Chevy Volt Year 1: < 7500 units

[senseamp]

The reason it is a failure is it does not qualify for California Car Pool HOV stickers.

The Leaf does!

Supposedly - the 2012 Volt will qualify as will the Prius Plug-In.

Once this change is made I would expect to see a minimum of 5,000 units sell in this state within the next year. $9,000 in tax credits too!

http://media.gm.com/content/media/u...ntent/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Nov/1116_volt_hov

This is actually a very important thing. Leaf may get the sticker, but it doesn't have the range to appeal to people who commute long distance in carpool lane, especially if they don't have charging at work. If Volt gets the sticker, that will save people a lot of time in traffic, and even affluent people will be willing to drive one for that alone.

 

[Pariah]

There are much better buys, even if gas hits $5 a gallon...

Based strictly on cost of ownership, there can only one "best" buy, should we just eliminate everything else because it isn't as good a buy? As has been said a million times before. The Volt is only the first step for GM using this technology. How do you already know at this point that future generations will not be price/performance competitive? Do you work for GM?

People's definition of value differ, why should everyone have to adhere to your definition?

 

[The-Noid]

Anyone know how Volt sales were, in Q4?

It's probably on the conference call transcript or in the 10Q, if one wants to look. The conference call will generally break out actual sales, rather than channel stuffing as well.

Just by looking around, it would seem like more than in the first three quarters.

 

[LTC8K6]

Based strictly on cost of ownership, there can only one "best" buy, should we just eliminate everything else because it isn't as good a buy? As has been said a million times before. The Volt is only the first step for GM using this technology. How do you already know at this point that future generations will not be price/performance competitive? Do you work for GM?

People's definition of value differ, why should everyone have to adhere to your definition?

I think the market has spoken on what sort of value the Volt is.

Perhaps we shouldn't sell the Cruze next to the Volt? Only a fool would buy the Volt over the Cruze. Why not subsidize the Cruze and get a lot more fuel efficient cars on the road for the subsidy money?

Perhaps we should subsidize fuel efficient cars that most people can afford, to get a lot more of them on the road? To reduce our overall fuel consumption. Such as the Cruze/Focus/Elantra, etc?

Perhaps we don't need to subsidize cars that only wealthy people can afford?

Why the heck are we subsiding $100K cars?

Why don't we subsidize the base 4 cylinder sedans? Let's get more of those on the road.

If the goal is to reduce overall fuel consumption, subsidizing cars that aren't going to sell very many copies in any case, doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

Where is the gov't effort with pickup trucks?

 

[Throckmorton]

The GM conference call was awesome.

One of the analysts (can't remember the name) went back to a comment by GM CFO about the days of Volt in inventory (was around 46 at the time) and said can you quantify that? is it around 100 or 150 units...in no way realizing what he had asked.

GM claimed the "couldn't quantify it," but somehow knew they had 46 days of inventory.

No one is buying these things. They make no sense. Buy a diesel.

70% of the worlds electricity production comes from fossil fuels. The Volt doesn't fix that. It just makes people feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. The good thing about the Volt is we get some horrible by products in the Lithium that is used in the batteries and the US taxpayers gets to pay you to drive them.

I feel like after 100 years we could come up with a better solution, the simple answer is gas is cheap and the volt isn't that answer.

You know a powerplant is much more efficient than a car engine right? I'm tired of hearing "the electricity for an electric car is still made from burning fossil fuel".

That's like saying "A Prius uses gas just like a Dodge Viper therefore they're both bad for the environment". Except one uses much more fuel.

 

[The-Noid]

You know a powerplant is much more efficient than a car engine right? I'm tired of hearing "the electricity for an electric car is still made from burning fossil fuel".

That's like saying "A Prius uses gas just like a Dodge Viper therefore they're both bad for the environment". Except one uses much more fuel.

From the Environmental and Science Technology Journal (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es903729a) a study was done by the American Chemical Society. FTA: a diesel car that uses less than 3.9L per 100 km (which many do, Volkswagon Polo, Skoda, Subaru, etc.) has less environmental impact than a FULL electric car, let alone the Chevy Volt, which obviously has an internal combustion engine. This was also done with European power plants which obviously have significantly more nuclear and hydro electric generation. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation which aggregates the CIA world factbook.)

