Hide the Decline, Chevy Volt Edition
My auto industry insider has gotten back to me with another report. Here it is.
Seton [Motley]‘s piece looks at Chevy’s decision to kill the Avalanche for poor sales performance (but not the Volt), correctly pointing out how insane this is:
A Volt which the American people don’t want to own. Made by General Motors, of which the American people are still forced to own 33%. As the result of the $83 billion auto bailout–on which we’re poised to lose more than $30 billion.
But he’s only on the tip of the iceberg, both in how bad the Volt sales reality is and in the company’s reasoning for propping up the Volt.
In his recent book, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters”, former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz claimed: “There were rumblings from prominent Democrats that “if they get our money, they’re going to produce the kind of vehicles we want them to produce.”" This is the same Bob Lutz, by the way, who has taken to the pages of Forbes in recent months to bash right-of-center criticisms of the Volt (see: “Chevy Volt and the Wrong-headed Right,” “The Chevy Volt, Bill O’Reilly, and the Postman’s Butt,” and “I Give Up on Correcting the Wrong-headed Right about the Volt“). Lutz is also currently a paid consultant for GM, but I digress. [I'll add that the Volt was Lutz's baby with GM. -Steve.]
It’s no secret that the Obama administration (including Obama himself, who reassured the UAW that he’d personally buy a Volt when his presidency ended) has been flacking for the Volt for a long time — but that’s kind of unfortunate for them (and for GM) because it helps set the stage for what an abysmal failure the car has been.
Volt sales were actually up in March. They “soared” up to about 2,000 that month, and lefty environmentalists, GM, and the administration are trying to call it a success. GM CEO Dan Akerson (the White House’s handpicked guy) said all the criticism would fade away if they sold about 3,000 Volts a month.
Basically, they’re trying to play the expectations game, hoping we forget that GM had expected to sell about 5,000 Volts per month — and the administration (according to a DOE report) was counting on them selling 10,000 Volts per month this year. It’s worth noting, too, that Akerson testified before a House Oversight panel that they “didn’t engineer the Volt to become a political punching bag.” Funny — I didn’t hear any outcry when the Obama administration hyped the Volt in official government documents….
Anyway, now GM is trying to pretend that 2-3k/month is “success,” so I drew up this handy chart — attached as a PNG as well — think you can use it? [Absolutely! -Steve.]
Click to embiggen — that’s one scary-ass chart.
UPDATE: Hat tip to Mickey Kaus, who found an interesting (related?) item from TTAC. A commenter there calls it “felony stupid.” See if you agree:
If you want to pretty-up the P&L of a car company, there are two quick fixes: You cut marketing expenses, or you cut R&D. A cut of R&D expenses won’t show up negatively for three to five years, when you suddenly lack new cars to sell. In the meantime, you look like a hero. General Motors plans to cut about a quarter of the workers at its R&D facility at the Warren Technical Center in suburban Detroit.
Kaus asks, “Why would GM cut R&D so profits look good in the short term? Is something happening in November?”
And that’s the problem with crony capitalism. Let’s pretend for a moment GM is making the right move here. But it would still appear that GM has made a political decision for Obama’s political gain.
Summary of article… Lots of Talking Points… Few Facts.
Here are some actual facts:
1. The Volt is outselling the Leaf, the Corvette and the Prius when it first came out.
2. The car launched on 11/1/11 (conveniently left out of the article). It is just launching in Europe. It is still a blink of an eye on a car sales timeline.
3. The car is on track to sell $1,000,000,000 in 2012, its first full year in national release. They already have $400,000,000 in orders from Europe. Name any completely new powertrain car that had $1B in sales in year #1?
The Volt’s derivative technology (eAssist) already has produced class leading MPG in large Buicks and Chevy’s. Another $1B in 2012 revenue is realistic.
4. Cadillac enthusiastically just announced that they are getting their own 2 door version of the Volt.
5. Ford, Toyota and Audi (whose CEO once called the Volt a “car for idiots”) all are now directly copying the Chevy Volt’s plug-in-with-smaller-battery design. GM stands to make additional $s in collaborating because of their patent rights.
