Posted on 03/04/2012 5:24:47 PM PST by tobyhill
On Friday, GM announced it was halting production of the Chevrolet Volt until April, so as to maintain “proper inventory levels.” Sales of the electric vehicle have been disappointing, with the company missing its target of 10,000 Volts sold last year. Why hasn’t the car caught on?
GM executives have said the recent frenzy over a Volt battery fire in crash tests has hurt sales. On the merits, the fires weren’t a huge concern — the Volts only caught fire days or weeks after extreme lab testing, and according to a government investigation they’re no more likely to catch fire than gas-powered automobiles. Still, panicky headlines ensued. Conservatives started denouncing the company (Rush Limbaugh called GM “a corporation that’s trying to kill its customers”). And GM needed to retrofit new vehicles. Add that up, and GM sold only 603 Volts in January, down from 1,520 in December.
But the scare over batteries is only a partial explanation. After all, Volt sales rebounded in February to 1,023 vehicles sold, and it looks like the fire scare is slowly subsiding. But neither the pre-panic nor post-panic numbers were anywhere near the rate needed to meet GM’s goal of 45,000 Volt deliveries this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
the volt’s problem is that conceptionally it is the same as the Edison electric.
I heard the Volt was a concept car that Obama pushed into production to “create/save” jobs. If it wasn’t for the government an General Electric, sales would be next to nothing. We pulled up next to a Volt at a traffic light the other day. We started pointing and laughing. The occupant turned right at the “no right turn on red” - couldn’t take it. Our car was a Toyota Camry Hybrid.
The production car does NOT look like that. Please see post 82 for a dose of reality.
Oh, yeah, that’s real lovely.
Add “max battery energy stored is approximately equal to one gallon of gasoline” to your list. I think most people don’t fully appreciate how little range these things have on battery.
1. Obama mandates each UAW member drive a new Volt paid for by a dollar-for-dollar payment direct deduction from their wages.
2. Or, Obama gifts a Chevy Volt to every UAW member and calls it income so their taxes will skyrocket. [I LIKE THIS.]
“Why hasn’t the car caught on?”
But on the contrary it has caught on...ON FIRE THAT IS!!! (Come on, I couldn’t pass up this easy opening line of a joke.)
So how is a photo of a 6 year old concept show car relevant to a discussion of the Volt that is on sale now?
I checked out the actual car, and maybe the ugly concept version would have sold better. People might feel better about driving a $40,000 “statement” than a $40,000 typical sedan (albeit slightly uglier than your typical sedan).
The both look like warts on a hog’s ass.
To me the Volt looks much like any other smaller sedan.
I suspect if you lined it up with a Mazda 3, Kia Forte, and a VW Passat, most folks would be hard pressed to identify it as unique.
Exactly. Like a suppository on wheels.
In addition to all the other points already made, I saw in the paper last week an ad for a 2012 Chevy Cruze, rated at 36 or 38 mpg, for $17,849. You can buy a lot of gas for $23,151. Or even $15,651, after the $7,500 of tax credit money.
It's no wonder GM came out with a nothing down $369 dollar a month Lease. Maybe some of those Ninety Nine Percenter OWS folks will be able to buy one so they'll have somewhere to sleep.
I cannot imagine a $369 dollar a month lease, but I think that’s comparable to what you’d spend for a fancier status-mobile. I guess there are enough people out there who spend that kind of money on a lease, but apparently they don’t want the Volt.
Did you see who post #82 was made to? Are you always so redundant? You need less dosing of the LSD.
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