Chevrolet: Volt news **Production Cut (page 8)**
03-11-2012, 03:40 PM
#321
My first Avatar....
Really?
I thought this was common knowledge.
Originally Posted by Edward'TLS
The simply supply-and-demand mechanism doesn't work here. The possibility of potential conflicts in the Middle East will cause massive speculation in oil futures which in turns ramps up the oil prices.
03-11-2012, 04:29 PM
#322
2G TLX-S
03-11-2012, 04:29 PM
#323
2G TLX-S
03-11-2012, 05:33 PM
#324
Neither of what either of you posted proves purposeful dictation of oil prices by any commander and chief. You have done nothing but spun this discussion into "Common knowledge" themes. Please reread the initial discussion.
Last edited by whudini3000; 03-11-2012 at 05:47 PM.
03-11-2012, 05:46 PM
#325
No im not saying they are directly involved in the prices, but on that same token, making it nearly impossible to drill for our own to cut dependency (which if we utilized more of our own large supplies would/could drastically do) would/could help. Also as you stated, our infrastructure needs to severely be updated and would be even for nat gas which is high enough in price, adding that much more demand would only further raise heating costs. Not having built any new refineries in decades isnt helping prices.
So you see most making poor purchase decisions a reason many cant "just" go out and buy new 40+k alternative fuel vehicles? Try to tell me that. I have a daughter about to go into collage in a couple years, a 2 year old and a 2 month old. I do very well for myself, but choose to keep my Expedition which IS needed, my 2000 TL, my various other toys and lake home. Im NOT going to sell the stuff just so i can go out and buy overpriced, impractical vehicles just because they (and for MANY americans these vehicles are impractical as not every one lives in a large city) supposedly get better mileage. And another question is why would it? Then i would have a large car payment again on top of having to pay for electricity and gas for it. What would i save? I do have a right to complain about high prices when things could be done (wouldnt happen immediately but if had been implemented years ago we could be seeing some of the effects of it now)to help keep gas lower.
So you see most making poor purchase decisions a reason many cant "just" go out and buy new 40+k alternative fuel vehicles? Try to tell me that. I have a daughter about to go into collage in a couple years, a 2 year old and a 2 month old. I do very well for myself, but choose to keep my Expedition which IS needed, my 2000 TL, my various other toys and lake home. Im NOT going to sell the stuff just so i can go out and buy overpriced, impractical vehicles just because they (and for MANY americans these vehicles are impractical as not every one lives in a large city) supposedly get better mileage. And another question is why would it? Then i would have a large car payment again on top of having to pay for electricity and gas for it. What would i save? I do have a right to complain about high prices when things could be done (wouldnt happen immediately but if had been implemented years ago we could be seeing some of the effects of it now)to help keep gas lower.
There are other options, I just don't think many Americans are exploring them.
Last edited by whudini3000; 03-11-2012 at 05:49 PM.
03-12-2012, 04:51 PM
#326
The sizzle in the Steak
Gas prices got you down....no worries....here's the solution:
"And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we're providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that's made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea." - President Obama
So....if gas prices are cutting into your budget a couple of extra hundred dollars a month....the simple solution is to go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars to offset the high cost of gas.
Brilliant!!!!
...oh and you say you've been out of work for nearly a year now, and have no $$$ to buy a new vehicle...let alone afford the huge increase in gas prices.......Well, let's not dwell on the little details like that.....have a look at that Chevrolet Volt over there.....it will change your mind!
Don't be so petty.
"And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we're providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that's made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea." - President Obama
So....if gas prices are cutting into your budget a couple of extra hundred dollars a month....the simple solution is to go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars to offset the high cost of gas.
Brilliant!!!!
...oh and you say you've been out of work for nearly a year now, and have no $$$ to buy a new vehicle...let alone afford the huge increase in gas prices.......Well, let's not dwell on the little details like that.....have a look at that Chevrolet Volt over there.....it will change your mind!
Don't be so petty.
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03-12-2012, 10:42 PM
#327
My first Avatar....
Gas prices got you down....no worries....here's the solution:
"And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we're providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that's made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea." - President Obama
So....if gas prices are cutting into your budget a couple of extra hundred dollars a month....the simple solution is to go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars to offset the high cost of gas.
Brilliant!!!!
"And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we're providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that's made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea." - President Obama
So....if gas prices are cutting into your budget a couple of extra hundred dollars a month....the simple solution is to go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars to offset the high cost of gas.
Brilliant!!!!
03-12-2012, 11:03 PM
#328
Gas prices got you down....no worries....here's the solution:
"And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we're providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that's made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea." - President Obama
So....if gas prices are cutting into your budget a couple of extra hundred dollars a month....the simple solution is to go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars to offset the high cost of gas.
Brilliant!!!!
...oh and you say you've been out of work for nearly a year now, and have no $$$ to buy a new vehicle...let alone afford the huge increase in gas prices.......Well, let's not dwell on the little details like that.....have a look at that Chevrolet Volt over there.....it will change your mind!
Don't be so petty.
"And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we're providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that's made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea." - President Obama
So....if gas prices are cutting into your budget a couple of extra hundred dollars a month....the simple solution is to go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars to offset the high cost of gas.
Brilliant!!!!
...oh and you say you've been out of work for nearly a year now, and have no $$$ to buy a new vehicle...let alone afford the huge increase in gas prices.......Well, let's not dwell on the little details like that.....have a look at that Chevrolet Volt over there.....it will change your mind!
Don't be so petty.