6. GHW Bush just bought a Volt. So Obama would be the SECOND president to get one. How many cars have 2 presidents owners?
7. The car is a product of the “2007 George W. Bush $7500 Tax Incentive”. A great idea to counterpoise at least a little of the the $100,000,000,000 given by the US government to Big Oil per year. Credit for this idea should be given to the last president.
8. GM owes the US government $0. The US Government is free to sell their shares in GM anytime they want.
9. The average Volt owner gets 120MPG (source: voltstats.net). You can get a Volt lease today for $399 and reasonably save $170/month in fuel if you have a 30-40 mile commute. How much of a car can you get for $239/month?
1. The Vette was not subsidized. The Prius was new technology. The Volt is currently on track to overtake neither, not even the niche-market Vette.
2. What indication is there that the “Ampera” will do any better in Europe than it is here?
3. Name any car that has up to one-third of its purchase price subsidized by taxpayers. Furthermore, the Volt is NOT going to sell $1b in its first year. At $40k per car, that’s 25,000 sales. They’ve barely sold more than half that — and the clock is ticking.
4. Caddy, a division of GM, just announced that it’s “thrilled’ to be sharing a car with Chevy, a division of GM? Color me shocked.
5. Wake me when the checks clear. PS, bragging about making money off your patents is usually the sign of a sick company.
6. WTF does this have to do with anything in this article?
7. Again, WTF does this have to do with this article?
8. Yes, Washington can sell its shares at any time — to a minimum loss of $30 billion to you and me, the taxpayers. And WTF does this have to do with anything?
9. Apparently, LOTS of other cars, seeing as how GM is having trouble practically giving away volts.
BONUS: Piss off, prog.
damn, steve, that left a mark.
Thanks!
1. The Vette is made by GM… it is subsidized by your fuzzy numbers just like the Volt.
2. Actual evidence…7000 pre-orders for Volt:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/03/opel-ampera-gets-7000-pre-orders-in-europe/
3. 2012 SALES
They are well on their way to $1,000,000,000 in sales for 2012
7000 pre-orders for Ampera at $55,000 = $385,000,000
$231,000,000 Chevy Volt sales already in 2012 through April (which is 1/3 through the year).
So they are already at $616,000,000 in revenue for 2012. They have 2/3rds of the year (8 months) to get the remaining $384,000,000.
4. Cadillac version of Volt: More evidence from yesterday: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/cadillac-elr-enters-ev-market-in-2014-will-share-enhanced-chevy-volt-powertrain/
6. From your post: “including Obama himself, who reassured the UAW that he’d personally buy a Volt when his presidency ended”.
Obama would be the SECOND president to get a Volt (unless Clinton or W gets one first).
7. You are crediting (or blaming, depending on your perspective) Obama for the Tax Credits… It was the last president that proudly created this incentive. I suppose that was back when Republicans were not the same as they are now?
9. GM paused production on the Volt for several weeks to NOT discount. A smart business move to preserve the integrity of price of the car.
Also, propaganda like yours absolutely hurts sales… In this bizzaro world, we have people who activity root against the home team.
After your ridiculous assertion that the Vette is subsidized, I quit reading. I encourage others to do likewise.
GM paused production on the Volt for several weeks to NOT discount. A smart business move to preserve the integrity of price of the car.
Jeebus. Are you a propagandist for Obama? It’s called “over-production”. In other words, they weren’t selling what they’d already produced, so they had to shut the lines down and clear the existing inventory. The “smart business move” would have been to manage production on the front-end, so that they didn’t run into the inventory problem on the back-end.
I guess economics and business processes were never your strong suit.
Also, propaganda like yours absolutely hurts sales… In this bizzaro world, we have people who activity root against the home team.
Heh. Missed this little gem.
It’s bizarro to point out fatal flaws in a crony capitalist system? It’s bizarro to use facts and statistics to counter propaganda being fed to us by a government dead set on destroying any real, genuine capitalism left in this country? It’s bizarro to pull the curtains away and show how the “home team” is run by kleptocrats committed to not just losing the game, but killing and burying the best players, handing the keys to the vault to the opposing team, and nuking the stadium? (yeah, that metaphor’s probably past it’s due-date….)
