Slow Sales Dogged Volt Before Fires
By Sharon TerlepDETROIT—Before General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt became the subject of a U.S. safety investigation, the auto maker’s moon shot was falling well short of its stratospheric expectations.
GM’s year-old, battery-powered Volt, cast by the company as a revolution in automotive technology, will miss the sales target of 10,000 vehicles that Chief Executive Dan Akerson set for this year, hampered by production delays, distribution problems and questions about whether Americans really want electric cars. The company is on track to sell around 8,000 Volts this year.
Much more at the link. But the article continues to tell us that General Motors has set a sales target of 45,000 Volts in 2012. The car costs $41,000 per unit, and GM loses money on every unit sold. The federal government offers a $7500 tax credit, but even with that, the car is simply not economically competitive with other high-mileage automobiles; the Chevrolet Cruze starts at $16,720 and gets 42 miles per gallon on the highway, while the Volt gets 40 MPG when the small gasoline engine is running and 95 MPG when on battery power.
The math: if the Cruze costs $16,720, and the Volt $41,000 (with a $7500 tax credit), the cost difference between the two is $16,780. Ignoring financing costs (buying the Volt means paying $41,000; you don’t get the tax credit until tax refund time), and assuming that the Volt is compared to the Cruze 29 MPG city/42 MPG highway, assuming a combined mileage of 35 MPG and gasoline at an average of $4.00 per gallon — and it’s less than that now — you can drive the Cruze for 146,825 miles before you’ve spent as much as you would to buy the Volt, and that assumes that you never put a drop of gasoline in the Volt. (And we all know that the household electricity to recharge the Volt is free, right?)
But there’s more. To own a Volt, with any sense of practicality, means that you have to have a garage in which to park it, to have the specific SAE J1772-2009 electric receptacle to charge the batteries; at a standard 120 volt, 15 amp circuit, a full recharge takes twelve hours, though the time can be cut to three hours if a 240 volt circuit is installed. The vehicle comes with a standard 20 foot long charging cord. This is simply not a vehicle which can be parked outside and charged.
The Volt is simply not a first car; it is a second vehicle, with restricted uses. $41,000 is a lot of money for most American families to shell out for a second car . . . or even a first.
And now, failed crash safety tests have the Volt on the ropes again, and GM is planning a Volt Repurchase Team to buy back Volts from customers who still aren’t satisfied. Dan Akerson, General Motors’ Chief Executive Officer, said that the Volt is safe, and he plans to buy one of the repurchased vehicles for his wife. As one of the commenters on the JOURNAL article said, he might be more impressed and consider buying one if Mr Akerson was going to buy the repurchased Volt for himself rather than for his wife.
Our “progressive” friends have simply misjudged how the American people think. According to “progressive” logic, there should be a substantial demand for vehicles like the Volt. But, as we already knew, what the American people really seem to want is larger vehicles, such as SUVs and trucks. Reality seems to have a harsh way of intruding on “progressive” logic.
The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Editor says:
Well, not exactly. I think, according to progressive logic, purchasing a Volt should be a federal mandate.
Obviously the “based community” can’t see beyond the limits of their idiot ideologies. Which is exactly the sort of blindness which inflicts political true-believers when they abandon all common sense and reason. The only things they have left are hate, class warfare, empty promises, mass hysteria, blind adherence, and dogmatic worship at the feet of false gods.
Editor, please insert “reality based community.” Thanks.
{Done. — Ed.]
And, another one bites the dust:
Electric car maker Aptera closes its doors
By Dee-Ann Durbin,, AP Auto Writer, 12/3/11
“Electric car maker Aptera Motors is closing after failing to woo enough investors to bring a new sedan to market.
Aptera CEO Paul Wilbur said the Carlsbad, Calif.-based company closed its doors Friday and laid off all 30 of its employees.
The company was hoping to get a $150 million loan from the Department of Energy but needed to raise matching funds, Wilbur said. He said Aptera had trouble drumming up interest from investors, who have been spooked by the difficulties other small electric car makers have had. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla Motors Inc., for example, has racked up millions of dollars in losses as it prepares to bring its electric Model S sedan to market in mid-2012.
“A lot of people on the West Coast thought they could do the industry better. But the reality that has set in is that these are capital intensive industries, and it’s difficult,” Wilbur told The Associated Press on Friday. “It’s scared a lot of investors in the space right now. We have a million sympathizers, but when it comes to writing a big check there aren’t many of those around.”
The Volt is a good idea whose time has not yet come, for reasons stated in the title piece, like the price, like the fact that the infrastructure is hardly in place.
The English are further along on rolling out all-electric cars, especially regarding the required infrastructure, but even very large government subsidies for purchase are not motivating many buyers to take the leap.
With natural gas so cheap, relative to oil ==> gasoline, and since combustion of natural gas produces less CO2 than gasoline, for the time being I favor natural gas. As electricity production involves more input from alternative energy sources like wind, geothermal, solar, and even nuclear, then the electric car will become more cost effective, provided the original purchase price becomes lower as well.
For a few years I have had an electric scooter to get around outside. Maybe at best I can get almost 3 miles on a flat to 1% grade surface. We have a trail on an old RailRoad bed. It runs from flat to 2%. But most places are 1%. A few years agoI did get the 3miles in the lower area. But where it is near home is 2%. So, given there are few 0% grade roads, I can see a quick drainage on the batteries, especially on parts of I-83 where is 4 to 5%.
