We will let Gm-volt.com member "lsteiner" tell his story, first:
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The Detroit carmaker currently loses money on every Chevrolet Volt it sells, despite the fact that the cheapest model retails for $31,645 after a federal tax credit of $7,500. “Every new technology takes a while to get traction, you’ve got to work out all of the associated issues,” GM CEO Dan Akerson told Bloomberg News in an interview.
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Company spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks told the Detroit News that Tesla expects to report at least 4,750 deliveries of the Model S in the States and Canada when it releases its first-quarter (January through April) on May 8, which compares to 4,421 Chevrolet Volt and 3,695 Nissan Leaf deliveries, according to their respective carmakers.
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However, one can't help but wonder if the 1.4-liter petrol engine used to recharge the battery was chosen for its efficiency credentials, or due to cost constraints - the Volt is quite expensive, as it is.
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Although the striking design remains faithful to the concept, the underpinnings were more humble as they were borrowed from the Chevrolet Volt. It’s a move that makes perfect sense, though it begs the question why the Volt was rolled out before the ELR since the Cadillac could easily justify a premium price – something the extended-range hybrid Chevy has struggled with.
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That’s a drop in the ocean when viewed in the light of total new vehicle sales in the U.S. market, which surpassed 14.5 million last year. On the other hand, that figure accounts for a three-fold increase compared to 2011.
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Among the prerequisites for Chevy dealers is an additional US$5,100 they had to pay for specialized tools needed to service the extended-range hybrid, the bulk of which, US$4,735, accounts for a battery de-powering tool. This is needed to drain the battery and remove sections of it, rather than the whole pack, and send them back to GM for repair.
It may not seem important but it was big enough of a deal for some dealers to stop carrying the Volt.
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Then came November: one way to look at it is that Volt sales rose by 33 percent compared to the same month in 2011. That’s small consolation, though, for GM when total sales were just 1,519 cars – that’s nearly half the number of the preceding months.
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On Wednesday, the company’s top product development executive said GM will focus on electric vehicles, and plug-in and mild hybrids instead of conventional hybrids.
“The plug-in offers a unique opportunity to change the way people commute,” Barra told the reporters attending the GM Electrification Experience in San Francisco. “Plug-based solutions will play a significant role in our technology portfolio going forward.”
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The issue was that on some cars, the electric motor for no apparent reason at all, stopped working while on the move. The advisor said that the steering and brakes of the Volt still worked, but added that if it were to occur, the driver must coast to a stop, power the car off, wait for 2-5 minutes and then power it up again.
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There’s no such thing as a free lunch, though; in the case of plug-in hybrids, you have to factor in the energy consumed to charge the battery at your home, which adds to the electricity bill.
General Motors’ OnStar service is currently testing an application that will inform Chevrolet Volt owners about the cost of charging their extended-range plug-in hybrid.
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At a first glance, the situation is improving for General Motors, as its Volt extended-range hybrid sold a record 2,800 units last month. Year-to-date Volt sales have so far reached 13,000 units, which certainly compares very well to the 7,700 cars that were sold in 2011.
For example, before the discounts, Bunnin Chevrolet in Culver City, California was selling three to five Volts per month. Last month it shifted 36 cars, mostly leases, and sales manager Chad Kelman told The Detroit News that the dealership is having a hard time keeping enough units in stock.
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However, that's not what caught our attention; this is what did and we quote Toyota's press statement:
"This sales figure represents sales momentum that has propelled the Prius Plug-in to a stronger first full six-months sales pace (6,061 units) than Chevrolet Volt Plug-in (2,745 units) and the all-electric Nissan Leaf (3,875 units)."
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In the case of the Volt, the answer is a bit complicated since it’s not your run-of-the-mill gasoline- or diesel-powered car. It’s a problem shared by every hybrid and all-electric vehicle manufacturer: the development costs, the tooling, the battery packs and the powertrain, when added up, simply make for a very high price.
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The reason is a software glitch on the OnStar communication system that affects the 2013 Chevrolet Cruze, Equinox and Volt, the Cadillac ATS, SRX and XTS, the Buick Verano plus the GMC Terrain.
GM spokesman Alan Adler said that the issue has been identified as the system failing to alert the OnStar call center in an accident that the vehicle’s airbags are not deployed, like a rear-end collision.
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In a time when Fisker is facing battery issues and the lack of money flow, the company believes a veteran in the field will bring his wealth of knowledge to help the ailing brand.
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It makes perfect sense then that it is almost non-existent in China, where its US$40K price is nearly doubled due to taxation imposed by the government on imported cars.
This is a fact that GM representatives readily acknowledge. Ray Bierzynski, the company’s head of electric vehicle strategy in China, won’t disclose any sales figure, but told Automotive News that the Volt is “a very low-volume” car.
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The Michigan-based carmaker did its math and discovered that ever since the Chevrolet Volt went on sale at the end of 2010, owners of the plug-in hybrid electric car have collectively saved a supertanker of gasoline after driving 40 million miles (64 million kilometers) on electricity and avoiding the use of more than 2.1 million gallons (8 million liters) of gasoline.
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