03-13-2012, 08:40 AM
#330
Race Director
Gas prices got you down....no worries....here's the solution:
"And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we're providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that's made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea." - President Obama
So....if gas prices are cutting into your budget a couple of extra hundred dollars a month....the simple solution is to go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars to offset the high cost of gas.
Brilliant!!!!
...oh and you say you've been out of work for nearly a year now, and have no $$$ to buy a new vehicle...let alone afford the huge increase in gas prices.......Well, let's not dwell on the little details like that.....have a look at that Chevrolet Volt over there.....it will change your mind!
Don't be so petty.
"And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we're providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that's made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea." - President Obama
So....if gas prices are cutting into your budget a couple of extra hundred dollars a month....the simple solution is to go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars to offset the high cost of gas.
Brilliant!!!!
...oh and you say you've been out of work for nearly a year now, and have no $$$ to buy a new vehicle...let alone afford the huge increase in gas prices.......Well, let's not dwell on the little details like that.....have a look at that Chevrolet Volt over there.....it will change your mind!
Don't be so petty.
03-13-2012, 10:31 AM
#331
The sizzle in the Steak
01-03-2013, 06:44 AM
#332
Race Director
http://www.autoweek.com/article/2013...NEWS/130109990
Some Chevrolet dealers have stopped carrying the Volt after deciding that their sales didn't justify an additional $5,100 for tools to service the plug-in hybrid.
Last month, General Motors notified Chevrolet dealers of the added cost for tools, among other requirements, to keep selling and servicing the Volt.
The math didn't work for Allyn Barnard, owner of Jim Barnard Chevrolet in Churchville, N.Y., near Rochester. Barnard, who has sold five Volts since the car's launch two years ago, decided to quit the Volt authorized dealer program.
Barnard figures his sales and service revenue from those five sales have enabled him to break even on the nearly $5,000 he spent nearly two years ago on Volt tools, training and charging stations.
"Going forward, the profitability would be really hard for us to justify the expense of the repair tools," Barnard says.
Some dealers believe that GM is raising the requirements to be a certified Volt dealer because it wants a smaller network that would steer more Volts to bigger-volume dealers and regions. GM spokeswoman Michelle Malcho says that's untrue.
"It's pretty standard" to require dealers to buy tools to service certain nameplates, Malcho said. Last year, Volt dealers spent $1,800 to $2,800 on tools.
She would not say how many Chevrolet dealerships have quit the Volt program since dealers were informed of the extra cost, but said they account for less than 1 percent of the Volt's sales.
This year, 2,614 Chevrolet stores were certified to sell the Volt. She said 70 percent of Volt sales are generated by the 300 highest-volume dealerships. On Jan. 1, 2012, Chevrolet had 3,079 dealerships, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
Through November, Volt sales more than tripled from the year-earlier period, to 20,828.
As of January, GM wants Chevrolet service technicians to remove and ship sections of the Volt's 435-pound battery pack to GM for repair, rather than shipping the entire pack. To do that, they need a $4,735 battery depowering tool to drain the battery before removing a section. The device accounts for the bulk of dealers' additional costs.
John Holt, owner of John Holt Chevrolet-Cadillac in Chickasha, Okla., near Oklahoma City, says he also has sold five Volts since he began carrying the car, in 2011. But he decided to buy the tools and remain a certified dealer, partly because he wants to sell the Cadillac ELR plug-in hybrid, due out by summer. The ELR's powertrain will be based on that of the Volt.
"I've heard that a lot of the nonmetro dealers have opted out" of the certified Volt program, Holt says. "But with the new Cadillac coming, I figured I'd be foolish not to buy the damn $5,100 tool."
Last month, General Motors notified Chevrolet dealers of the added cost for tools, among other requirements, to keep selling and servicing the Volt.
The math didn't work for Allyn Barnard, owner of Jim Barnard Chevrolet in Churchville, N.Y., near Rochester. Barnard, who has sold five Volts since the car's launch two years ago, decided to quit the Volt authorized dealer program.
Barnard figures his sales and service revenue from those five sales have enabled him to break even on the nearly $5,000 he spent nearly two years ago on Volt tools, training and charging stations.
"Going forward, the profitability would be really hard for us to justify the expense of the repair tools," Barnard says.
Some dealers believe that GM is raising the requirements to be a certified Volt dealer because it wants a smaller network that would steer more Volts to bigger-volume dealers and regions. GM spokeswoman Michelle Malcho says that's untrue.
"It's pretty standard" to require dealers to buy tools to service certain nameplates, Malcho said. Last year, Volt dealers spent $1,800 to $2,800 on tools.
She would not say how many Chevrolet dealerships have quit the Volt program since dealers were informed of the extra cost, but said they account for less than 1 percent of the Volt's sales.
This year, 2,614 Chevrolet stores were certified to sell the Volt. She said 70 percent of Volt sales are generated by the 300 highest-volume dealerships. On Jan. 1, 2012, Chevrolet had 3,079 dealerships, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
Through November, Volt sales more than tripled from the year-earlier period, to 20,828.
As of January, GM wants Chevrolet service technicians to remove and ship sections of the Volt's 435-pound battery pack to GM for repair, rather than shipping the entire pack. To do that, they need a $4,735 battery depowering tool to drain the battery before removing a section. The device accounts for the bulk of dealers' additional costs.
John Holt, owner of John Holt Chevrolet-Cadillac in Chickasha, Okla., near Oklahoma City, says he also has sold five Volts since he began carrying the car, in 2011. But he decided to buy the tools and remain a certified dealer, partly because he wants to sell the Cadillac ELR plug-in hybrid, due out by summer. The ELR's powertrain will be based on that of the Volt.