I don’t knoww if any of you guys ever actually drove a Volt, but I did. My frind’s son has one. I didn’t drive it far perhaps only a mile or so, but I didn’t need to. The exterior is “cute” by girly standards and the interior is about as sumptuous as a late 90′s Hyundai Elantra.
It has a One speed transmission, makes very little sound and rides like a buckboard. The driver feels no engine rumble, of course no trans shifting, no true handling characteristics to speak of. In other words the car has No Soul. (Maybe that’s why liberals like it). I can say there were no rattles and it seemed well put together. But a car without a Soul is just not for me. The other thing is, if that car were not electric, it would sell for 15 grand, tops.
We were amused when my friends kid had to take it to the Chevy dealer for a charging the night before he embarked on his trip back to State College. That enabled him to get from the Willow Grove Turnpike enterance to about Downingtown, Wow. Even my Vette could do that using about two gallons of gas on cruise. Big savings, a whole seven, eight bucks.
The “one speed transmission” doesn’t surprise me; it is total electric drive, and the auxiliary gasoline engine simply runs a generator, which either recharges the batteries or directly powers the electric drive, as needed. It is, in a way, the same concept used by a diesel locomotive or a diesel-electric submarine.
But the “rides like a buckboard” does surprise me. You’d think that, for $41 grand, they’d be able to build a better ride in it. Of course, you were driving on roads in Pennsylvania, which could exp[ain the ride!
Ya got me there Editor. I was driving the local roads in Bryn Athyn, so even my Lincoln is a tad rough. The only time the roads are smoothe here is in the winter when the potholes are filled with snow. Also, I think the kid has a 2011 model, they may have changed. I just don’t think GM’s concern was ride or comfort, just “green”.
I read about a week ago that the Volt caught on fire three weeks after it crashed. Well, it was in April, and we’re just hearing about. Now the crashed car was a test car at Chevy. Apparently, Chevy notified the Feds Safety Council then. And now we’re just hearing about it. Now what’s wrong with this picture? The Gummint withheld Safety Issues from the public for six months. Now who controls both entities?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/were_safety_issues_with_the_chevy_volt_battery_suppressed.html
You should move here to slower.lower.DE, where all of our roads are 0% grade.
Do you enjoy fishing? How would your scooter do on wet packed sand? We have places on the beach her where one can drive right up near the ocean and go surf fishing to your heart’s delight!
Wagonwheel says:
December 6, 2011 at 13:24
I’ve done surf casting and all I caught were skeeter bites. Since then, (about 12 years old) do not go to the surf when the wind is blowing from inland. I think the scooter would work on hard packed sand. I did drive on Daytona Beach twice with the car. The only thing I would worry about is salt corrosion. It killed my reel back when I was 12. Salt corrosion is a possibility since it’s less than 6 inches off the floor. I know there are dune crossings around Indian River Inlet and down near Fenwick at the state line. HMMM, ya got me thinking. Rt. 1 is flat except for Indian River.
Yorkshire, if you’re worried about the corrosion, you can drive to Cape Henlopen State Park, which is a couple of miles away from here, and motor your scooter right out onto the fishing pier at any time of the day or night. And no biting bugs are there either. Actually, in contrast to Ocean City NJ, where the family had a summer place, where we went often in past years, I’ve not encountered those biting flies and pests here like they had there. I am not much of a fisherman, although our family visitors have motivated me to go with them at times. As you know I’m sure, when living near the water, there are a multitude of opportunities for people to enjoy fishing, from deep sea fishing all the way down to tidal streams and canals, and fresh water rivers and ponds. Being the city boy I am, I’ve never had the urge to fish, although I love to eat certain kinds. Tautog, which in season populate the base of the stone jetties, which makes them very difficult to catch I’m told, are my all time favorite eating fish. They are not plentiful, so you don’t find them in local stores, but I have a neighbor who has graced our table with his catch from time to time.
Catching the tautog involves tying a rope to a rock, then with the motor at a speed to keep the rope taught, enables your line to get to the right spot to catch them, as my neighbor has explained. It’s a challenge, but a great reward in the eating.
Here’s a new wrinkle in the continuing shame of Obama’s ReVolt!
Huw Evans of AutoGuide.com, December 5, 2011 reports:
Chevrolet Volt Battery Issues, Safety Findings May Have Been Suppressed
“Following on from the announcement that GM is looking at redesigning the Chevrolet Volt’s lithium-ion battery system in the wake of several highly publicized fires resulting from test crashes, comes further news that both the automaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration delayed disclosure of their original findings by months.
Apparently, way back in June, General Motors heard about a Volt fire that happened three weeks after said vehicle was crash tested, yet it wasn’t until November that the company, or NHTSA disclosed there was a potential problem, urging both dealers and customers to drain the battery pack immediately following an accident.
As a result the public relations nightmare surrounding Chevy’s halo vehicle appears to be deepening, though a good deal of the blame in this case also rests with NHTSA.
Joan Claybrook, a former adminstrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.”
Ropelight:
Joan Claybrook, a former adminstrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.”
It’s Simple and makes sense to me: GM – Government Motors, NHTSA – Government agency. HMMM wonder who is the leader for each???? It’s the guy with a firm grip — on a golf club.