Chevy Volt to cost $41,000 before rebate (ObamaMobile goes on sale)

State-controlled Los Angeles Times ^ | July 27, 2010 | Jerry Hirsch

[USALiberty]

The Chevrolet Volt, the first mass-market electric vehicle from General Motors Co., will have a sticker price starting at $41,000 when it hits showrooms later this year.

But government tax credits and rebates designed to speed the entry of electric vehicles into the marketplace will make the price more attractive. There's a federal tax credit of $7,500 for electric vehicles. That lowers the Volt price to $33,500. An earlier report factored in an additional $5,000 credit for Californians, which would have brought the price to $28,500, but GM said the Volt will not be included in the state's special rebate program.

The sticker price of the hybrid Toyota Prius, the current favorite of gasoline misers and eco-drivers, ranges from $22,150 to $28,820, depending on the trim level and equipment.

[truthguy]

Or I could bolt on a twin-turbo setup with all the supporting mods on my 2008 Shelby GT500 and have a 1000hp ZR-1 killer.

Just wait until about 2012/3 time frame and that $2.80/gal gasoline is going to be about $5-6/gal. Then we will see how happy you are to have a Shelby GT500. I hope you have a lot of money because you are really gonna need it.

[Doc Savage]

Great. So I can, according to you, spend a small fortune on a POS and then keep feeding it gas forever. Hmmmmmmmmm, what am I missing here................?

[truthguy]

What an asshole Obama is!

While I can't disagree with you sentiments, remember the Volt was conceived and put into serious development in 2006. Obama wasn't sworn in intil 2009. So this car would be introduced whether Obama was elected or not. The comment that this is an ObamaMobile is stupidity squared. There are a lot of idiots posting on this subject. Most of them don't know what they are talking about.

[truthguy]

Consider the Hyundai Sonata. Just bought a 2011 model and the 39mpg amazed me as well as the comfort and standard amenities. It’s a real fuel sipper.

The specs for your Sonata are 35mpg highway. I seriously doubt you are getting 39mpg unless you are going downhill the whole way. The blogs I've been reading about the Sonata 2011 version is that they have been averaging about 32-33mpg, which is good. Hyundai is famous for fudging their numbers. The Sonata is very light for a mid-sized car but they have geared it for max mpg. It's also very noisy because they took out a lot of sound proofing to get the weight out. They also only come with 4 Cylinders and they were able to lighten up the Chassis again reducing weight. So kudos to Hyundai but it's very overrated. Plus it's cheap on the inside and ugly as hell on the out. I wouldn't be caught dead driving one. But if you are happy so be it.

[Principled]

I really don’t know anything about this but I have questions I don’t see answered. Maybe you can help?

What with the battery life/replacement cost?
How much does it cost to recharge?

This is a possibility for me - not anytime soon - not until it costs less - but I live close enough to work. 40 mi will take me to and fro for 4 days.

Can you help w/ the questions?

[SVTCobra03]

“Just wait until about 2012/3 time frame and that $2.80/gal gasoline is going to be about $5-6/gal. Then we will see how happy you are to have a Shelby GT500. I hope you have a lot of money because you are really gonna need it.”

I am retired and don’t put very many miles on my Shelby. And I do have a lot of money.

[Principled]

He he...

“You aren’t allowed to spend your money as you see fit - you must buy the new thing”...

/sarc off

do you know how much it costs to replace a battery? The whole battery replacement thing is not what someone buying a car would wonder about... that they’re not upfront about it is worrisome.

do you also know how much this car would add to your electric bill? I just paid $240 for a hot month in Ga and I don’t feel anxious to have that every month.

[Dick Bachert]

Introducing the revolutionary – and we DO MEAN REVOLUTIONARY –2011 Obama Motors (formerly GM) HOPEMOBILE 1 ½ passenger, wind-powered transport unit.

Standard equipment includes:

In-dash teleprompter for those tricky and complicated toll booth conversations;

Audio CD of The Messiah’s book “Audacity of Hope” to be played on those calm days when no hot wind is available to power your HOPEMOBILE;

Large trunk for hauling those ACORN posters – and pre-marked ballots -- to the polling place on election day;

Ayres conditioning;

AND SO MUCH MORE!

CALL 1-888-CAR-SUCKS FOR DAILY PRICE UPDATES.

Test drive one the next windy day!

[Mashood]

Reminds me of the Biker Build off with Voodoo choppers. The bike had a gas tank that only held 1.3 gallons of gas. They had to make a 600 mile run. They were stopping every 10 miles to gas up! It was a loooooooonnnnnnngggggg ride.

[truthguy]

I really don’t know anything about this but I have questions I don’t see answered. Maybe you can help? What with the battery life/replacement cost? How much does it cost to recharge?
This is a possibility for me - not anytime soon - not until it costs less - but I live close enough to work. 40 mi will take me to and fro for 4 days.
Can you help w/ the questions?