Based on the difference in power generation in the United States (more fossil fuel based) and the fact that the Volt is also internal combustion, this would put the needed MPG much lower (30 or 40?) to have a lower environmental impact by using a Diesel.

The battery mining/processing in itself is extremely detrimental to the environment (note: the study only estimated the end of life disposal of batteries, it could be much worse). My point all along is that more efficient cars is a better way than creating the Volt product.

There is a future in electric cars but it relies around a major change in the grid in the United States and also the ability to recycle and mine Li-Ion batteries needs to be improved immensely. In the mean time the sales numbers are a manifestation of the fact that the Volt needs a major overhaul.

 

[Doppel]

Anyone know how Volt sales were, in Q4?

It's probably on the conference call transcript or in the 10Q, if one wants to look. The conference call will generally break out actual sales, rather than channel stuffing as well.

Just by looking around, it would seem like more than in the first three quarters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt#North_America go down to monthly US Sales

 

[Squisher]

There is a future in electric cars but it relies around a major change in the grid in the United States and also the ability to recycle and mine Li-Ion batteries needs to be improved immensely. In the mean time the sales numbers are a manifestation of the fact that the Volt needs a major overhaul.

And, you're not going to be able to overhaul the the volt unless you have a volt to start with.

You have to start somewhere and selling to to overly socially conscious people with more money than brains allows for a test bed to improve on.

If GM had kept this today-tech in the lab and only brought it out when it was financially sound to do so it probably would mean a longer time to fruition and the tech then might not be as advanced as it potentially will be. The Volt is a good thing for GM.

 

[Ferzerp]

And, you're not going to be able to overhaul the the volt unless you have a volt to start with.

You have to start somewhere and selling to to overly socially conscious people with more money than brains allows for a test bed to improve on.

If GM had kept this today-tech in the lab and only brought it out when it was financially sound to do so it probably would mean a longer time to fruition and the tech then might not be as advanced as it potentially will be. The Volt is a good thing for GM.

That reasoning is only sound if they don't lose money by manufacturing a bunch of cars that don't sell.

 

[Subyman]

I don't see the point of electric cars at all until the batteries are sorted out. There are a few schemes on the horizon, but nothing that will be the mainstream replacement of fossil fuels. Flow batteries may be an alternative, but they are a long way from being viable. As we speak, electric cars are a novelty and will continue to be for quite some time.

A lot of scientists are becoming more excited about the potential future of hydrogen with advancements in storage techniques such as carbon nano-tubes and new compression technologies. The hydrogen could be made using fast reactors or traditional nuclear as well with little damage to the environment. Storage, however, is still the main issue.

To put it bluntly, fossil fuels are just too damn easy to deal with.

 

[RU482]

I wonder if the anti-Volt pundits are the same people that slight GM for killing the EV1

 

[Eli]

I wonder if the anti-Volt pundits are the same people that slight GM for killing the EV1

GM should be bashed for killing the EV1. Mercilessly.

 

[Squisher]

GM should be bashed for killing the EV1. Mercilessly.

I've heard estimates that every EV1 cost $75K to $90K to produce. Yeah, I wish the'd bring out more $100K cars that they'd rent for $300/mo. In fact, tell them I'll take a ZR1 for those terms.

 

[KentState]

GM should be bashed for killing the EV1. Mercilessly.

Well, they are getting bashed for the Volt so it's all the same in the end. The only way they wouldn't be bashed is if they produced a car that used 0 resources, cost $10k to build and was sold for $25k with the luxury and performance of a CTS-V. At least GM is trying to get ahead of the demand curve unlike their prior strategy of dumping money into SUV's just before the last financial crisis. To me, the Volt is a good 1st gen attempt that will be hitting it's stride when we really need these types of cars. Toyota released the Prius before it was the demand or awareness hit and look at how well it took off. Now that it's in the 3rd generation, it's a viable solution.

 

[CPA]

We can make a really cheap electric car, but the oil companies lobby car manufactures to keep them highly priced.

LOL.

That's right, the oil companies have the car companies in their back pocket. bwahahahaha