The problem with this is that it reduces the idea of an alternative powered vehicle down to a gimick when the reason people are drawn to them (and I’m sure the car companies have marketed this) is to be green and reduce dependence on foreign oil. The need is to give most consumers an alternative to a gas-powered vehicle and Chevy said yeah, we want to help. Ok here’s a vehicle only rich people can buy. It also annoys me that the Chevy dealers use the after-rebate price in their ads.
not to mention the high-voltage cables are bright orange.
Where the Volt really dropped the ball was in not tweaking the specs (which I believe required them to slightly lower the emissions) to meet the requirements for riding in California’s HOV (carpool) lanes. The Volt came out many months before the new Prius plug-in (which is only now coming out), but everyone in search of an HOV pass has lined up for the new new Prius. Apparently next year’s Volt will meet the CA requirements for an HOV pass, but I suspect they’ll have missed the real opportunity at that point.
The only rational car purchase is a 2005 Ford Taurus that you can buy off the bereaved child of a recently deceased parent with 17,000 miles on it at a cost of $2000. Those cars exist, in droves, and will be dirt cheap to operate for the next 15 years. From a strictly economic perspective, the further you stray from this scenario the less rational you’re being.
Exceptions include people with more than 2 kids, and people who need trucks to haul/tow. But there are usually equally-cheap alternatives to either of those, and in any case nobody’s buying Prius Tundras.
I am not familiar with that definition of “rational.” In an economic sense, if bragging to one’s neighbor that one bought a $40,000 car is worth $25,000, then I’d say that individual acted rationally in buying a $40,000 car that does basically as much as a $15,000 car.
Didn’t GM just have to shut down production of the Chevy Volt for five weeks because they weren’t selling very well? That’s not good.
(The article I quoted above states that Chevy’s sales of the Volt in 2011 were only 7,671 units compared to their expectations of 10,000 sales and that they currently had a 120-day stock of Volts in inventory compared to their desired 60-day level on any model.)
They were thinking that since their competitors were using the technology, they ought to become familiar with it in case the economics somehow changed. They were thinking that they could get them into the hands of the public to experiment with by leasing them and taking ownership again after the product was used up.
Then they remembered that stupid movie that posited that they had killed the electric car by doing that same thing twenty years ago. Had the environmentalists not raised such a stink about the EV-1, they may have been able to stay ahead of the Japanese in this technology. Instead they beat a retreat to safer territory.
They decided it wasn’t viable in 1990. They decided it wasn’t viable in 2010. But people keep asking for the things. Hybrid technology is maturing and a gas/electrity model seems like it will relieve some of the oil dependency. But for many people, the electric aspect isn’t yet enough to sustain them through an entire one-way commute.
I’m hoping that we can begin dabbling in the hydrogen-fueled phase in the coming decade.
As said, it’s more an issue with getting the current shut off so they can get in.
My husband is a fire fighter and they’ve recently run in to this exact issue. Every electric/hybrid car has a master shut off switch, but the switch is different in almost every single car - even cars within the same make. They will not start cutting until they locate this shut off, so if it’s a matter of life and death, the delay in finding the shut off can be catastrophic.
Hubby spent two days online looking up data on the various makes and models and made a cheat sheet for the department. However, there doesn’t currently seem to be any consistency with providing this information to emergency responders by the electric/hybrid industry.
Actually… no, they don’t. You might want to take a look at the article I referenced a few posts back.
Sales of only 7,671 units in all of 2011 (less than 80 percent of expectations), a 120-day inventory of stock as opposed to the desired 60-day inventory - and that’s with the government giving anyone who purchases the car $7,500 in tax credits.
I don’t think he was saying people “keep asking for” the Volt, but electric cars in general.
That is purely a function of them failing to position the car correctly, at the price they have to sell them at it is purely a prestige car. They failed that market which is mostly owned by the Prius which is why it outsells almost all other hybrids. I own a Ford Fusion Hybrid, it does not scream “Hybrid” and I got a great deal on it but I didn’t buy it for “image” A domestic sedan is not really cool in my part of the country.
That being said, i LOVE it’s electronic controlled CVT and I hate driving other cars but it is a more responsive drive than the Toyota offerings. I do not expect to save money on gas but getting 600+ miles out of a tank is great, and the car is nicer to drive then any of the Saabs/BMWs/MB’s I’ve owned in the past. It is great to not have the “maintenance”, or what we would car “repairs” from a car from any other part of the world.
Just look at the top of the line minis, they have lots of mechanical problems and recalls but they sell like hotcakes and are in the same price range. Had GM done a great job in marketing and not over promised to start I think they could have picked up a much larger part of the market. But even if it was the best car in the world many of those mini owners would never buy a domestic car.
I know two people who own volts and they do love them but they have to justify the “cost” to people who are driving cars that are in the exact same price range.
That is a marketing issue, not a product issue.
It is also an issue of timing, see the gas prices increase and see the Volt move from the showrooms:
BTW I do agree that the price is the biggest “what were they thinking” item, but the Volt was not designed to be mass produced to the levels as other cars are. It is and remains a niche product that is used to test what would work in future designs. But IMHO it should be time already to focus more on new designs that are cheaper or the competition will once again eat their lunch.
