We aren't the only ones who question the viability of the Volt. U.S. News has jumped aboard the bandwagon, asking "What is the Chevy Volt, and Why is GM Advertising it During the Olympics?" Observing that GM is pushing the Volt as though it was readily available at your corner Chevy dealer, they state "The car won't reach showrooms until 2010, if it reaches them at all." They wonder about Chevy advertising director Kim Kosak's statement to Edmunds: "We wanted Volt to be an important punctuation to the spot. It's the first [ad] where we've brought [Volt] to the market this clearly." I have to wonder about that one too. After all, don't you have to have a viable product before you can bring it "to the market?" No, wait, that's right… GM's marketing the concept, not the vehicle. And apparantly they're doing a good job of it. Right after the commercial, the Volt jumped to the number eleven search on Google. "Now," as U.S. News notes, "all GM needs to do is actually build one."
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Go GM! You can do it! If this thing actually appears for sales in 2010, a lot of people will be shocked. Of course, we all know that the proper amount of testing can’t be completed in time for the year of rainbows and unicorns. So I expect lots of unhappy people that paid a lot of money for a big gas/electric paperweight. Hopefully GM can prove all us haters wrong, but I doubt it.
In case anyone has forgotten, GM (mainly Bob Lutz), in late 2007, staked their reputation on a working model of the Volt being ready by Easter 2008 (Due to Toyota rubbishing it saying it wasn’t going to work).
To paraphrase Mr Lutz “Somebody is going to have egg on their face and I personally don’t like that. By 2008, somebody is going to lose credibility. If we DO meet the target, I hope the American press will not ignore it and report that we did it….”
Well, GM DIDN’T do it and the American press have been VERY quiet about it……
If anybody wants a link to the Bob Lutz interview, I’ll be happy to provide it.
The painted clay model was pushed onto the stage by the Olympic “Bob-Sled” team… A proud moment for GM.
Volta (and Tesla) are rolling in their tombs right now.
How long are they sticking with that fiction? There is just no way that the Volt is going to look like and be a serious car.
Well, who am I kidding anyway? GM’s dying. Even by their numbers their Hail Mary is a decade away from being produced in serious numbers, and Cadillac is imploding.
Their strategy now is to hold on as long as they can and hope for a miracle.
Is GM promising that the Volt will be available for the 2010 calendar year, or the 2010 model year?
jg, if it were 2010 model year, they’d advertise it as coming out in 2009. It’s late 2010 (as a 2011 car), if everything goes perfectly according to schedule.
The painted clay model was pushed onto the stage by the Olympic “Bob-Sled” team… A proud moment for GM.
If you didn’t make that up, that is the funniest thing I’ve read in days.
The longer they show this concept the more potential customers they alienate. When the production model comes out and people go WTF it’s not going to create sales. People don’t like being lied to and decieved, especially from a company that has lost trust with millions of past customers. And it better live up to every promise they have made since the beginning and be flawless or this car will be the last nail in GM’s coffin, if they are not buried before this thing even comes out. 24 months is a long time to hang on to that cliff.
GM is spending $750K every 30 seconds to showcase a car design that they know they will not build. IF they haven’t been lying to all and sundry, they DO have the car design they plan to build.
Why not show the real car? They really should know what the real car will look like as of today. And the ad was probably mostly CGI, anyway.
Katie,
I suppose Bob could spin it as that working 1/3rd size model they displayed…of course that loses credibility in my book if they think testing a much smaller model and expecting to scale it to full size by 2010 is going to happen. And they missed the Easter deadline.
How’s the egg on the face Bob?
I hope GM doesnt kill the volt project. I believe it’s not as technologically promising as Tesla Roadster, but it’s still a step to a cleaner world.
The best perspective I got came from my sister-in-law (who has ZERO interest in the auto industry) when the ad ran and she said, “Isn’t that the car that probably isn’t even going to be built? What is GM thinking?” ’nuff said.
KatiePuckrick, “(Due to Toyota rubbishing it saying it wasn’t going to work).”
When did Toyota say the Volt wouldn’t work? The only reliable report I’ve seen about Toyota’s reference to different plans was “ours is better, here’s why,” in a meeting designed to reassure their stockholders that Toyota’s plans are solid.
Given the success of the Prius… it’s hard to argue.
Lutz morphed that into – I forget his words – Toyota dissing GM and that’s the refrain that’s been picked up, most especially by GM fanboys.
I am sick of the Volt. That is because I know that it is just like the Tahoe/Yukon hybrids, that being it is nothing but a PR mobile. GM will roll it out so Wagoner can say, “At GM, we have a green mentality!” and then say “Now go buy our SUVs. They get 20 MPG highway. That’s fuel efficent.” The Volt is never coming to the market. Either it won’t be ready in time, or GM will go down before while it is in development.
I mean, if GM wanted to get an electric vehicle on the market, all the shit they need to do that is just sitting in their parts bin. I know that their excuse for not re-releasing the EV1 is that Lutz said, “Oh, it won’t meet crash regulations.” HELLO!!!! GO to the tech center, rip the drivetrain out of an EV-1, stick it in a Cobalt, and Vola! A fucking mass market electric car that meets all crash regulations! My god, I am a nerdy 16 year old, and I managed to figure out what a 70 something year old executive with an MBA from UC Berkley couldn’t!! I guess that goes to show how stupid these assholes running GM really are! I agree with Autosavant, these dumbfucks should be cleaning the toilets at Burger King, not running a multinational corporation!!!
And the worse part is that Toyota will have pretty much the exact same car ready for a 2010 release, which we KNOW is coming. I mean, the Volt doesn’t have a hope in hell, as the new Prius is just going to stomp it if it ever gets released. God damn, the Volt is the only car I know of (besides the Jeep Compass) that proves to be a turkey BEFORE it is released! Oh, what is that sound, oh, it is the Japanese rolling on the floor and laughing!
