First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next week

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Could you tell me what the volt runs on the first 40 miles? You have clearly stated it is not electricity. I would like to understand the Volt and you know all about it. I thought it was a electric car untill around 35 miles when the battery charge got low, then it could switch to burning gas to generate electricity. But as you say I'm wrong.

So the Volt gets is first 35 miles of power from coal/natural gas/nuke, then switches to gasoline to extend the range.

the leaf/tesla gets all of its power from Coal/natural gas/nuke.

Really what the big difference? I can see you charging you leaf with power made from coal, turning your smug noise up at a volt because it switched from using coal to gasoline.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

The minimum criteria for mainstream volume that Prius was measured against was 1,250 per week.

That's 60,000 annual, which is what was originally planned for the second year but then was scaled back to 45,000. Now with the supposed higher demand, shouldn't we expect that?
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Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

What we all "know" is speculation. Even Nissan, which has been the most forthcoming with consumer data and has the most positive light to throw, only has $100 returnable deposits at the moment, not including the 2 (?) cars sold thus far.

Now tell me, what is 2010-2011 ? How many months ? I read that GM manufacturing of the Volt until Dec 31, 2010 will be about 400 vehicles. My remarks are based on that number, and not any future looking estimates or conjecture.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

The normal yardstick for a mainstream car instead of specialty car demand is 50K/year. Given the manufacturing complexities and possible redesigns a slow roll out to around this figure is prudent. Even in the new model year prius, there were small redesigns. Mine was built in oct 2009 and I found out after a unfortunate smash and grab on my prius, that the front windows and raising mechanism had been redesigned from earlier gen III production. GM has already stated they expect slight changes to the batteries in 2012, and I would expect more little changes. The volt is not as mass market as the prius, but it has a production plan that is mainstream for 2012. There were rumors that gm dropped down to 30K/mo estimates simply so they could raise estimation after the price was anounced. The current gm figure says they may be able to produce enough batteries to make more then 60,000 for the 2012 my.

In 2012 the phev prius, focus, and sonata will all come out, all based on larger selling platforms. We can expect these companies to have lower costs because of the platforms they are built on. The real question is if in 2013 the volt continues to have mainstream production and competition grows the market, or if competition cuts the volt to a niche vehicle.

For sage, the production plan is 10,000-15,000 for the 2011 my. The variance is really up to when gm decides to change over to the 2012 my. Expect a little over 1000/mo in 2011, until they make changes for the 2012 my, then around 5000/mo.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Really ? How many models in 2010 can lay claim to that title ? I'll be surprised if there are a dozen out of hundreds.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Doh. 50K/year. Corrected in the above post.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Wait...

You are trying to re-define mass production?

With that criteria vehicles like the Honda Element are not even mass produced anymore. Thankfully that is not the definition of mass production.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Do you just make this stuff up?

We were talking about the words 'mass production'. The Volt is mass produced.

We do not expect the Volt to be a 'main stream' car on its first year..... nor do we expect that of the Leaf, the Prius Phev, or the Tesla model S.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Its not conjecture. GE already wants more then GM is going to make in 2011 unless GM ups production.

MICHIGAN: General Electric Makes Big Chevy Volt Buy From General Motors (2010-11-11)

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

No, I didn't make it up, I did however type the wrong period of time. 50k should be per year not month, and it has been corrected above.

Volt and Leaf expect to be mainstream in the 2012my. The volt is in mass production right now.

I did explain the good analyst reason why production of neither car is on a huge ramp the first year. Both companies are expecting small improvements in both battery cost and chemistry.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Can GE change its mind ? Of course, and so this is simply forward looking PR. And by the way, even if you take the numbers at face value, they are spaced over I think five years.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

I think the real question is can YOU change your mind?

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Hah, how ironic that the first taker is trading in his Prius

Well, I guess congratulations to GM for doing this. Just sell the car on its own merits and get more people turned on to electric propulsion.

Really, with the whole is it an EV or not debate, I think it's just that the car drives much more like an EV in the range by the way it is setup. Mostly it's true the ICE does not drive the wheels.

Hopefully it catches on and they grab some market share. Sure not going to hurt the Prius. What's hurts the Prius and Toyota is the negative media hype about recalls and safety.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

It must be very important to send that message.

I think it is a downgrade for that buyer. He is going to get 37 MPG if he drives like a Prius.

He must plug it, in order to get 60 MPGe. Electricity in NJ is expensive (20 cents per kWh) and gas is cheap (40 cents cheaper than NY). He will need to put premium as well.

It has been shown that he won't save money operating the Volt vs Prius. He will increase CO2 and smog emission as well.

He will just save a few gallon of gas.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Not to mention, with current lease incentives you can drive a Prius for under $200/month as opposed to $350/month for the Volt with a higher down payment (even counting the tax credit).

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Oh . . . the U.S. government's data. Of COURSE ... no wonder the data is fishy. No, actually the data is completely dishonest, & it's an insult to any thinking persan's intelegence - to put it as tactfully as possible. Yes, it's a rehash, but;
1) Over25% of fossil fuel must be burned, just to make the electricity, to power the refineries and the super tankers and the oil pumps, and the delivery trucks etc. The U.S. GOVERNMENT fails to tell you how much fuel needs to burn, just to make electricity that we need to "create" our toxic explosive carcinogenic polluting fuel. And only after that 1st level of pollution (refining fuel) is discharged, do we burn the toxic explosive fuel just to get us to work or the local burger joint ... which creates the 2nd / major level of polution.
2) The U.S. government data dishonestly fails to count the trillions we spend on the war machine that allows us to bully our way into other countries, so we can keep up our oil addiction by importing over half of the fuel we "need". Oh & that doesn't begin to collect data on the fuel we burn just to run the war machine ... or the fuel burned to build the war machines ... or fuel needed for training replacements for dead soldiers.

It's no coincidence that U.S. government data skips the true cost to fill the gas tank ... making a gas burner (which pollutes on Multiple levels) look less wastefull than an ev, which gets electric power from fossil fuel only burned once, when the electricity is created by fossil fuel. Heck, besides being wrong, that U.S. data graph attempts to turn a multi faceted & horribly major problem, into a simple CO2 number. All the respect for USB ... none to the huxters that concocted the U.S. data chart.
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Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

I think it's great that GM is selling the Volt, but wish they'd been a little more honest about it in their marketing, and wish especially that they didn't indulge in Prius bashing. The latter two prove that GM is, in many ways, still GM. Which is kind of a bummer.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

+1
ever since GM bought up electric trolleys (only to crush them) over a half century ago, just so GM could sell more cars & busses ... all the way to crushing EV1's - telling lies how "no one wants an EV" ... even though GM had a CLOSED waiting list of 5,000 ... nothing changed. Even if the Volt (which I hope makes it, btw) ends up being a hot seller ... it's got the GM 'stink' on it. That IS a bummer.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

True. Smart and well-meaning people are quick to reply that it takes energy to make the electricity, so it's just transferring the problem somewhere else. I know better than that.

 

Re: First Chevy Volt EV hybrid taken home from dealer today, 360 will be delivered over the next wee

Looks like a concerted effort on GM's part to dis the Prius and HSD -

* CEO bashes Prius and it's widely reported

* First Volt buyer trading in a Prius for a Volt

* Motor Trend and other paid magazines hailing Voltec as superior to HSD

*