Wow.
Shut up, he explained.
@Stephen Green:
First off.. thanks for having a dialog. I appreciate that at least you do respond.
Your article does into great depth about how GM government loan (“bailout”). It never once mentions the $7500 EV specific tax credit. The premise of your point is that GM got money from the government to product Volts. Well, GM got money from the government to produce Corvettes too. Your talking points do not change when it comes to gas guzzling sports cars.
Finally, I hope you read my other post. It contains facts that directly address your statements.
@NukemHill
In the past, GM MO would be to keep producing and discount the car. Instead they paused production. Not a politically savvy move, but a good business decision in the wake of the “punching bag” politics in December and January that killed sales with an uncertain future. The unwarranted hate on this car was unprecedented and could not be planned for.
As it turned out, GM actually UNDERESTIMATED production as the cars sales took off in March (50% higher than any previous month). There is now only a 9 days supply in California, which means that the car now has a supply problem. This caused them to re-open their plant early.
Also, the current administration wanted GM to STOP the Volt, not the other way around. They were concerned with getting a quick turn-around and profitability. The Volt is a long term play that did not fit within the original game plan.
There’s no nice way to say this: You’re an idiot.
The subsidy goes to Volt buyers — the very few Volt buyers — who receive up at $7,500 in tax credits as a reward for partaking in the crony capitalism.
Name calling is a textbook last resort tactic that some use when their talking points quickly unravel when faced with facts. That is the white flag signal in debates. You can call me an idiot or a “left handed doorknob”. It does not change the facts.
Your entire article talks about the Billions in Bailouts.. not the $7500 Tax Credit. By the text of your post, the Corvette is every bit the beneficiary of the Bailout as the Volt.
If you want to talk about tax credits, that is fine… then why not talk about evils of mortgage interest deductions for McMansions? Do I pay for your mortgage interest deduction?
A tax credit does not take from taxpayer dollars, it reduces the burden of taxes to the person or company that buys the car.
You’re the one who brought the Vette into this, so let’s look at things from there.
Take away the subsidies, and what are you left with? Dollar-for-dollar, perhaps the finest sports car in the world. It’s also a profit center for GM, and a wonderful (and well-deserved) halo car for the company. GM’s engineers still got it, when they aren’t being hobbled by the bean-counters — at the RenCen and now at the White House, too.
Take away the subsidies and what is left of the Volt? Nothing. It doesn’t exist. So let’s allow the subsidies but take away the tax credits. Now what do you have? A slow, tiny four-seater that starts at $40,000.
And a tax credit for a particular item, as RBJ correctly notes above, is a subsidy. And I don’t care which administration started it — it’s wrong.
The reason the Prius is a market success is, Toyota built and sold it under market pressures. Not so with the Volt, which is why it is — and will remain — an albatross.
Still, the Volt can serve as a warning about the unsustainability of crony capitalism. An expensive lesson to be sure, and one apparently lost on you.
“@bobbleheadguru”
The mortgage interest deduction applies to all homeowners. the $7500 tax credit only applies to the Chevy Volt (and a few other favorites of this regime) not the Vette. Dear Liar is playing favorites here, with a heavy thumb on the scale, also known as fascism.
@bobblehead
So then why do you keep trying to point out that the $7500 credit came from the Bush administration? You may or may not have a valid point, but it’s impossible to tell from your posts. You’ve just puked a mishmash of talking points onto the screen. You use polite language, which is a plus. However, you seem to be trying to argue Steve’s point that the Volt has suffered from the pitfalls of crony capitalism by simultaneously claiming “no it hasn’t” and “it’s all Bush’s fault!” It’s hardly polite to show up and dump this kind of irrelevant garbage, while claiming to be a good-faith debater. After all, it’s hardly possible to claim that the Volt wasn’t intended largely as a sop to Washington Democrats.
Stephen Green: … you must like Vettes
- If the US government did not subsidize Big Oil to the tune of $100,000,000,000 per year, how competitive would a gas guzzling sports car be? I am all for leveling the playing field… TAKE AWAY Big Oil subsidies and military protection (along with the much smaller EV Tax Credit)… and let the free market work.