"I've heard that a lot of the nonmetro dealers have opted out" of the certified Volt program, Holt says. "But with the new Cadillac coming, I figured I'd be foolish not to buy the damn $5,100 tool."
01-03-2013, 11:26 AM
#333
Senior Moderator
^ problem is for those dealers that opt out they could possibly be hurting themselves in the future as if chevy starts to implement this tech on future vehicles (which im sure they will as a way to help recoop costs) they wont have the certification or tools 
S
S
01-03-2013, 08:53 PM
#334
Team Owner
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^^^ I saw this on TV today.....SMH.
01-04-2013, 08:27 AM
#335
Team Owner
Another reason not to buy a Volt. You can't pull into any Chevy/GM dealer for service. Forget about going to an independent garage.
06-11-2013, 09:12 AM
#336
Race Director
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/gm-s...les-6C10272201
With signs that sales of its Chevrolet Volt battery car could be coming unplugged, General Motors is offering potential buyers as much as $5,000 in incentives – making it the latest maker to try to cut prices in a bid to boost lagging demand for electric vehicles.
Whether the move will work remains to be seen, as GM has already trimmed the price on the Volt plug-in hybrid. But rival Nissan has had some clear success after cutting the price on its own Leaf battery-electric vehicle, or BEV, earlier this year.
Both vehicles were introduced to high expectations nearly three years ago, but they have so far consistently missed sales targets. Only a handful of battery-based vehicles have come close to meeting expectations, most notably the Tesla Model S.
That might be enough to convince a maker to pull the plug on a vehicle like Volt. But manufacturers like GM and Nissan are under heavy pressure to make their electric vehicle programs a success – at almost any cost – in part because of pressure they face in the nation’s largest state, California, where regulators require all major makers to offer a minimum number of so-called Zero-Emission Vehicles.
A California buyer can now purchase a Chevrolet Volt for as little as $28,495. The base price for the plug-in is $39,995 but all buyers qualify for $4,000 off on a 2013 model and $5,000 off for a 2012 Volt. They also can get an extra $1,000 if they are currently leasing a non-GM vehicle. Meanwhile, the federal government provides a $7,500 tax credit while the state kicks in another $1,500.
A number of other states now offer incentives to buyers of qualifying battery vehicles, as well.
Chevrolet also is now reducing lease pricing for the Volt to $269 a month for 36 months, with a $2,399 down payment.
Initially, demand for the Chevrolet Volt outpaced all its rivals but still fell short of its 10,000-unit U.S. sales goal in 2011 and an even more ambitious target of around 45,000 last year.
For the first five months of this year, GM has sold only 7,157 of what it prefers to call an extended-range electric vehicle, or E-REV. May sales, in particular, fell 4.3 percent, to 1,607. By comparison, the overall U.S. automotive market was up 8.2 percent for the month.
According to a report by Inside EVs, Chevy dealers have more than 9,000 Volts clogging inventories, vehicles they need to clear out before the 2014 models start rolling in.
The downturn in demand presents other problems for GM. The maker had high hopes for its electrification program and has been planning to use the underlying platform for additional models. So far, only two have been identified publicly. The Opel Ampera, a near twin of the Volt, is already on sale in Europe, China and a few other markets.
Meanwhile, GM plans to roll out a more lavish – and significantly more costly – plug-in model next year, the Cadillac ELR. There has been an ongoing debate within General Motors over the original decision to go to market with a relatively mainstream battery-car like the Chevrolet Volt, rather than focus on up-market customers with something like the ELR.
That’s the strategy Tesla has taken with the Model-S for which demand exceeded the start-up maker’s expectations during the first quarter, and which is now outselling the Volt. A well-equipped Model S with a 300-mile battery pack can top the $100,000 mark, yet Tesla has found demand for its high-end version so strong it dropped the least expensive, 160-mile model recently.
Among mainstream makers, however, price is clearly an object of resistance among potential buyers. That prompted Honda last month to reduce the lease price on its new Fit EV by a third, to $259 a month. Nissan, meanwhile, effectively reduced the price of the Leaf by 18 percent, or $6,000, when it launched a new, stripped-down model at the beginning of the year.
That followed 2012 sales that fell well short of target, acknowledged Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, calling it, “a disappointment for us.”
Makers like GM and Nissan have promised to reduce battery car prices as the cost of the underlying technology – especially their lithium-ion batteries – falls. GM officials have hinted the next-generation Chevy Volt could be “thousands” less.
But despite the high price tags for current models, buyers are still getting a bargain. Industry analysts have estimated it actually costs GM as much as $75,000 to build each Volt, or nearly twice the base price. While the maker won’t discuss such details, Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has publicly confirmed that the company will lose at least $10,000 for each of the Fiat 500e electric vehicles it recently introduced.
Whether the move will work remains to be seen, as GM has already trimmed the price on the Volt plug-in hybrid. But rival Nissan has had some clear success after cutting the price on its own Leaf battery-electric vehicle, or BEV, earlier this year.
Both vehicles were introduced to high expectations nearly three years ago, but they have so far consistently missed sales targets. Only a handful of battery-based vehicles have come close to meeting expectations, most notably the Tesla Model S.
That might be enough to convince a maker to pull the plug on a vehicle like Volt. But manufacturers like GM and Nissan are under heavy pressure to make their electric vehicle programs a success – at almost any cost – in part because of pressure they face in the nation’s largest state, California, where regulators require all major makers to offer a minimum number of so-called Zero-Emission Vehicles.