I disagree that it competes with $40,000 vehicles. You can buy a Chevy Malibu nicely appointed for $21,000.
The problem with the volt is that they missed their target audience. The person with the income to buy this is more likely to commute further to work than the average person. The car isn’t going to make it to and from work on a single charge so the benefits miss the mark somewhat.
Battery technology is still shy of what it needs to be to move into the mainstream. It’s a neat car that falls short in a lot of areas. Batteries need to recharge faster, carry a denser charge per lb and not self-destruct if neglected.
This is the dream car of retired people who don’t travel much so if nothing changed it would do better when more baby boomers retire.
I really hate this lazy reporting. The “federal testing” was the NHTSA side-impact test. The smashed the side of the car, then tossed it into a storage shed UPSIDE DOWN. and it was three weeks later that the battery caught fire (it is a lithium battery, after all.)
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/11/26/nhtsa-releases-chevy-volt-fire-investigation-details/
The other two batteries under discussion were undergoing tests in a lab (e.g. not installed in a car.)
“In an effort to recreate the May test, NHTSA conducted three tests last week on the Volt’s lithium-ion battery packs that intentionally damaged the battery compartment and ruptured the vehicle’s coolant line. Following a test on November 16 that did not result in a fire, a temporary increase in temperature was recorded in a test on November 17. During the test conducted on November 18 using similar protocols, the battery pack was rotated within hours after it was impacted and began to smoke and emit sparks shortly after rotation to 180 degrees. NHTSA’s forensic analysis of the November 18 fire incident is continuing this week. Yesterday, the battery pack that was tested on November 17 and that had been continually monitored since the test caught fire at the testing facility. The agency is currently working with DOE, DOD, and GM to assess the cause and implications of yesterday’s fire. In each of the battery tests conducted in the past two weeks, the Volt’s battery was impacted and rotated to simulate a real-world, side-impact collision into a narrow object such as a tree or a pole followed by a rollover.”
I swear to god, are there any “journalists” left in this country worth a damn?
Well in the “what were they thinking” department the Volt was a guaranteed money loser if it had met it’s sales goals. GM just came out of bankruptcy and is deliberately building a car that loses money. Chrysler just came out of bankruptcy and they dropped hybrids because they lost money on them.
And GM shut down the production line to sell down inventory, not for retooling.
If I recall correctly, GM made enhancements to 8000 previously purchased Chevy Volts because there wasn’t any problem with them catching fire.
I’ve always felt like having an electric/hybrid car like a volt or a prius would be good if you had another, larger car that you would use whenever you needed it. In essence, they are the perfect 2nd car, for those who can afford it. They aren’t investments, they aren’t going to really save you money in the long run (probably, depending on driving habits), but they make good 2nd cars for those wealthy enough to afford it.
I agree that all cars are expenses, new cars are always a silly financial choice.
My car, a ford fusion, is not small, it is a mid size sedan and I am 6’2" and it fits me well (something that is a problem with most small cars) so it is great as a first car.
One of the main limiters on traditional hybrids is that as they are required, by the EPA to bring engines to a temperature that allows the emissions controls to function. For short in town trips this is the greatest limiter on my MPG.
I think most cars should have some form of kinetic energy collection, It is just silly to waste all of that energy through heating up your brakes.
The other sweet thing is that with a CVT it puts the motor at it’s optimal RPM and adjusts the gearing to accelerate, it also uses the electric motor to assist.
This gives you a 0-60 mph time of 7.8 seconds, this is in the same ranges as the Escort GT and 1960’s 302 powered Mustangs.
The only downside besides cost with the Fusion is you lose the pass through back seat.
Filling up every two weeks with a 20 mile each way work commute makes up for the need to use a car top box for long items.
I would have considered the volt had it been out when I was shopping although it’s second row buck seats wouldn’t really work for me, I have a Husky and a bench seat is better for the dog hammock.
I agree that all cars are expenses, new cars are always a silly financial choice.
My car, a ford fusion, is not small, it is a mid size sedan and I am 6’2" and it fits me well (something that is a problem with most small cars) so it is great as a first car. the Prius has tons of room more usable than most SUV’s which tend to have a tiny cargo area if you look at the real numbers. They just look physically larger. If you have 5 passengers I could see how it may be an issue.
One of the main limiters on traditional hybrids is that as they are required, by the EPA to bring engines to a temperature that allows the emissions controls to function. For short in town trips this is the greatest limiter on my MPG.
I think most cars should have some form of kinetic energy collection, It is just silly to waste all of that energy through heating up your brakes.
The other sweet thing is that with a CVT it puts the motor at it’s optimal RPM and adjusts the gearing to accelerate, it also uses the electric motor to assist.
This gives you a 0-60 mph time of 7.8 seconds, this is in the same ranges as the Escort GT and 1960’s 302 powered Mustangs.
The only downside besides cost with the Fusion is you lose the pass through back seat.
Filling up every two weeks with a 20 mile each way work commute makes up for the need to use a car top box for long items.
I would have considered the volt had it been out when I was shopping although it’s second row buck seats wouldn’t really work for me, I have a Husky and a bench seat is better for the dog hammock.
Show me a Volt owned by somebody which caught fire.
Just one.