While GM is trash talking about selling 60K plug-in Chevrolet Volts in their first year on the market (whenever that may be), Toyota is more circumspect about the technology's chances. The International Herald Tribune reports that the world's largest automaker (ToMoCo) wants to conduct more consumer testing and market assessment before offering a plug-in Prius. Toyota's U.S. manager for advanced vehicle technology admits "there's a lot of enthusiasm right now about plug-ins." But, Bill Reinert adds, "I'm a little cautious about how much of that ends up as real consumer behavior." In other words, will consumers walk the talk? Cost and convenience may be the critical factors. GM pegs the cost of their plug-in Volt– with a 40-mile electric-only range and mandatory extension cord fun– at around $30K. Toyota's gas-electric Prius currently sells in the low 20s– and experienced a major surge when the price was lowered. Do the math.
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So…
GM is charging off half-cocked while Toyota is taking the time to make sure things are done right the first time.
Pretty much explains why each company is in its current state.
Kinda reminds me about GM’s dustbuster minivans. When they were in concept form on the autoshow circuit, they looked rather nice. By the time they hit production, they were a totally different beast, ugly and inappropriate for normal day to day driving.
…and the Volt remains just that. A concept.
Not that I particularly think that GM’s Volt will be as successful as they claim, but I know that if this were GM being cautious and Toyota being brazen about it, people would say that “Pretty much explains why each company is in its current state.”
I think Toyota is probably correct in this instance, but I still think the first to market – if they can manage the slow consumer uptake – will have a drastic advantage longer term. So, if GM launches a relatively trouble-free Volt that gets good mileage and can handle missing its sales expectations the first year and selling 60k by 2012, then they will have won the PHEV war. Lots of ifs, which is why I think Toyota is right, but not out of the realm of possibility.
Toyota and Ford have both opted for cautious studies, consumer feedback and electric industry feedback (at least at Ford), and I think both will have better overall products when launched in 2012-2013, but they will be second/third to market, ultimately, and I think that will be important from at least a marketing perspective. (Is Honda thinking about PHEV?)
i can now say with certainty that environmentalist are insane, my point -lets run cars on ethanol (and in the making of that ethanol ruins the environment much worse than if you just used straight oil) Now they want to use electricity,guess where most of that electricity is going to come from?-coal fired power plants that spew much worse than a cars tailpipe ever would. if they(environmentalists) would not have fought more nuclear plant usage in the seventies then it would be a great idea for charging a car.
Well, if there’s one company I would trust with complex electrical systems needing watertight insulation, it’s GM (said sarcastically by the man who bought a brand new ’03 Bonneville which cracked its body seal after 20 days, resulting in internal flooding which which shorted out several electrical subsystems).
Seriously, an electric car. In say, Cleveland or Canada, where the roads are saltwater from November thru April.
stuntnum: Thanks for the slap at environmentalists. However, in spite of your certainty, you’re quite possibly wrong.
Overall EV Efficiency
Most of the environmentalists I know aren’t hyping ethanol, they like the potential but don’t see it as significant until we can generate it from waste. Most of the impetus for ethanol comes from grain producers. Surprise.
The Chevrolet Volt sounds like a repeat of the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky fiasco. Just like Mazda with its Miata faced no threat from the Solstice/Sky, neither does Toyota with it Prius face a threat from the Volt.
If GM profiled the Prius crowd’s taste in styling, I doubt if they find many who would be caught dead in such a cartoonish design.
Is the car going to have those glowing blue lights in production trim?
I think that is what finishes out the design for me, it seems alive with the glowing eyes. I will give them credit on this one, it’s a really nice looking polished design, don’t mess with it and that car will sell. Why can’t the new Malibu look like this, I bet they would have no problem selling them if they did.
kixstart i was just using another example of how we are trying to fix one thing while braking another- my point is that using electricity to recharge that battery will pollute just as much and maybe more if its coming from a coal powered electrical plant–so whats the sense? watch it raise electrical prices just like ethanol is raising food prices.
I really don’t understand Toyota’s years and years of hesitancy to market a plug-in hybrid. For the first few years after the Prius’s introduction they essentially defended it as a marketing measure, saying they didn’t want to confuse mass-market consumers who had misunderstood what a hybrid car was with the suggestion that it might “need” to be plugged in. After that they cried, and are still crying, expense (which seems odd since third parties can apparently make one-off plug-in Priuses for around an extra $10-15K without a single economy of scale). What’s the point of this whining? Why not just offer a plug-in option at its real extra cost, as a limited test-marketing measure? I bet it would sell — there’s real pent-up demand, especially with the Prius’s currently enviable but soon-to-be-diluted green image. Methinks Toyota is reluctant to paint itself into a corner where it can’t back out without seeming anti-environmental, but this decade of fence-sitting has cost the company a lot of green cred in my book.
I dont think the fuzz makers at GM have considered how much the cost of Hydro(Electric) will cost to fuel up the Volt! Its a crazy concept and in some parts of both our Countries very cold, wet and salty for the Winter months.
If GM profiled the Prius crowd’s taste in styling, I doubt if they find many who would be caught dead in such a cartoonish design.
Form is function here, Hummer H3 shaped suppositories would be painfully stylish.