A California buyer can now purchase a Chevrolet Volt for as little as $28,495. The base price for the plug-in is $39,995 but all buyers qualify for $4,000 off on a 2013 model and $5,000 off for a 2012 Volt. They also can get an extra $1,000 if they are currently leasing a non-GM vehicle. Meanwhile, the federal government provides a $7,500 tax credit while the state kicks in another $1,500.
A number of other states now offer incentives to buyers of qualifying battery vehicles, as well.
Chevrolet also is now reducing lease pricing for the Volt to $269 a month for 36 months, with a $2,399 down payment.
Initially, demand for the Chevrolet Volt outpaced all its rivals but still fell short of its 10,000-unit U.S. sales goal in 2011 and an even more ambitious target of around 45,000 last year.
For the first five months of this year, GM has sold only 7,157 of what it prefers to call an extended-range electric vehicle, or E-REV. May sales, in particular, fell 4.3 percent, to 1,607. By comparison, the overall U.S. automotive market was up 8.2 percent for the month.
According to a report by Inside EVs, Chevy dealers have more than 9,000 Volts clogging inventories, vehicles they need to clear out before the 2014 models start rolling in.
The downturn in demand presents other problems for GM. The maker had high hopes for its electrification program and has been planning to use the underlying platform for additional models. So far, only two have been identified publicly. The Opel Ampera, a near twin of the Volt, is already on sale in Europe, China and a few other markets.
Meanwhile, GM plans to roll out a more lavish – and significantly more costly – plug-in model next year, the Cadillac ELR. There has been an ongoing debate within General Motors over the original decision to go to market with a relatively mainstream battery-car like the Chevrolet Volt, rather than focus on up-market customers with something like the ELR.
That’s the strategy Tesla has taken with the Model-S for which demand exceeded the start-up maker’s expectations during the first quarter, and which is now outselling the Volt. A well-equipped Model S with a 300-mile battery pack can top the $100,000 mark, yet Tesla has found demand for its high-end version so strong it dropped the least expensive, 160-mile model recently.
Among mainstream makers, however, price is clearly an object of resistance among potential buyers. That prompted Honda last month to reduce the lease price on its new Fit EV by a third, to $259 a month. Nissan, meanwhile, effectively reduced the price of the Leaf by 18 percent, or $6,000, when it launched a new, stripped-down model at the beginning of the year.
That followed 2012 sales that fell well short of target, acknowledged Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, calling it, “a disappointment for us.”
Makers like GM and Nissan have promised to reduce battery car prices as the cost of the underlying technology – especially their lithium-ion batteries – falls. GM officials have hinted the next-generation Chevy Volt could be “thousands” less.
But despite the high price tags for current models, buyers are still getting a bargain. Industry analysts have estimated it actually costs GM as much as $75,000 to build each Volt, or nearly twice the base price. While the maker won’t discuss such details, Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has publicly confirmed that the company will lose at least $10,000 for each of the Fiat 500e electric vehicles it recently introduced.
06-11-2013, 09:51 AM
#338
The Third Ball
Join Date: Sep 2002
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People are picking up Volts like crazy around here...the incentives on leases are way too good.
And those that are, are loving them.
My wife's cousin has 2...
And those that are, are loving them.
My wife's cousin has 2...
06-11-2013, 12:42 PM
#339
The sizzle in the Steak
Electric cars for the masses are a failure.
"Toy" electric cars for those with more means is clearly the better route.
"Toy" electric cars for those with more means is clearly the better route.
06-13-2013, 07:05 AM
#340
Race Director
06-13-2013, 04:03 PM
#341
The Third Ball
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08-06-2013, 09:27 AM
#342
Race Director
http://www.hybridcars.com/chevrolet-...price-by-5000/
Today General Motors announced the 2014 Volt will receive a $5,000 price decrease to allow for a starting MSRP of $34,995.
The Volt is one of the top three best-selling plug-in electrified vehicles – the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S being the other two – and has been on the market since December 2010.
With this move, Chevrolet has now followed Nissan’s lead set for the 2013 model year in lopping off from initial introductory pricing. Nissan launched the Leaf around the same period, and this year cut prices the SV and SL trim, and introduced a lower-level S trim package which was $6,000 less than the lowest priced 2012 version.
In contrast, Tesla – which sells cars that can cost between $70,000-$133,000 generally increased its pricing on Friday last week.
GM notes that if a consumer is eligible to includes the $7.500 federal tax credit, net pricing would start at $27,495. There are also state level and potentially local level incentives on a case by case basis for which the Volt is potentially eligible.
“We have made great strides in reducing costs as we gain experience with electric vehicles and their components,” said Don Johnson, U.S. vice president, Chevrolet sales and service. “In fact, the Volt has seen an increase in battery range and the addition of creature comforts, such as a leather-wrapped steering wheel and MyLink, since its launch in 2010.”
General Motors also notes its data shows that Volt drivers travel an average 900 miles between fill-ups and visit the gas station once a month.
The Volt uses premium gas and its tank is a little under 10 gallons to fill. The allowance of all-electric electric motive power means a very wide variance in actual potential user experiences.
On the more extreme end, Volt owners have been known to try and make a game of keeping the car in its all-electric mode – estimated by the EPA at 38 miles. If they do so and never or rarely dip into gasoline, they may extend the period between fill ups for months on end.
The Volt has a special steel pressurized gas tank and monitoring software to know how fresh the fuel is on board. If the owner stays in the electric zone the engine will fire up after several months top burn off gas before it becomes stale.
