Tech, politics, sports, and the overuse of ellipses...
Published on August 1, 2010 By dan_l In Blogging

I really like this article at the NYT, which addresses what I think addresses the nut of the GM issue:

It doesn't hit the price point

For starters, G.M.’s vision turned into a car that costs $41,000 before relevant tax breaks ... but after billions of dollars of government loans and grants for the Volt’s development and production.

Instead of following Toyota’s model, G.M. decided to make the Volt more affordable by offering a $350-a-month lease over 36 months. But that offer allows only 12,000 miles per year, or about 33 miles per day. Assuming you charged your Volt every evening, giving you 40 miles of battery power, and wanted to keep below the mileage limit, you would rarely use its expensive range-extending gas engine.

It's not practical

The company is moving forward on a second generation of Volts aimed at eliminating the initial model’s considerable shortcomings. (In truth, the first-generation Volt was as good as written off inside G.M., which decided to cut its 2011 production volume to a mere 10,000 units rather than the initial plan for 60,000.) Yet G.M. seemingly has no plan for turning its low-volume “eco-flagship” into a mass-market icon like the Prius.

In short, the Volt appears to be exactly the kind of green-at-all-costs car that some opponents of the bailout feared the government might order G.M. to build. Unfortunately for this theory, G.M. was already committed to the Volt when it entered bankruptcy.

Nobody really wants it because somebody is already doing it better

The company is moving forward on a second generation of Volts aimed at eliminating the initial model’s considerable shortcomings. (In truth, the first-generation Volt was as good as written off inside G.M., which decided to cut its 2011 production volume to a mere 10,000 units rather than the initial plan for 60,000.) Yet G.M. seemingly has no plan for turning its low-volume “eco-flagship” into a mass-market icon like the Prius.

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To be fair, I wonder if the 2011 production numbers aren't a little business jujitsu, as GM has announced since that they're boosting their 2012 numbers by 50%-. It's a little hard to interpret without more information, but obviously the two ideas just aren't really congruent. I know sometimes that sort of numbers game is played to obscure supply issues, being behind schedule in a tool up which I assume are both very real for GM---but I don't see any reason why it could be used as an excuse for a presser along side the weird buzz campaign and a presidential visit.

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Here's what bugs me:

If I really wanted to buy a green car, I wouldn't buy a shitty Chevy. If I wanted to spend 40 grand on a car, I wouldn't buy a shitty Chevy. And if I were going to do both, I sure wouldn't buy a Chevy.

And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

The chart's from Hyundai, if you feel it's suspect---go right ahead.

 

If people lacked interest before (ironically, almost always for the same reasons as above), what makes them think that this is going to change with the Volt? You certainly can't tax credit away a 40,000 dollar price tag. You can't incentivize it long term to offset the price.

 

 

 

 


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