The problem is the talking point crowd cannot do that (regardless of their philosophy, perhaps with the exception of Ron Paul) because they are bankrolled by campaign contributions from big oil.
- Have you actually driven a Volt and put the car into “sports” mode at a traffic light and then a winding road? How do you know for sure that it is not “Dollar-for-dollar, perhaps the finest commuting car in the world?”
RBJ:
- Simply put: EV Tax Credit = Pennies. Big Oil government support = $100 bills.
- I have no problem admitting that W is behind this. It is his GOOD IDEA, one that came from a Republican.
- I mentioned McMansions: “tax shelter” mortgage payments for the wealthy. Not everyone can afford $500K+ houses.
However, there is a more obvious example… the rich routinely declare themselves “Small Businesses” and take massive tax breaks on mega-suvs. These deductions are 100x the size (in aggregate) of Tax Credits for EVs.
Why not end mortgage deduction for all houses over $500K and all “Small Business” deductions on mega-SUVs? Isn’t that “playing favorites”/ “Facism” on a much bigger scale?
@Neil
A response to…
“…it’s hardly possible to claim that the Volt wasn’t intended largely as a sop to Washington Democrats.”
The Chevy Volt was created by a Republican (Robert Lutz), supported by an Republican President (W). The fact that the current president supports the Volt only makes him second in line to his predecessor and George HW Bush… who has already purchased one.
When did conservatives decide it was wrong to conserve? Apparently AFTER Obama got elected.
The problem with plug-ins remains what it has always been: The grid can’t handle it if more than ten percent or so of cars draw a significant portion of their energy from the grid. And that’s without counting the effect on supply of the EPA’s new rules on power plant emissions. I’m still not sure what the final effect on supply will be, but it won’t be a plus. So far the state utility regulators have been reluctant to allow rate increases to cover the cost of replacing coal capacity with more-expensive alternatives, much less to expand capacity to cover any appreciable increase in plug-in vehicles.
Well, looking at the chart, it really is a marked improvement. Seriously, that’s a sizable jump.
But then I think, who bought these things? Was there a big fleet purchase of them? Maybe a government fleet purchase? IOW, was this just more “stimulus”?
1. Electricity isn’t free. In lots of places, electricity is already high and is expected to get even more expensive, especially as the EPA continues to put more regulations on the electricity generating industries. I have yet to see a “cost savings” analysis that correctly figures in the cost of recharging the Volt. And to be fair, the cost would need to be compared against something like a 5-speed Toyota Yaris.
2. Electricity isn’t really “clean”—coal is still the #1 (and most reliable, so far) source for electricity production in the US. Coal is FAR dirtier than gasoline in most cases. And natural gas, while cleaner than coal has its own issues—including the non-issue of fracing (yes, they petroleum engineers call it fracing—not fracking. There is no “k” in fracture.) Nuclear—probably the cleanest source—has a PR problem of “China Syndrome” or Japan earthquake, so we aren’t building nuclear plants. Solar and wind are NOT clean. See http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/04/28/solyndra-not-dealing-with-toxic-waste-at-milpitas-facility/ and http://townhall.com/news/us/2012/04/29/wind_farms_may_have_warming_effect_research (H/t hotair.com)
3. If you need to run the heater (in the northern winters) or air conditioner (southern summers), your total distance that you can drive a Volt on a single charge is GREATLY reduced. So unless you live in Southern California, for at least half the year your distance you can travel is greatly limited.
PS- they only sold 1462 Volts in April. So much for momentum. Will GM be trumpeting the 37% drop off?
Our Democratic mayor (island of Hawaii) just bought 6 new Volts for county government. I’m wondering if it’s part of a coordinated effort. If every Democrat mayor bought a few it would boost sales ahead of November.
Is there a way to see the number of Volts purchased or planning to be purchased by government agencies? I’m curious if the new uptick in sales was legitimately market driven.
GM has relied pretty heavily on fleet sales across their whole inventory. Not as much as Chrysler, but bad.