Where the Volt varies from pure electric cars is it is an “extended-range EV. On the positive side it has no “range anxiety” and can be refueled like a regular car at a gas station in addition to via an electric charger. On the less than positive side, its electric-only range is much less than the Leaf – rated at 75 miles with a 90 percent charge, or Model S – rated up to 208 miles for the 60-kwh version, and 265 miles for the 85-kwh version.
Volt sales have more or less lagged in recent months and it is hoped the price reduction for the car that’s been highly awarded will pick up. GM has not said when a “generation two” will be launched, but it’s generally believed it could be 2015 or 2016.
The Volt is one of the top three best-selling plug-in electrified vehicles – the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S being the other two – and has been on the market since December 2010.
With this move, Chevrolet has now followed Nissan’s lead set for the 2013 model year in lopping off from initial introductory pricing. Nissan launched the Leaf around the same period, and this year cut prices the SV and SL trim, and introduced a lower-level S trim package which was $6,000 less than the lowest priced 2012 version.
In contrast, Tesla – which sells cars that can cost between $70,000-$133,000 generally increased its pricing on Friday last week.
GM notes that if a consumer is eligible to includes the $7.500 federal tax credit, net pricing would start at $27,495. There are also state level and potentially local level incentives on a case by case basis for which the Volt is potentially eligible.
“We have made great strides in reducing costs as we gain experience with electric vehicles and their components,” said Don Johnson, U.S. vice president, Chevrolet sales and service. “In fact, the Volt has seen an increase in battery range and the addition of creature comforts, such as a leather-wrapped steering wheel and MyLink, since its launch in 2010.”
General Motors also notes its data shows that Volt drivers travel an average 900 miles between fill-ups and visit the gas station once a month.
The Volt uses premium gas and its tank is a little under 10 gallons to fill. The allowance of all-electric electric motive power means a very wide variance in actual potential user experiences.
On the more extreme end, Volt owners have been known to try and make a game of keeping the car in its all-electric mode – estimated by the EPA at 38 miles. If they do so and never or rarely dip into gasoline, they may extend the period between fill ups for months on end.
The Volt has a special steel pressurized gas tank and monitoring software to know how fresh the fuel is on board. If the owner stays in the electric zone the engine will fire up after several months top burn off gas before it becomes stale.
Where the Volt varies from pure electric cars is it is an “extended-range EV. On the positive side it has no “range anxiety” and can be refueled like a regular car at a gas station in addition to via an electric charger. On the less than positive side, its electric-only range is much less than the Leaf – rated at 75 miles with a 90 percent charge, or Model S – rated up to 208 miles for the 60-kwh version, and 265 miles for the 85-kwh version.
Volt sales have more or less lagged in recent months and it is hoped the price reduction for the car that’s been highly awarded will pick up. GM has not said when a “generation two” will be launched, but it’s generally believed it could be 2015 or 2016.
08-06-2013, 10:42 AM
#344
The sizzle in the Steak
Got little to no profit in your vehicle.....no problem....lower the price!!! 
08-06-2013, 10:42 AM
#345
The sizzle in the Steak
Got little to no profit in your vehicle.....no problem....lower the price!!!
12-05-2018, 05:51 PM
#346
Race Director
For a vehicle billed as the savior of General Motors not that long ago, amid the darkest days of the recession and the automotive industry crisis, the Chevrolet Volt will be making a quiet departure amid an industry-wide turn away from sedans and toward SUVs, trucks and crossovers. GM announced last week that the Volt will exit production in 2019, along with the Chevrolet Impala, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6, signaling a major shift in long-term planning for the end of the decade and beyond. While the departure of large sedans was expected and somewhat overdue, especially as it concerns Cadillac's overlapping lineup, the planned departure of the second-generation Volt on March 1, 2019 will close a chapter that the automaker did not expect to end this way just a few years ago.
The first-generation Volt debuted in 2010 following an intense development cycle that saw GM engineers push battery technology to its limit at the time, pairing a 1.4-liter gasoline engine with a 16-kWh lithium-ion battery and wrapping the plug-in hybrid in a sleek and futuristic hatchback body. The first example rolled out of the Hamtramck plant on November 30, 2010, a year after GM negotiated a bankruptcy minefield that saw the closure of a number of brands within a relatively short period of time and had caused considerable strain on the automaker and the industry. The first-generation Volt won an impressive roster of awards in its first two years on sale, despite a high sticker price of $41,720 prior to any EV credits, and projections of unprofitability for the automaker. For overseas markets, the Volt was offered as the Opel Ampera in Europe, Buick Velite in China and Holden Volt in Australia, keeping the Chevy badge elsewhere.
The second-generation Volt debuted at the 2015 Detroit auto show amid a significantly different automotive landscape than just five years prior. The Volt went on sale as a 2017 model year vehicle due to a staggered rollout that began in California and then spread to other states. It boasted a greater pure-electric range, increased energy storage and a progressive gain in mpg numbers, plus a markedly lower starting price of $33,995 before any credits and incentives.
Ultimately, the untimely demise of the Volt cannot be pinned on any one factor, but rather a significant number of fairly recognizable "usual suspects" that eroded the business case for its continued production since its launch, leading to an outcome that will no doubt continue to be studied for years to come.
1. Sales in the "recovery" years
For a vehicle billed as the GM car of the next decade, the Volt arrived amid a cratered auto sales landscape with a fairly significant sticker price, offset somewhat by a delayed tax credit. 2011 was the first full year of production, with the Volt recording 7,671 sales in the U.S. despite a fairly modest target of 10,000 units in its first year. The following model year turned out to be the high water mark for the first-gen model, with Chevrolet selling 23,461 examples of the Volt stateside. Sales dipped a little in 2013, with the Volt recording 23,094 sales in the U.S. and dropped a little more sharply in 2014 with 18,805 units sold. The final year first-gen model saw 15,393 Volts find new homes in the U.S. -- expectedly depressed by the impending promise of a new version.
