The Chevrolet Volt is finally going to ship to the consumer next month. There was an incredible amount of talk and hype in 2009, but now that it seems to be shipping, the hype seems much less reduced. Perhaps because the US car industry isn’t going completely bottoms up afterall. So what of the Volt? Is it a game changer? Will electric cars (or hybrids if you are anal) finally start to take off in earnest?
They are building a tiny number. Not enough to make any difference to the environment or to GMs finances.
It is going to be a lot more expensive that the Nissan Leaf. In California the difference will be $14000, $9000 in most other states.
It has a gasoline powered generator on board and after only 40 miles between charges you are running on gas. The leaf gives you 100 miles range on all electric.
And ta-da GM is offering a lease on the car that assumes an absurdly high residual value. I bet Chevy loses a bundle on each car they ship because of this and because they are building so few.
Funny, Nissan is marketing the Leaf as “Made in America”. But it too will initially be available in small quantities. Supposedly Chevrolet will ramp up production if the demand proves solid. And the Leaf is an electric only car, meaning that it suffers from the limited range problems the Volt solves by also having a gasoline engine. The limited range of the Leaf means a family would need another car besides it. Anyway I hope both of them will succeed.
The distinction is important.
Electric cars are not going to go anywhere until they become significantly less expensive than comparable gasoline powered cars. You’ll get some niche acceptance, but there is too much loss of utility (range, recharge time) to get wide acceptance at equal or higher prices. You lose that much utility, you have to be the cost saving choice.
Plug in hybrids can compete directly with gas-only cars but the prices are going to have to come down. The Volt is a 4 door sedan about the size of a Cobalt, but costs $40,000 instead of $20,000. You can make a value argument for a modest premium, but not this much.
But it is my understanding that the Volt uses the gasoline engine mainly to recharge the batteries when those are running flat, and that it is classified as a hybrid only because the gasoline engine in certain circumstances requiring extra horse powers can also in part bypass the batteries and be directed directly towards the wheels. The last part is actually very important in Denmark, since it means the car will be slammed with an extra 300% tax, making it practically unsellable.
Taxes aside, the distinction to me is that a plug in hybrid like the Volt has an effectively unlimited range, and does not absolutely require you to recharge the batteries before driving. An electric only car has limitations that the hybrid doesn’t, which I think would make a huge difference in its marketability.
I don’t see a market for the Volt, unless gasoline rises to >$6.00/gallon.
And, at those price levels, it would be cheaper to run a car on CNG-that conversion can be done for less than $3000.
Actually, the Federal Government ought to relax the rules on NOx emissions, and stimulate the industry to develop ultra-high compression gasoline engines (> 14:1 compression ratios). Such engines would be twice as efficint as the engines used now-and a small (2000 lb.) car equipped with one would get 50-60 MPG.
Volt will be $33,500 after the tax credit.
The Cobalt starts at around 15k. So the Volt is still double.
The trouble is that, as others have pointed out, the economics of the car don’t make any sense in terms of return on investment. But that’s true of the Prius too-- other than maybe taxi fleets hardly anyone does enough city driving to break even on a Prius versus a conventional economy car. And yet Priuses have been selling like hotcakes.
Now, here’s the difficult part. The Prius is essentially a luxury car. Maybe not in the conventional sense, but it is definitely a status symbol. People buy the Prius because they want to project a “green” image. I think the big problem is convincing these sorts of people that buying a General Motors product is “green”, regardless of the actual qualities of that product. Of course the Volt is mainly aimed at fixing that reputation, so it’s sort of a horse-following-the-cart situation. How they market and hype the Volt is crucial.
From what I’ve read, the Volt itself appears to be a very good product-- in some ways the Volt only seems like an evolutionary step over a Prius-type hybrid, but having an electric only range that is longer than most peoples’ commutes is IMHO revolutionary. But GM’s PR people are already bungling things up with some misleading claims and generally not handling dissemination of information well.
I’ve been saying for years that GM solved their quality issues a long time ago and their chief problems now are ones of perception and reputation. I think the Volt could be a big part of fixing those, but they’ve got a pretty narrow window of opportunity while they have the lead in hybrid technology before the plug-in Prius (and other next-generation hybrids) show up.
At $40,000, the Volt is a bargain compard to the 2 seater Tesla ($110,000).
As was pointed out, it is more a statement than a practical car.
Honestly, I would love to see electric cars succeed-but it will not happen till we have vastly better battery systems (longer ranges, shorter charging times).
Yes, the Volt is expensive, and I am not sure that it will sell very well because of the price, but getting the technology on the road and to the general public is a huge step toward making the technology more affordable and reliable.
Also the Volt is totally a cool car, and I’m far from being green. Tell me you wouldn’t feel at least a little smug if you could drive the car to work everyday and other around town errands and not burn a drop of gasoline! And I’m not talking about the environment, I just think that would be cool. The electricity is so much cheaper per mile than gas. Its also lighter on the C emissions, even if you assume the electricity is 100% coal fueled.
