Average Volt household income: $175,000

[LTC8K6]

You do realize that GM has sold pretty much every Volt they have produced so far and it still isn't available nationwide because GM can't produce enough to make that possible, correct? I've never heard sold out sales numbers of a product being described as "totally abysmal," but I guess on the internet, everyone is entitled to their own math. GM still believes they will sell about 10,000 Volts by the end of the year. Coincidently, or not,that's how many they also think they will be able to produce by the end of the year. Selling every car they can make, what an embarassing failure so far the Volt has been for GM.

Link documenting that GM has sold every Volt it has produced?

How many were this sort of heavily discounted sale?

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2011/09/new-york-town-gets-four-chevy-volts-for-29500-a-piece/

 

[LTC8K6]

There's still a lot of questions about Volt production and demand, imo. There were/are odd things going on with the transfer of vehicles between dealers, and the tax credits for the cars.

http://nlpc.org/stories/2011/05/31/gm-admits-dealerships-are-taking-chevy-volt-tax-credits

http://nlpc.org/stories/2011/10/03/government-motors-selling-volts-cheap-elections-near

"I have previously pointed out signs that demand for the Volt is not as high as implied. Chevy dealers would not have been giving up the vehicles to other dealerships if there was a waiting list of retail customers that were willing to pay much more. Also, as GM claimed the vehicles were "virtually" sold out, inventory was available and soon would be growing. And now we have Volts selling for only $29,500, why would GM accept such a low price if consumers are knocking down the doors to pay over $40,000?"

 

[Doppel]

Link documenting that GM has sold every Volt it has produced?

How many were this sort of heavily discounted sale?

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2011/09/new-york-town-gets-four-chevy-volts-for-29500-a-piece/

I find manufacturing of these is more strange, if we assume they are selling all they can build (notwithstanding the tons on autotrader, some of which are clearly demo cars and some of which aren't). The plant was down in July and yet sales continued to fall from a peak in March, with September being the highest since March.

It'll probably need another couple of years one way or the other to objectively appraise the effort as worthwhile or not.

Unfortunately most people seem to be forgetting that the 10,000 sales figure was an old one from 2010 (?).In January of 2011 the CEO of GM said the Volt would hit 25,000 units in 2011. But we're quietly back to the 10,000 now. With 10k in doubt 25k sure isn't happening. I cannot tell what they want to sell in 2012. 60k? In January the CEO also spoke to 120k. I assume they've severely curtailed those projections since given how abysmal those January numbers have been.

 

[Budmantom]

You do realize that GM has sold pretty much every Volt they have produced so far and it still isn't available nationwide because GM can't produce enough to make that possible, correct? I've never heard sold out sales numbers of a product being described as "totally abysmal," but I guess on the internet, everyone is entitled to their own math. GM still believes they will sell about 10,000 Volts by the end of the year. Coincidently, or not,that's how many they also think they will be able to produce by the end of the year. Selling every car they can make, what an embarassing failure so far the Volt has been for GM.

Well if they are losing money with each and every sale AFTER the government kicks in $7,500, I'm not sure you would call that a success. Perhaps I'm old fashion.

Haven't we had electric cars for 100 years? Frankly an electric car that has a range of only 35 miles isn't all that impressive, I would think that with all the hype and all the money that has been sunk into this car it would be able to do 100 miles.

 

[Doppel]

And further about the idea that this thing was never going to be profitable, article from Jan, 2010:
http://gm-volt.com/2010/01/18/exclu...y-volt-will-sell-in-low-30s-and-for-a-profit/

“We’re not in business to lose money,” he said. “We did enough of that already.”
The Volt “is going to sell in the low 30s,” said Whitacre. “We’ll get a margin on that.”

...and then later in the same year http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1052107_gm-confirms-yes-were-losing-money-on-every-volt-we-build

Doug Parks, vehicle line executive for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, GM's range-extended electric vehicle, confirmed Tuesday that the company loses money on every Volt it sells.

Seems the top brass at GM doesn't really understand what the Volt is. They make claims in January that don't pan out later in the year. Perhaps in January of 2012 we'll hear it will be able to drive itself soon.