Canada turned out to be the second-biggest market for the Volt, but annual sales peaked sharply at 1,521 units in 2014. For a Prius-fighter, all of these numbers were not quite what was hoped for.
The second generation experienced a peak in sales for the 2016 model year, which saw 24,739 units find new homes in the U.S. Indeed, 2016 proved to be the high water mark for the second-gen Volt as sales fell by about 4,000 units to 20,349 in 2017 and by approximately 7,000 units down to 13,243 for 2018.
2. Price
The Volt faced the challenge of being designed and engineered in one economic climate, to arrive on sale in a vastly different one. The impact of the economic downturn that occurred halfway through the Volt's gestation cannot be overstated -- the company barely made it out alive -- but the Volt still had to contend with a different landscape when it went on sale. It helped that new car sales favored fuel-sipping models, but the Volt's sticker price did not make it a popular alternative to something like a used Prius, or any used car for that matter. Consumers simply delayed car purchases, and even though the Volt's initial $41,725 price was cut significantly during its product cycle, it still had to compete with the more affordable Prius and a vast glut of used gas and diesel cars. By the 2018 model year, the base Volt remained $10,000 dearer than the base Prius.
3. Gasoline prices
Third, the level of oil production and gasoline prices that were predicted for the middle of the 2010s did not materialize in the U.S., thanks to a significant surge in domestic production that saw the U.S. overtake Saudi Arabia in oil production by the Volt's second generation -- a scenario that was borderline implausible a decade prior, unless one assumed that Saudi Arabia was going to run out of oil. The relatively low gas prices had a number of effects, most of which depressed the growth of EVs and hybrids as segments during this time and which persist to this day. The established players like the Prius remained and were even joined by a couple more contenders, but hybridized versions of the Chevy Tahoe were clearly not the direction that EV and hybrid fans were hoping for.
Most automakers moved to anticipate, by the end of this decade, relatively higher gasoline prices, significant advances in battery technology and a shift toward more efficient vehicles. It's debatable whether even one of these three expectations truly materialized. The Prius seemed like a particularly prescient car, and it was hard to argue with the expectation of ever-rising oil prices and a turn to renewable energy. GM and the Volt were not wrong at the time the Volt was conceived -- it was not a bad bet in 2008 -- but hybrids did not quite capture the kind of market share that was predicted to materialize by 2020. In short, there was no compelling economic force that could have forced buyers to stampede into smaller hybrids and EVs en masse.
4. The competition, hybrid and electric
Shortly after launch, the Volt faced an ever-growing number of credible and more affordable competitors, not only from hybrids but from battery-electric vehicles. The Nissan Leaf, without the advantage of a range-extending gasoline engine, eclipsed the Volt's sales during its best year of sales in 2014 by about 12,000 units. And that's for a vehicle without the benefit of a range-extending gas engine, something the Volt offered as one of its main benefits over competitors. The effect of this must have been quite demoralizing for GM planners at the time. Toyota Prius sales also remained strong with a number of offshoot models launched during the two generations of the Volt's production run.
By the Volt's second generation, it was now being squeezed from above and from below when it came to sticker price and packaging, never quite rising to the luxury territory staked out by Tesla while being too expensive to battle the Prius and a motley group of EVs closely orbiting it. The Volt's value proposition was on the economy side rather than the luxury side, and as a four-passenger hybrid it was too expensive to battle lower-priced hybrids and EVs.
5. A turn to battery-electric vehicles by GM
The PHEV formula itself is not a flawed one and is not going away anytime soon, but GM has officially announced that it will focus on pure EVs in the future, indicating that the Volt was ultimately not the right long-term direction for the automaker.
"GM now intends to prioritize future vehicle investments in its next-generation battery-electric architectures," the automaker said in announcing the demise of the Volt and a number of other vehicles. "As the current vehicle portfolio is optimized, it is expected that more than 75 percent of GM’s global sales volume will come from five vehicle architectures by early next decade."
Being a plug-in hybrid, the Volt had to pack all the hardware of a gas engine, a substantial battery and everything else to make it work. As such, it came with compromises and the complexity of really being two cars in one, while still being forced to battle hybrids and EVs in the lower price segments.
6. Slow demise of nonluxury domestic sedans
Finally, we can cite the demise of sedans as a popular segment during the Volt's two generations, especially the second one, and the concurrent and rapid growth in the popularity of crossovers and SUVs of all sizes. Simply put, the Volt was not a crossover, but it should have been. In 2010, the typical cars of 2020 looked like small hybrids and electrics with wind-cheating shapes, interiors made from renewable materials and mpg ratings well north of what the Prius offered at the time. Needless to say, most of this future did not materialize, as attested to by the rude return of mothballed Hummer H2s to the interstates by the middle of the decade, as well as the return of cheap gasoline and a market appetite for big SUVs that would look garish even by the standards of the 1990s. The economic downturn of the early 2010s has been replaced by a quicker-than-anticipated recovery -- a recovery that saw consumers flock to high-riding premium and luxury crossovers.