The gas engine is not mechanically connected to the wheels at all, its like a train engine, it just turns a generator to power the wheels. It does this to extend the range beyond 40 miles. Its also what sets it apart from the Leaf. If I had the Leaf, I would need a second car for making long trips (I’m sorry, I’m not waiting for a battery to charge after every 100 miles). The Volt can make long trips, no problemo, and still get pretty decent mileage.
All that being said, I wouldn’t buy one… too expensive and I have concerns about how long the battery holds up after the 8yr warranty. But its definitely cool, and, I think, it will change the game… it’s already responsible prodding the Leaf to the US market. Once they finish that battery plant up in MI and pay for some of the other equipment (and initial engineering), I bet the prices get better.
There is no 2011 Cobalt. That model was discontinued.
California was smart. When the Prius was just starting, Prius owners got carpool stickers. While the savings in gas were not nearly enough to compensate for the additional cost, for many people making a decent hourly rate the savings in time over several years. At $50 an hour (not an unreasonable rate for the market in the Bay Area at least) and an hour of commute savings a day, that is $10K a year. Not to mention a certain psychic satisfaction from beating the crowd.
I bought a Prius in January, and while still a bit more expensive than a comparably sized car, it was not horribly so. It is a lot cheaper than a real luxury car, and does give quite a bit of satisfaction.
Now, IEEE Spectrum did run a story showing the Volt was a losing economic proposition. I don’t think GM is a problem, though. I did look at the Ford Fusion, but it was more expensive than the Prius and I don’t buy first model years. I don’t see a big push for them - at least not in the places I am. Toyota was quite clever in advertising on Prairie Home Companion.
Chevy Cruze then. Same issue. $33,500 vs $17,500. How nitpicky do you want to be?
No. They are just status symbols. People who actually want to save money and engage in cheap transportation already have a long list of high mpg economy cars (hyundai accent, toyota yaris, chevy aveo, honda fit, nissan versa, cobalt, fiesta, etc) to pick from.
From an economical standpoint there is no reason to spend $35,000 on a PHEV when a car that gets 35-40mpg can be had for $10-15k. You’ll never recoup the money invested. Plus the batteries need to be replaced around 60k miles I think.
I heard on NPR that the prius is 13 years old. So they’ve had 13 years to invest in technology and market the car and it is still more of a luxury item/status symbol than something that will save you money on fuel.
The lease rate on the Volt is very competitive - $350 for 36 months. Same ballpark I believe as leasing a Camry hybrid or a Honda Accord. And with minimal cost for fuel. And less maintenance costs. A steal compared to buying outright. And the same deal as leasing the Nissan Leaf. So they are really making the lease option the much more attractive choice. And what do they plan on doing with the cars after the lease terms are up?
Well there is likely a secondary market for these batteries to emerge: use as stationary batteries, strung together into mega-batteries for grid storage applications. Even if the battery is no longer perfect for the automotive application, it may consequently still have a high residual value. Plus the software is set using only about 50% of the battery’s capacity in order to prolong its life - as it ages and the battery does degrade that software could be adjusted. Also they may be considering other lease/sales options: the car other than the battery will be subject to little wear as the engine will stay very low mileage and the electric motor has few moving parts, they may resell or release the used vehicle with the battery under a lease arrangement.
First year production is light, 10-15K, but they wil be able to ramp up to 60K in year two. In comparison the Prius sold 19K in its first year that it was available worldwide and crossed the 60K annual sales point 4 years later. Yet its role as a game changer for Toyota’s next decade was far greater than those fairly modest initial numbers would suggest. GM hopes for a similar outcome.
Wesley the batteries have an 8 year 100K warranty; you think wrong about having to replace at 60K. Right that this car is not designed to compete with a Toyota Yaris or the Chevy Avevo though. It’s more like an Accord or a Camry. And again, in that comparison, the lease option fares well for total costs over the 36 months.
The Tesla is not competing against inexpensive family cars, it’s competing against expensive high-performance cars. And it’s not selling very well at all; only 1200 have been sold worldwide. The company is profitable, which frankly surprised me, given such a limited run, but it’s still a small niche car, not a game-changer.
The Volt is a money loser. It is not going to sell. The car is impractical. The batteries are too inefficient. The Volt project is going to cost GM and the taxpayer millions of dollars in the wasted investment.
Nobody is going to want a Volt, which is a good thing, because America is not set up for electric cars, we just do not have a nationwide supply system, and we dont have enough electric generating power to supply a large quantity of electric cars, and we dont have any money to build a new supply system for electric cars - America is bankrupt.
I went from a 2001 Pathfinder to a 2010 Prius. I spent less on the Prius (in unadjusted dollars) and I can assure you I"m saving a whole lot of money on fuel. True, it’s not the same car (no 4WD for example) and there are other cars that would get close to the mileage for a little less money, but I like having a semi-luxury car for around 30k that I can drive over 400 miles on 8 gallons of gas. I’d like a plug-in for our second car, since we could live with a limited range for around town. We’re thinking about the Volt.