 

[Budmantom]

And further about the idea that this thing was never going to be profitable, article from Jan, 2010:
http://gm-volt.com/2010/01/18/exclu...y-volt-will-sell-in-low-30s-and-for-a-profit/



...and then later in the same year http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1052107_gm-confirms-yes-were-losing-money-on-every-volt-we-build


Seems the top brass at GM doesn't really understand what the Volt is. They make claims in January that don't pan out later in the year. Perhaps in January of 2012 we'll hear it will be able to drive itself soon.

Whitaker is the same guy that claimed GM had paid back taxpayers 5 years ahead of schedule for the bail out.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/general-motors-repays-81-billion-government-loans/story?id=10437944

 

[Pariah]

Link documenting that GM has sold every Volt it has produced?

How many were this sort of heavily discounted sale?

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2011/09/new-york-town-gets-four-chevy-volts-for-29500-a-piece/

Uh, yea. These were not sold to individuals. No one is going to go into a dealer and buy a Volt for that price. I think most people would recognize this for what it is as a promotional move by GM. Just because something is selling out, doesn't mean a company stops promoting it and trying to drum up more interest in it. Common sense. What's more surprising is that GM was able to get them to pay 90% of post tax credit MSRP to drive their cars around their town and advertise them to the residents.

If this is so shocking to you, you are going to hit the floor when you hear that GM gave away 550 Volts so far for free to Chevy dealers around the country for demonstration purposes which aren't included in the sales figures and they plan to ship out a total of 2500 demonstrations units to dealers by the end of the year. 2500 FREE Volts! GM must be throwing in the towel! It's all over for Obama Motors.



http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/...3-times-initial-rate-only-100-dealers-104522/

"There are fewer than 100 2011 Volts on dealer lots, and only 1 in 9 Chevrolet dealers that sells the Volt has one for sale, he said."

 

[Doppel]

Uh, yea. These were not sold to individuals. No one is going to go into a dealer and buy a Volt for that price. I think most people would recognize this for what it is as a promotional move by GM. Just because something is selling out, doesn't mean a company stops promoting it and trying to drum up more interest in it. Common sense. What's more surprising is that GM was able to get them to pay 90% of post tax credit MSRP to drive their cars around their town and advertise them to the residents.

If this is so shocking to you, you are going to hit the floor when you hear that GM gave away 550 Volts so far for free to Chevy dealers around the country for demonstration purposes which aren't included in the sales figures and they plan to ship out a total of 2500 demonstrations units to dealers by the end of the year. 2500 FREE Volts! GM must be throwing in the towel! It's all over for Obama Motors.



http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/...3-times-initial-rate-only-100-dealers-104522/

"There are fewer than 100 2011 Volts on dealer lots, and only 1 in 9 Chevrolet dealers that sells the Volt has one for sale, he said."

But he also said there that "In an interview in June with The Detroit News, GM chairman and CEO Dan Akerson said the company would meet its production goals of 10,000 U.S. sales this year and 5,000 foreign sales."

That's in June of this year. Did he already forget the 25,000 he came up with just a few months prior? Maybe his statements on the Volt are not entirely "accurate".

 

[LTC8K6]

Uh, yea. These were not sold to individuals. No one is going to go into a dealer and buy a Volt for that price. I think most people would recognize this for what it is as a promotional move by GM. Just because something is selling out, doesn't mean a company stops promoting it and trying to drum up more interest in it. Common sense. What's more surprising is that GM was able to get them to pay 90% of post tax credit MSRP to drive their cars around their town and advertise them to the residents.

If this is so shocking to you, you are going to hit the floor when you hear that GM gave away 550 Volts so far for free to Chevy dealers around the country for demonstration purposes which aren't included in the sales figures and they plan to ship out a total of 2500 demonstrations units to dealers by the end of the year. 2500 FREE Volts! GM must be throwing in the towel! It's all over for Obama Motors.



http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/...3-times-initial-rate-only-100-dealers-104522/

"There are fewer than 100 2011 Volts on dealer lots, and only 1 in 9 Chevrolet dealers that sells the Volt has one for sale, he said."

There are still 2011 Volts unsold? (Wait, article was from July)

The free demos? Well, it is a bit odd to me. If the car is in high demand, and can be sold for $40K+ to waiting lines of customers, it's mind boggling to me. Or GM management is stupid. Or someone is not telling us the truth.

BTW, Cars.com says there are 63 Volts available within 100 miles of me.

It also says there are 2800 available overall, both of which sound odd for a car that is selling every one you can produce.