Volt 2.0: Ruess "It will leap-frog... the competition"

I recommended watching the video, not reading the article.... LOL.

Yes, it was a pretty sad article -- mostly a long exploration of the several ways that they screwed up and ran out of time to do the EV mode testing they had intended to do.

 

Simple answer.

The competition is the LEAF and other sub-250 mile BEVs. The Volt is a road trip capable commuter BEV with training wheels for those who aren't quite ready to leave the ubiquitous and quick refueling station advantages of an ICE. So, some ads will show the joy of electric driving and the advantages of gasoline range extension.

Meanwhile, the potential customer base now is largely made up of hybrid owners or hybrid-curious drivers who are open to new automotive experiences so some ads will compare and contrast against the Prius that they know and like.

 

Which, of course, the article doesn't say... I don't think there are any significant new 2014 cars at dealers and there are less than 2000 of the 2015 cars remaining.

It's not unusual for completely redesigned cars to have ramp up period so workers and suppliers have a good handle on QA and can quickly spot and correct any issues. The 2016 Volt is being sold across Canada and the 11 US CARB states where the 2016 Volt is being sold probably make up close to 70% of its first generation sales volume.

 

As one might expect, they overproduced cars before ending production in order to have inventory until 2016 volts were ready for first distribution in October.

 

I suspect that, as a large volume car, Toyota has a bigger engineering and production staff to prepare and oversee a fast ramp up of Prius production. Slower ramp ups are more typical of lower volume cars from my limited experience.

As I said before, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that they are focusing the ramped-up production at the end of the calendar year on CARB states where they may gain some added regulatory credits but I don't know that for a fact.

 

GM hasn't said much about the reasoning for moving the official 2017 model year change to February from the usual summer.

One new official feature is Android auto but that's going to be available to 2016 owners as a software update in addition to their original Apple Carplay integration. Someone on GM-volt just reported getting an email reply from a senior GM exec saying there would be no powertrain or battery changes.

I think it's very unlikely that GM will suddenly stop selling the Volt or other Volt-like cars in 2017. PHEVs with a 40+ mile range will be a growing market for at least the next decade as more people switch to plugin cars. Many of them either can't switch to BEV right away for various reasons or will be afraid to completely transition in one shot. For one thing, charging infrastructure will remain underdeveloped in many parts of the country for that long or longer.

 

The last thing I heard was that the Malibu hybrid will be rolled out sometime in spring.