Yes, I think I can help you. The purpose of the Volt is to give people an electric vehicle that will allow most of your driving on electric charge BUT can go further if necessary. You see 75% of American Public drives less than 40 miles per day. That's why GM sized the battery for that number. But they also coupled it with a ICE that will allow you to extend the range to over 300 miles on gasoline. You can drive the Volt without ever plugging it in if you wanted to. You could drive it from New York to California non-stop. But that's not the purpose of the Volt. It's a car that will handle your commutes but will also eliminate something called range anxiety or the fear of being stuck with a dead battery and having to call a tow truck.

The Battery is guaranteed for 8 years or 100,000 miles. I'm not sure about the replacement cost.

Is is a better deal to drive on electric versus gasoline? Yes for nearly 99% of the population it's a very good deal. But the extend of that varies with the price of gasoline and the price of electricity. If gas were $1/gallon it would be still cheaper to drive with electric if you were paying less than $.07/KWhr. So it really depends on how much the power company is charging for power. For me it's PG&E and I can drive an Volt for 1/4 the cost of gas which is $3.10/gal where I live.

A lot of posters on FR hate GM because they took bailout money from the government and because they were owned by the government. But GM had no choice in the matter. It was the only deal in town with Obama in office. Many others hate the UAW. I don't like them either but I don't want to see any more US manufacturing companies go under. And remember government is one of the reasons that GM was in trouble. They caused this recession and without this recession, GM would have been able to restructure without bankruptcy.

What amazes me is how the troglodytes on this site are against technology. We have always known that electric motors are far superior to ICE. But no one ever figured out how to get the electricity to a motor without rails. With the advent of Lithium Technology, a major step has been made in increasing the energy density, reliability, and life of a powerful battery. You would think some of these knuckleheads would be in favor of something that could reduce our dependency on imported oil but so many of these clowns are trapped in another space and time.

There is an excellent website devoted to the Volt. It's called GM-Volt.com . I highly recommend it and I've been reading it on a regular basis for over 2 years. You will enjoy learning about the technology and it's possibilities. And remember the first Volts, like the first Flat Panel TV's will be expensive, but remember they WILL come down in cost! It's the norm for new technology.

[Nahanni]

The cost of electricity will be a bargain my comparison. And where exactly are you going to get this "cheap" electricity to charge up your car? Are you going to install wind/solar and go completely off the grid? That is the only way you will get your "cheap" electricity and even then the cost of going off the grid is not exactly cheap. What are you going to do when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining? Are you going to install a diesel/propane/NG electric generator or are you just going to sit in the dark? There is not enough electric generating capacity to handle all these electric cars-there is not enough in some areas to handle what is needed right now. See California for a fine example of that. Electric car cheerleaders are just like every other form of leftist liberal. Like small children they never think things through. They latch onto some foolish idea and then go running around screaming how wonderful it is without giving a thought how it would actually work in the greater scheme of things.

[chris_bdba]

ROFLOL! Surely they jest?

[truthguy]

Your comments are breath taking in their stupidity. First of all GM will only build 10,000 Volts the first year and 30,000 the second year. The number of Volts in any one specific location will not be significant and the vast majority of charging will be at night. This is off peak load hours. There is excess capacity in most of the country at this time. So the slow ramp up in energy demand will be addressed by adding power plants and increasing grid capacity. This needed to happen anyway so I don't think it's a problem UNLESS we fail to build the needed plants.

Remember Obama will not be president forever and hopefully that will be by 2013. A new administration will be more friendly to the concept of nuclear power and it will help out a great deal. The government will not be able to subsidize wind and solar forever and as the subsidies go away reality will sit in. If people need to go a few days without electric power, that's a good thing. It's the only thing that will wake up the troglodytes among us. They need to hit over the head by a 2 x 4 and they need to be hit hard. Power Blackouts and Brownouts are a GOOD THING. It's the type of shock (no pun intended) therapy the public needs.

[SVTCobra03]

I hope GM sells a gazillion of those clown cars. That will leave more gasoline for those of us who drive real cars. Now if only Ford will put a 600+hp motor in their 2012 Shelby GT500 and 93 octane becomes more available, I will be in heaven. Zoom-Zoom.

[Spktyr]

And that *is* a valid point of attack on the POS. However the “it only goes 40 miles” point is BS.

[Spktyr]

My daily driver gets 60mpg, can outrun most Corvettes and doesn’t have some lame-arsed battery pack.

When gas gets to $6 per gallon and you’re still crying over your Volt, I’ll still be LMAO at you. (When running on gasoline, the Volt only gets 50mpg at best and it’s slower than hell.)