We are sure that there are plenty of other factors that will be mentioned in various postmortems of the Volt experiment. One of them is likely to be the frequently mentioned central tunnel running lengthwise through the cabin, reducing passenger capacity. If anything, we're a little skeptical of that being a major point of contention. First off, it sounds like more of theoretical shortcoming than an actual one -- something that dealers at competitor dealerships would point out to denigrate the Volt. After all, who regularly has to carry four (or more) passengers in their Volt? Is that a real deal-breaker for Volt buyers? "I would have bought a Volt, but since it couldn't carry one more adult in the back I'm not going to buy one because I regularly stuff my commuter car with people, even when going to the grocery story or to get a burger at a drive-thru." It just doesn't seem plausible; if you're going to buy a car to carry yourself and four passengers regularly, odds are you're not looking at a Volt to begin with because you also need luggage space for a total of five people. Yes, the tunnel was an annoying vestige of some earlier engineering decisions, but we just don't see the Volt and its competition carrying that many people regularly.
The Tesla factor is another element that we're a little skeptical of when it comes to the Volt's demise, at least when it come to sales competition. Tesla may have proved to GM that battery-electric vehicles are the way of the future, but in practical terms the Volt and various Tesla models were never direct competitors. The promised $35,000 Model 3 is still a few months away, but did Tesla Model S sales eat into Volt sales even before that? Not likely, as the S-Class-priced Model S existed in a different price segment and served different needs. If anything, the Volt was trapped between the lower-priced Prius and the higher-priced EVs in the luxury segment. But we should note that Tesla has resisted the decline in the popularity of sedans as a bodystyle, perhaps proving to GM that luxury domestic EV sedans can still make it in the marketplace even if nonluxury domestic PHEVs are facing a decline.
What other factors do you see as having contributed to the demise of the Volt?
Read more: https://autoweek.com/article/green-c...#ixzz5YrAjPsTo
The first-generation Volt debuted in 2010 following an intense development cycle that saw GM engineers push battery technology to its limit at the time, pairing a 1.4-liter gasoline engine with a 16-kWh lithium-ion battery and wrapping the plug-in hybrid in a sleek and futuristic hatchback body. The first example rolled out of the Hamtramck plant on November 30, 2010, a year after GM negotiated a bankruptcy minefield that saw the closure of a number of brands within a relatively short period of time and had caused considerable strain on the automaker and the industry. The first-generation Volt won an impressive roster of awards in its first two years on sale, despite a high sticker price of $41,720 prior to any EV credits, and projections of unprofitability for the automaker. For overseas markets, the Volt was offered as the Opel Ampera in Europe, Buick Velite in China and Holden Volt in Australia, keeping the Chevy badge elsewhere.
The second-generation Volt debuted at the 2015 Detroit auto show amid a significantly different automotive landscape than just five years prior. The Volt went on sale as a 2017 model year vehicle due to a staggered rollout that began in California and then spread to other states. It boasted a greater pure-electric range, increased energy storage and a progressive gain in mpg numbers, plus a markedly lower starting price of $33,995 before any credits and incentives.
Ultimately, the untimely demise of the Volt cannot be pinned on any one factor, but rather a significant number of fairly recognizable "usual suspects" that eroded the business case for its continued production since its launch, leading to an outcome that will no doubt continue to be studied for years to come.
1. Sales in the "recovery" years
For a vehicle billed as the GM car of the next decade, the Volt arrived amid a cratered auto sales landscape with a fairly significant sticker price, offset somewhat by a delayed tax credit. 2011 was the first full year of production, with the Volt recording 7,671 sales in the U.S. despite a fairly modest target of 10,000 units in its first year. The following model year turned out to be the high water mark for the first-gen model, with Chevrolet selling 23,461 examples of the Volt stateside. Sales dipped a little in 2013, with the Volt recording 23,094 sales in the U.S. and dropped a little more sharply in 2014 with 18,805 units sold. The final year first-gen model saw 15,393 Volts find new homes in the U.S. -- expectedly depressed by the impending promise of a new version.
Canada turned out to be the second-biggest market for the Volt, but annual sales peaked sharply at 1,521 units in 2014. For a Prius-fighter, all of these numbers were not quite what was hoped for.
The second generation experienced a peak in sales for the 2016 model year, which saw 24,739 units find new homes in the U.S. Indeed, 2016 proved to be the high water mark for the second-gen Volt as sales fell by about 4,000 units to 20,349 in 2017 and by approximately 7,000 units down to 13,243 for 2018.
2. Price
The Volt faced the challenge of being designed and engineered in one economic climate, to arrive on sale in a vastly different one. The impact of the economic downturn that occurred halfway through the Volt's gestation cannot be overstated -- the company barely made it out alive -- but the Volt still had to contend with a different landscape when it went on sale. It helped that new car sales favored fuel-sipping models, but the Volt's sticker price did not make it a popular alternative to something like a used Prius, or any used car for that matter. Consumers simply delayed car purchases, and even though the Volt's initial $41,725 price was cut significantly during its product cycle, it still had to compete with the more affordable Prius and a vast glut of used gas and diesel cars. By the 2018 model year, the base Volt remained $10,000 dearer than the base Prius.
3. Gasoline prices
Third, the level of oil production and gasoline prices that were predicted for the middle of the 2010s did not materialize in the U.S., thanks to a significant surge in domestic production that saw the U.S. overtake Saudi Arabia in oil production by the Volt's second generation -- a scenario that was borderline implausible a decade prior, unless one assumed that Saudi Arabia was going to run out of oil. The relatively low gas prices had a number of effects, most of which depressed the growth of EVs and hybrids as segments during this time and which persist to this day. The established players like the Prius remained and were even joined by a couple more contenders, but hybridized versions of the Chevy Tahoe were clearly not the direction that EV and hybrid fans were hoping for.
