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

While the rest of the industry strived to deliver something for the masses, GM launched a massive "range anxiety" campaign. They even went as far as trademarking the term. It was a gamble that battery capacity would remain low and cost remain high. The plan was to deliver a "game changer" product which would "leap frog" competitors. The hype was amazing. It was unsupported nonsense being spread like wild fire. How could so much be achieved in so little time?

It ended up being a disaster. The design fell short of a number of goals. Any hope that was left turned into spin. Sales clearly revealed the game was not changed. In fact, quite the opposite happened. Both Tesla and Nissan demonstrated there was a market without anxiety. Volt didn't have an audience. This is why Prius so often got attacked. It weathered the publicity storm. Staying out of the spotlight by offering a modest (affordable) boost to emissions & efficiency was enough to demonstrate it too had a market.

The next generation offerings are what will make a real impact. GM is scrambling now. Who will they target this next design at?

 

existing consumer base = enthusiasts

intended consumer base = mainstream

Yes, current owners are quite pleased. But the goal was to appeal to joe consumer, which was a much more difficult task... which was not achieved as planned.

Purpose is to attract middle-market buyers and sell in high-volume right?

I sure hope that's what we can expect from gen-2.

 

I expect it is, just as Prius sales took off with gen 2.

 

One can hope, but, with GM shrouded in the "uber-secret" tier, time will tell.

DBCassidy

 

U.S. oil production increase places us on the road to oil independence, which is a good thing. We have the opportunity to vastly decrease / eliminate foreign oil.

DBCassidy

 

Take a look at the oil coming from North Dakota.

 

Except we really don't have that much oil.
And the government recently okayed the exportation of shale oil. So instead of slowing production to keep the price up on shale oil for their profits, and thus extending the time that we got it for, the oil companies can just make it as fast as they can to sell to who ever.

 

As usual, very well said. Now I'll add why I will very likely NEVER buy a GM product: the only way consumers can expect responsible behavior from a company is to hold a company responsible for it's actions; otherwise it will continue e.g. to create toxic dumps, fund smear campaigns, and operate against the best interests of the community. Until GM compensates me, the taxpayer, for the damages it has wrought for the past 100 years I will continue to not only refuse to buy it's products, I will advocate for it's demise in hopes of preventing future evils.

 

I had countless arguments with enthusiasts about their engineering-only perspective, insisting they take notice of the business perspective. They were blinded by the performance and design.

Consequences of refusing to acknowledge the market were provided and warned about, repeatedly. They didn't care. They didn't want to accept the reality that engineering skill alone wouldn't be enough.

Management decisions made a mess of things. That's how we got to the situation we're in now.

 

My issue with those decisions of the past was not addressing need. If GM executives had delivered a sporty type Volt in addition to one aimed at middle-market, good for them. It would have been a win-win. Both business & consumer would benefit from the platform being used in a diverse manner. Instead, GM gambled on the sport, hoping its performance focus would appeal to the masses. It didn't. They also hoped cost would rapidly fall as gas prices continued to climb... neither of which ended up happening.

Toyota focused on middle-market, delivering a platform able to be augmented further as cost justified. In the meantime, there would be something relatively affordable without any dependence on gas prices. That's a very different approach from GM, especially when taking into account only get 1/3 of the tax-credit.

The hope is GM will take that proper step, reaching out to mainstream consumers. Achieving profitable high-volume sales is absolutely essential with this next-generation. A configuration designed for the massed is required. If they also deliver and second choice, a more expensive model, good for them. But if that's all they deliver, game over.

I see Prius PHV as the true game changer, since if focuses heavily on the low end. Yesterday, I had a bunch of weekend running around to do. After 84 miles with just a single recharge, the average came to 60 MPG. Providing an effortless efficiency boost like that is what will really make a difference. Imagine people pulling into their garage and having the system automatically recharge wirelessly. They set it up once, then JUST DRIVE IT. With such a small battery-pack to keep cost down and not compromise large cargo carrying or seating in back, that's realistic.

Hopefully, other automakers will pursue a similar goal. Without gaining acceptance from the masses, what are we accomplishing?

 

John, I'm curious, do you expect that Toyota's hydrogen vehicle will be adopted by the masses immediately?

 

I don't know about John but I certainly don't.

It is all about MONEY; worship of the golden idol.

As long as gas priced remain fairly low, "economy" cars will sell poorly in the US because the other governing factors are "macho" and "pride" (bigger is better).

Look at Europe to see what energy price manipulation will do to auto usage.
Politicians in the US are too gutless to make that happen here so it will take a market crisis and skyrocketing gas prices to turn the market away from big muscle cars.

 

Why is the same question bring asked again? FCV plans have already been stated. Remember the audience reply?

Unlike Volt with the 60K annual goal, initial offerings of fuel-cells are just to establish the market. The audience is those who wish to help with that... low volume... not mainstream.

And without ample supply, an available fueling infrastructure, and cheap gas, there obviously won't be a mad rush to purchase them.

 

Volt owners are happy until they learn the difference between gas consumption and fuel economy.

 

All I can say to GM is, "I'll believe it when I see it but, I probably won't buy it due to your poor track record of overpromising and under delivering". The Volt was supposed to get 230 mpg's.