And not just government agencies, remember the beauty of crony capitalism is synergy. Got to consider how many GE bought as well. And GE gets juicy tax incentives to make turbines (or turbans as the guys in the GE commercials call them for some reason) to make nice green electricity to fuel the Volts they just bought. What could go wrong with running a country like that?
“Winston examined the four slips of paper which he had unrolled. Each contained a message of only one or two lines, in the abbreviated jargon — not actually Newspeak, but consisting largely of Newspeak words — which was used in the Ministry for internal purposes. They ran:
…
times 14.2.84 miniplenty malquoted chocolate rectify…
“As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a ‘categorical pledge’ were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April….
“…It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal.”
Steven,
A couple of things. GM never said they wanted to sell 60,000 Volts in 2012. That was the total of Volts and Opel Amperas, with a 75/25 split between North American and European models. With 7,000 preorders and the Ampera being received favorably in Europe I can see it perhaps approaching 10,000 units this year if not the 15,000 that GM anticipated.
As for the Volt, I’ve been saying for a while that we won’t know if the Volt is a failure until we see the May 2012 sales figures. They had a slow roll out, by region, of the Volt, then it takes time to fill the pipeline with enough cars so that Chevy’s ~3,000 dealers have at first demos and then cars for stock. Sales were ok in March. If they continued to rise in April (we’ll have the data in the next day or so) with 3,000 or more sales, as far as I’m concerned, that’s within hailing distance of an annual rate of 45,000 units (3,720/month), which is what GM projected. I think that the sales of March-June of 2012 will be a better bellwether of the Volt’s ultimate success than what’s happened so far.
I did see yesterday that a suburban Detroit dealership is doing pretty well with the Volt, selling about one car a day on average, because they’ve given all their sales staff about 12 hrs of training on the Volt and they also fairly aggressively cross-sell to people looking for another kind of car.
Ronnie Schreiber
Cars In Depth
http://www.carsindepth.com
The Volt is a technical success that’s been hobbled by a number of factors – poor aesthetics/tacky trim and unbelievably bad marketing.
It is not an ‘electric vehicle with a range extender’. It’s a plug-in hybrid. GM needs to learn not to talk down to their customers.
Now, that said, there’s a number of issues here. It’s more expensive than a Prius, and while it’s technically superior, its real-world utility is better only if you can make extensive use of its plug-in ability, leaving home with a full 40 miles in the battery.
So its real base of potential buyers is mostly limited to homeowners with their own garages who can shell out for the charger installation. This is true of pure EVs like the Leaf as well as plug-in hybrids.
And longer term – for both EVs and plug-in hybrids – in certain markets their cost of operation is is going to be heavily impacted by rapidly rising electricity costs. If you live in California and you’re facing 15%-a-year increases in your electric rates due to AB32 renewables mandates you better think long and hard about your long-term operating costs.
Now, that said, would I buy a Volt? Not the current one, I can’t stand the fake windows. We’ve got a PV solar installation on the roof and we’re on the ‘old’ net-metering tariff so EV charging would, in fact, be economically viable for us. That said, I’m no green loon, I’ve got a couple thousand HP in the driveway and I think combustible hydrocarbons are damn near the most fun you can have with something that comes out of the ground.
I’d be more likely to buy an evolved Volt – one with real windows and preferably a little more cargo room – than a Prius (it doesn’t matter how well the Prius powertrain works, the ergonomics – like so many recent Toyotas – are horrible.)
But I’m more likely to buy a used natural-gas-fueled Civic or a diesel Jetta wagon than either one.
I’ve always figured GM needs to do left-brain, right-brain package deals. A Volt and a Cadillac CTS-V for one low package price.
I agree. If we were really serious about getting off foreign oil then we’d been transitioning vehicles to natural gas.
> about 5,000 Volts per month — and the administration (according to a DOE
> report) was counting on them selling 10,000 Volts per month this year.
This is fabricated. The Administration never was “counting” on this number. In fact, the link you provide references that this claim was what was being reported in the media based on GM reports quoted in a Bloomberg article. In fact the report cites issues with demand and speculation that early sales were only to early adopters.
Please print a correct.
