Will the Chevrolet Volt be a failure or a success?

As a side note http://www.eia.gov/emeu/international/gas1.xls, has current and historical gas prices of the US vs. a bunch of European countries.

 

Yup, and if the state or federal government doesn't add a few bucks in taxes to gas like what is done elsewhere in the world, eventually the oil producers and distributors will do it themselves. Personally, I'd rather see at least some small part of local or federal deficits cut on the backs of gas guzzlers, rather than seeing billions more in profits for the oil companies and OPEC.

Problem is, it is politcal suicide to even suggest adding taxes to gas. I think Ross Perot and a few other crackpots suggested it before their careers came to an end. When gas does hit $8 a gallon, then we will start seeing it become "cool" to own hybrids, clean diesels, electrics and other fuel efficient vehicles. Companies will stop touting "more power", "more towing", "more AWD" and start improving fuel economy instead.

I would guess this cost is orders or magnitude higher than the costs of nuclear power, even considering all the disasters. Yet, for all intents and purposes, I suspect the era of nuclear power is all but over after the recent disaster in Japan and scrutiny in France, the USA and elsewhere.

The problem is not too much different than what I see in my field of child passenger safety. Motor vehicles crashes have long been the #1 killer of kids from 1-14 years old. Yet, because the "costs" are paid essentially one at a time in incidents spread out all over, no one pays much attention. Much more time, money and effort is given when responding to disasters and epidemics and such because the results are more easily observed.

Really, I think the Volt deserves a larger federal subsidy (and better controls to make sure consumers get it). It's a very good offering in many ways. Superior to Prius or not really isn't the question. Superior to all the other gas guzzlers and advancing the state of the art is the point. In that regard, Prius and other alternative fuel vehicle buyers should be getting better subsidies in my opinion as well. Better we get these things churning out now before gas does move toward $10 a gallon, which it will if world economies start to recover again and countries like China and India start using gas like we do in the USA.

 

June sales are in now at 561, still not hitting the 600 of March.

At what point can we all just agree that sales of this thing are terrible? Wasn't GM ramping up production or something? What's going on?

Leaf is now outselling 3:1.

Nissan Leaf sweeps past Chevy Volt « The Daily Bayonet

 

Some at GM spent a lot of energy telling anybody who would listened that hybrids with 2 propulsion systems do not make sense, will not work and battery replacement will be costly. GM thought hybrid would fail and got rid of the NiMh battery patent and EV1.

Now that they have built a plug-in hybrid, they need to re-educate, tell the public that hybrids and plug-in hybrids are great cars, they represent the future, and the Volt is the best plug-in hybrid car out there. Also stop marketing the car as an EV/range extender stuff, the public is confused as it is.

I still think they can put a lot more Volts on the road by aggressively lease the car. The original lease term was $2,500 down and $350 x 36 months.

 

Those are not terrible. How many people really got that good a price, though? In the end the price is too high and the application of the idea is the result for this; either it's bad and/or GM just doesn't have the time producing a vehicle like this (as Toyota has had over a decade now) to get its cost lower. We're seeing that being a decade behind comes with big costs.

I think the design itself is inherently flawed and as evidence I point toward its depleted battery fuel economy, which is extremely poor on premium fuel.

 

I think the lease terms are good, but dealers are only interested in selling with "Market Adjustment".

Potential Chevy Volt buyer turned off by $4,300 "market availability adjustment" — Autoblog Green

Based on testings of the PHV by some PC members and others, the PHV's depleted battery fuel economy was better than the current Prius and maybe rated at a higher combined than 50. But, really when Toyota starts shipping the PHV in large numbers, sales of the Volt will get worst.

 

I welcome the Volt to the party and the fact that I own a Prius doesn't make a difference. I also appreciate the early adapters of the Volt, they will help determine the cars success or failure. To me, the more high mileage cars around the better for us all. Why you people are squabbling over the virtues of Volt vs Prius is a mystery to me, I guess some are just naturally contentious.
My thought is that for the Volt to succeed the price has to come down and if GM can't make a profit at this price the Volt is in trouble.

 

Nothing wrong with the Volt, so long as people who want it do not use my money to buy it. And yes, same is true for oil.

 

15 weeks later. Autotrader now lists this for Volt availability:

We found 390 listings with 468 total vehicles

So, what does that mean?
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I maintain my original position, that the Autotrader listings aren't real cars sitting on lots unaccounted for. My own car showed up on there for a while when it hit the dealership and before I took delivery, even though I had had a deposit on it for months at that point.

There is still a waiting list and many customers anxiously awaiting delivery of their ordered cars. that will likely continue for a while as they become more available in other states throughout the rest of the year. I don't think we'll get a good look at true demand until sometime next year when the initial back order is cleared and they really start to show up as available on dealer lots.

I'm not saying it was necessarily a great idea, but I do believe the slow roll out was intentional. The level of attention the current owners are getting from GM is amazing, it is clear they are babying this thing and trying to get it all worked out. As I have said before we are basically Beta testers.

 

test

 

Passed!

 

From the latecomer perspective (post rollout), that's easy to agree with.

From what was portrayed one year ago, the story is quite different. Volt was intended to be a game-changer, taking the industry by storm in November 2010. But then when that time arrived, there was a major downplay effort to "early adopter" instead.
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I would agree and GM is going to have to put some numbers later this year when the Volt finally becomes available in all 50 states, especially before the Prius PHV gets here.

A recent headline stated that 90% of chevy Volt buyers are previous owners of Toyota Prius. So, we can calculate the number of priuses sold in the US so far and the number of Volts sold thru the end of April. The other side of this story is that apparently the Volt does not have other potential customers.

GM: 90% of Chevy Volt customers are new to GM, most trading in a Prius — Autoblog Green

 

Not sure what you are talking about - for several months before the release the constant theme on gm-volt was that GM wasn't planning to make enough Volts.

 

No - 90% are new to GM - not that 90% owned Prius.

 

That followed the price announcement. It's quite amazing how much an outlook can change in just a month. For example, Hyundai sold 1,422 hybrid Sonatas last month. How will that stir the efficiency market?
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That's a great point. Hyundai is probably displacing more gas than GM with Volts. All done without using any electricity.

 

You may be right, but the word "Most" insinuates close to 90%.

 

The "owned Prius" situation is misleading anyway. Since Prius holds its value remarkably well, trading one in on something new makes a whole lot more financial sense than accepting the typical large losses from most other vehicles.
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