Most automakers moved to anticipate, by the end of this decade, relatively higher gasoline prices, significant advances in battery technology and a shift toward more efficient vehicles. It's debatable whether even one of these three expectations truly materialized. The Prius seemed like a particularly prescient car, and it was hard to argue with the expectation of ever-rising oil prices and a turn to renewable energy. GM and the Volt were not wrong at the time the Volt was conceived -- it was not a bad bet in 2008 -- but hybrids did not quite capture the kind of market share that was predicted to materialize by 2020. In short, there was no compelling economic force that could have forced buyers to stampede into smaller hybrids and EVs en masse.
4. The competition, hybrid and electric
Shortly after launch, the Volt faced an ever-growing number of credible and more affordable competitors, not only from hybrids but from battery-electric vehicles. The Nissan Leaf, without the advantage of a range-extending gasoline engine, eclipsed the Volt's sales during its best year of sales in 2014 by about 12,000 units. And that's for a vehicle without the benefit of a range-extending gas engine, something the Volt offered as one of its main benefits over competitors. The effect of this must have been quite demoralizing for GM planners at the time. Toyota Prius sales also remained strong with a number of offshoot models launched during the two generations of the Volt's production run.
By the Volt's second generation, it was now being squeezed from above and from below when it came to sticker price and packaging, never quite rising to the luxury territory staked out by Tesla while being too expensive to battle the Prius and a motley group of EVs closely orbiting it. The Volt's value proposition was on the economy side rather than the luxury side, and as a four-passenger hybrid it was too expensive to battle lower-priced hybrids and EVs.
5. A turn to battery-electric vehicles by GM
The PHEV formula itself is not a flawed one and is not going away anytime soon, but GM has officially announced that it will focus on pure EVs in the future, indicating that the Volt was ultimately not the right long-term direction for the automaker.
"GM now intends to prioritize future vehicle investments in its next-generation battery-electric architectures," the automaker said in announcing the demise of the Volt and a number of other vehicles. "As the current vehicle portfolio is optimized, it is expected that more than 75 percent of GM’s global sales volume will come from five vehicle architectures by early next decade."
Being a plug-in hybrid, the Volt had to pack all the hardware of a gas engine, a substantial battery and everything else to make it work. As such, it came with compromises and the complexity of really being two cars in one, while still being forced to battle hybrids and EVs in the lower price segments.
6. Slow demise of nonluxury domestic sedans
Finally, we can cite the demise of sedans as a popular segment during the Volt's two generations, especially the second one, and the concurrent and rapid growth in the popularity of crossovers and SUVs of all sizes. Simply put, the Volt was not a crossover, but it should have been. In 2010, the typical cars of 2020 looked like small hybrids and electrics with wind-cheating shapes, interiors made from renewable materials and mpg ratings well north of what the Prius offered at the time. Needless to say, most of this future did not materialize, as attested to by the rude return of mothballed Hummer H2s to the interstates by the middle of the decade, as well as the return of cheap gasoline and a market appetite for big SUVs that would look garish even by the standards of the 1990s. The economic downturn of the early 2010s has been replaced by a quicker-than-anticipated recovery -- a recovery that saw consumers flock to high-riding premium and luxury crossovers.
We are sure that there are plenty of other factors that will be mentioned in various postmortems of the Volt experiment. One of them is likely to be the frequently mentioned central tunnel running lengthwise through the cabin, reducing passenger capacity. If anything, we're a little skeptical of that being a major point of contention. First off, it sounds like more of theoretical shortcoming than an actual one -- something that dealers at competitor dealerships would point out to denigrate the Volt. After all, who regularly has to carry four (or more) passengers in their Volt? Is that a real deal-breaker for Volt buyers? "I would have bought a Volt, but since it couldn't carry one more adult in the back I'm not going to buy one because I regularly stuff my commuter car with people, even when going to the grocery story or to get a burger at a drive-thru." It just doesn't seem plausible; if you're going to buy a car to carry yourself and four passengers regularly, odds are you're not looking at a Volt to begin with because you also need luggage space for a total of five people. Yes, the tunnel was an annoying vestige of some earlier engineering decisions, but we just don't see the Volt and its competition carrying that many people regularly.
The Tesla factor is another element that we're a little skeptical of when it comes to the Volt's demise, at least when it come to sales competition. Tesla may have proved to GM that battery-electric vehicles are the way of the future, but in practical terms the Volt and various Tesla models were never direct competitors. The promised $35,000 Model 3 is still a few months away, but did Tesla Model S sales eat into Volt sales even before that? Not likely, as the S-Class-priced Model S existed in a different price segment and served different needs. If anything, the Volt was trapped between the lower-priced Prius and the higher-priced EVs in the luxury segment. But we should note that Tesla has resisted the decline in the popularity of sedans as a bodystyle, perhaps proving to GM that luxury domestic EV sedans can still make it in the marketplace even if nonluxury domestic PHEVs are facing a decline.
What other factors do you see as having contributed to the demise of the Volt?
Read more: https://autoweek.com/article/green-c...#ixzz5YrAjPsTo
12-06-2018, 09:54 AM
#347
Moderator
I always thought the Volt should've been more of a hit.
I think the 2G was a decent looking car, and, IMO, removed the range anxiety associated with full electrics. Fuelly lists the 2017 Volt with an average of 83.5MPG for 174 cars with just shy of 2M miles tracked.
Price may have been a good part of it, I imagine.
I think the 2G was a decent looking car, and, IMO, removed the range anxiety associated with full electrics. Fuelly lists the 2017 Volt with an average of 83.5MPG for 174 cars with just shy of 2M miles tracked.
Price may have been a good part of it, I imagine.
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