No,not until you can come up with a better way Obama was going to fulfill his promise of putting a million electric cars on the road by 2015.
What does that have to do with the fact that you wrote a fabrication, and falsely said that the Administration claimed something they didn’t?
What you wrote it an objective, verifiable lie, and your own supporting document clearly demonstrates this. This negates the entire effect of your chart, which is the whole point of your article – look at the scary chart that shows how they are “hiding the decline”.
If you remove the false claim that the Administration claimed projected sales of 10,000 a month, the chart looks quite a bit different – instead it looks like things are improving for the Volt, not that it’s a total failure.
You also gloss over the entire section in the report that discusses the possibility of weak consumer demand and how all electric may be subject to “early adopter” issues.
If Pres. Obama’s stated goal of 1 million electric cars fails, it fails. It does give you license to fabricate claims that were not made, and to extrapolate that to some sort of memory hole conspiracy.
Typically, it’s “put up or shut up,” not “put up or rant endlessly about shit.”
Just sayin’.
If these guys were real engineers, they’d say the sold 2 billion milliVolts.
here’s what I did. I recently purchased a Mazda 3i with the new Skyactive engine. I am averaging 33 MPG on my 86 mi/day commute.
So, with the $12,000 savings (conservative) on my new ICE-powered Mazda, with gas at $4.00 a gallon, I can go 100,000 miles while paying the same amount of money you have to in order to drive off the dealer’s lot.
And it handles great, goes fast and doesn’t attract girls with hair in their armpits.
Also, I can swell my chest with pride as I tell others I didn’t have to suck at the government’s (meaning Joe Taxpayer’s) tit to pay for it.
Win, win, win.
Not so sure 33 mpg is much to brag about (it’s good, don’t get me wrong), I’m getting 30 on a 90 mile round trip commute in a Subaru Forester. I guarantee it’s a bigger, nicer ride than a Mazda 3.
The numbers will never see the light of day, but it would be interesting to see how much gasoline governments put into their Volts. Much of our county’s population is 20 or more miles from the county seat. No way some county property appraiser, code enforcer, or building inspector can do a day on my side of the county without burning some gasoline.
1) The Volt was conceived and greenlighted in 2005 and 2006, well before anyone knew who Barack Obama was.
2) A US-based engineering PhD costs GM around $100/hr (fully loaded, including benefits) and in some cases more. In China and India, it’s half that. Green can suppose “crony capitalism,” but it’s cost accounting 101.
3) A larger point re: “Crony Capitalism”: The German Republic of Lower Saxony (where VW is headquartered) owns 20% of Volkswagen, who is vying with GM and Toyota to be the world’s largest OEM. Volkswagen, among other brands, makes highly desirable Audis. Oh, and Deutsche Bank is a huge shareholder of Daimler (Mercedes), and the German Government owns a huge stake of Deutsche Bank. I expect you pure “free market” types to be swearing off those brands as well.
3a) The Japanese government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the F/X markets (buying the USD and selling the JPY) over the past 40 years to maintain a weak Yen so their cars were cheap in the US. Isn’t this “Crony Capitalism?”
3c) How about Ford? Besides getting $15 billion in financing from the Fed’s commercial paper window in 2009 as well as $6 billion in DOE “Green Loans,” go ahead and buy that “bailout free” car.
It’s not so simple, this “free market.”
Are you not aware that even Brussels is fed up with Niedersachsen’s “Volkswagen law?”
The fact that serious government intervention exists is not an excuse for further socializing private industry. Quite the opposite, in fact.
And anyway, if you’re such a fan of intervention, take a look at its ultimate results.
I would answer you this way: Toyota and Honda had higher quality than US OEMs from 1980-2000. Add a focused, coordinated industrial policy from the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan, and they were unstoppable.
Yes, it worked out so well that Japan, Inc is now either ending its second Lost Decade or entering its third.
Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda have become increasingly less Japanese.
Keep pushing that string, prog.
This is unquestionably true. But Toyota peaked, in terms of material, design, and manufacturing quality, about 20 years ago.
They’ve done some powertrain innovation since, and the base models have more power now, but in pretty much every other respect the products were better then.
