The fact is that without massive government subsidy one does not exist NOW. For someone trying to by a car NOW the Volt is not an economically viable option. People buy Ferrari's and those aren't economically viable either so there will be some market for the Volt. For the SF eco nuts it will have great snob appeal. But as economic transportation you are much better buying a Focus, putting the money you save in a CD and using it to buy gas.

In an earlier thread I crunched the number and found that for the Volt to pay off in the 4.5 years that Americans typically own a new car gas would need to go to $24.00 a gallon with no corresponding increase in electric rates.

[RVN Airplane Driver]

Truth Guy aka BS Guy...The volt may be the wave of the future but only fools like you would bring it to the marketplace today. But of course you are a “hack” for gummint motors and haven’t spent a dime of your own money marketing anything...yes you are either a fool or a union jackass that is getting paid to promote this loser. Now I’m tired of fooling with your kind... btw...has zero loaned gummint motors a tele-prompter so you can stay on message?

[Dixie Yooper]

I wouldn’t put too much faith in anything Rush says about a GM product since they do pay him to say it.

[truthguy]

You can't be serious. You have missed the point entirely. Technology advances. Do you think there will never be advances in personal transportation? The gasoline powered internal combustion engine (ICE) is end all of technology. No future improvements. Already the buzz is that Volt Gen 2 is substantially better than Volt Gen 1. Battery technology is improving. 25 years ago did you think you would have a cell phone or Internet? This site is filled with Luddites.

[Seeking the truth]

God, you’re right...I do have a dryer, so all I have to do is run a long, long, long extension cord from my dryer outlet to my garage and plug it in or out depending if I have to dry some clothes...I’m glad there are experts like you to inform the rest of us!

[TigersEye]

If only the gooberment had subsidized the Wright brothers we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We’d be out in the stable feeding the horses.

[norraad]

The gasoline powered internal combustion engine will still be rollin’ our tails around a thousand years from now.

[TigersEye]

25 years ago did you think you would have a cell phone or Internet?

Yes. It was clear that there was a market for it and the opportunity for profits would drive the technology. There were also no alternatives to the internet or telephones that could do the same thing a cell phone could do for less money. You could have gotten a sat-phone for loads more money. The opposite of this situation.