So Lutz thinks all of Volt’s problems stem from right-wing detractors? Could it be that our powerful insights are scaring away all the left-wing buyers?
Wow. Considering the flack you’re getting on this, you must have really struck a nerve.
Fire for effect!
Not so fast with the Gobbledygook there @Bobbleheadguru.
1. The completely electric version-the one which was to be all the rage is a complete failure-might as well purchase a golf cart. And thats not counting the idiocy of forcing folks to purchase a car they don’t want-incentives aside
2. Your vaunted EVR is noisy, runs hot-your batteries (are suspect to heat) and they do not hold the charge they were expected to. The driving envitronment-especially heat of the southern U.S. and the desert Southwest are and haver caused problems with the EVR.
3. Its a long way from being a reliable vehicle for 4 person passenger comfort. In the North East maybe it works well, on 1/20 1/10 the 405 in LA- not so fast in fact thats the problem, not fast-you don’t dare drive 40-to 50 on freeways unless you want to have a wreck. And thats about your EVR speed. And we’re not even talking about charge time or rate.
4. Kill the Avalanche, kill the Volt, especially Kill GM. Some day those bond holders will have their day in court (No I am not a bond holder & no I don’t own a car dealership) some day GM will go the way of the Great Auk. Because its management and unions deserve it.
PS: where’s your plug @Bobbleheadguru ?
Thanks for your thoughts. Here is my rebuttal:
1. I think you are talking about the EV1… created more than 15 years ago? There is no “completely electric” version of the Volt. The whole point of the car is to give massive improvements to MPG without any range anxiety (360+ mile range, 100+ MPG).
2. Please drive one. I have had over 100 people in my Chevy Volt. Not one has ever said it was “noisy”… the reaction is completely opposite.
It is hard for me to adjust to other cars and their constant engine noise which sounds like a “boiler room” after regularly commuting in a Volt.
The Volt has a special horn to alert pedestrians and animals because it is SO QUIET.
My Volt gets an average charge of 35 miles… exactly what the EPA rating is.
3. California is the #1 market for the Volt. It will probably will go faster than ANY other car on the freeway. Why? (hint: not just because its top speed is 100). Because there is an HOV version of the car that is allowed in that lane. This version of the car (which just came out) could literally save hours per week in commuting time.
4. I used to own GM bonds. They have been converted to stock and warrants to purchase stock. I am now a stock holder of the new GM as all bond holders were given this right. [I do not have any other ties to GM].
5. I have a plug in my house…. and I use public charging stations. I get 88MPG and have a 60 mile commute. I save $160/month even including electricity, which offsets my higher payment.
The Volt that Lutz envisioned was a totally different beast then what we ended up with. He could never get the members of the GM board to sign off on it though because it wasn’t cost effective to research and develop it’s new technologies. You see, when GM was spending their own money they prudently decided that the cost to develop and manufacturer wasn’t warranted by the projected sales figures. But Obama comes along and he’s got no worries about little details like cost versus benefit because, hey, it’s other people’s money. So, the government forks over 2.6 billion dollars to GM for the sole purpose of building the Volt. At the number of cars that have been built so far that works out to roughly $250,000 per car. It’s estimated that if GM were to have built and sold this car on it’s own that they would need to sell it for $80,000 a piece. But hey, when the government has already shelled out 250k to build it, what’s another $40,000 between friends? Not to mention the $7500 tax credit when you buy the car. So, I’m glad to hear you like the little car that we the tax payers paid for; “sport” mode and all. Why it’ll only take you 20-25 years to break even on the cost in gas savings over a comparable Chevy Cruze. Hope your battery makes it that long…..
Death to Government Motors and death to the UAW. I will NEVER buy a car from the thieving bailout queens as long as I live. Old widow ladies who held GM bonds are eating dog food now thanks to their greed.
GM and Chrysler should have been put in Chapter 7 receivership. Ford and the foreign car makers should have been allowed to pick over their carcasses for the best factories and workers at a much cheaper price. That is the way this country had always worked. Now the socialist filth have given us a British Leyland of our own. What a colossal failure. What treason.