/end rant
The cause of our being upset at Wagoner/Lutz bullshit is that we keep expecting them to be honest. Ain’t going to happen. The Volt PR stuff is just another link in the chain of fantasy that lets them keep pulling down that outlandish pay while their lying pulls down what’s left of the company. The bailout will let/force them to exit the stage with their ill gotten loot and no doubt a set of life time benefits in addition. My only question is WTF is with the stock holders.
“Success of the Prius??!?!!?”
Who’s kidding who here? It’s not the actual technological superiority of the Prius. Because the Japanese are still using vacuum actuators on their “Up-level” models.
It’s the lack of suitable competitors in that class.
They’re selling the only ice cream in 115 degree weather.’
For now…
There used to be a gigantic ad that covered the side of a building in Hollywood that had a picture of the Volt, with a green background and a row of icons above it that represented all of GM’s green technologies. By the time it comes out, it’ll be “Didn’t that come out a few years ago?”
monkeyboy :
Nothing’s wrong with a vacuum actuator if it does it’s job for 20 years, and when it finally breaks, you can find them anywhere cheaply. The Civic hybrid is a good contender in the game as well, it’s just less distinctive.
Runfromcheney your idea to put the EV-1 drivetrain in a Cobalt wouldn’t work without significant engineering. The Cobalt is a fat pig compared to the EV-1, further reducing the range. And I don’t think the range on the EV-1 was all the great to begin with. The Volt will be electric drive components and an engine for a generator in the up and coming Cobalt/Cruze platform, but they are going ot have to chop a lot of weight out of it to get the 40 mile electric range.
I’m not arguing with you though, I don’t think the Volt will ever see a showroom floor, it’s a typical GM PR debacle, that spun out of their control. If GM does survive long enough to make it, the production numbers will be so small and insignificant PR is the only help they will get from it, provided it doesn’t blow up in customers faces in typical GM fashion.
After seeing that Volt commerical during the Olympics the other night I came away with the impression that our advertising industry is doing just fine and is at the top of its game. Yes, we still make wonderful television commercials here in the USA!
We are still very good at self-promtion and are happy to self-promote before we actually produce anything of substance worthy of merit.
The Volt is a bunch of BS! From the silly inefficent shape and oversized wheels that make ZERO sense on a fuel economy minded vehicle, to the pie in the sky lithium battery pack the Volt is pure vaporware that GM is using as a “red-herring” to draw attention away from just how bad they are doing right now.
Nevermind the electrical drivetrain, GM has NOT produced a single “small” successful car. With that said unless GM is going to outsource platform production GM is at least ten years behind on the “car” part of this project nevermind the drivetrain. Yet they want to tell us that they will have a Volt to market in 2010?
I bet GM will only show that Volt commerical here in the USA. They would never expect US to pick it apart the way other cultures that HATE BS would.
My question (as yet unanswered by General Messup Corporation) is very simple.
What happened to the billions of US taxpayer dollars that were shovelled into the furnace of the then-big 3 during the Clinton debacle – I mean administration – called the “supercar initiative”?
You know, the “hail mary pass” 80 mile per gallon mid-sized family car which was supposed to magically appear when the Dumipublicans in charge and the Republicrats behind the scenes do what they always deem the right thing, and throw (OUR taxpayer) money at a problem?
There were models of shiny (push-mobiles) on the White House lawn, and Billy-bob took time off from getting HUMMERS from ladies young enough to be his daughter to actually dein to make a showing with executives of the big 3 for a photo op.
So, as the old TV ad for a burger chain from years ago said “where’s the beef”? I.E. – where are the Prius competitors?
(OK I’m done mocking both the 2.8 and Washington DC ignorami now).
I’m sorry but it seems like everyone here has gone crazy. Why does noone think the Volt will come out? Why do you think Toyota’s will be better? You think that POS car (which I’ve driven) will be better than the volt or anything GM can come out with? Please, GM has sucked for a while but they are coming back stronger and better than anyone could have imagined. No automaker has any car on the same level as the Volt. The Prius is the biggest marketing joke and many believe it, just like all of you have been brainwashed to. It’s a $15k corolla priced $8k more for all that electronic headache. Save those $8k and use them towards the 10+ years that you’d need to own the car to recoupe the cost, not to mention the need to take it specifically to Toyota for ANYTHING it needs because it needs all special tooling and gizmos to work on it. In addition to all of that, insurance premiums are much higher on the prius compared to similar cars b/c of how expensive it would be to get fixed in an accident.
GM is doing well with their lambda crossovers, the new malibu, the upcoming Cruze, the new CTS, and several new models in the years to come. Every automaker is doing terribly right now, the economy is terrible. Everything is getting more expensive, and less jobs are becoming available. It’s really a lose-lose situation.
z479: You are worrying me, as you are reminding me of the YouTube GM fanboys.
I don’t know where you get the point that the Prius is an expensive Corolla. It is bigger and is an entirely different car than the Corolla. It doesn’t share any parts with the Corolla.
Second, GM had had a string of strong models, but that is FAR from enough. They pissed away 15 billion last quarter, and the fact of the matter is that they have so many brands and dealers that they can not be saved by one or two hail mary products. With Roger Smith bringing all of the brands under one roof, it has become impossible for GM to keep all of their product line ahead of the curve, as they are all being developed by the same team. Just more incentive to kill at lease Buick-Pontiac-GMC.
Third, the Prius isn’t “fooling us”. It gets sales by putting up. Gm’s poor excuses for “Hybrids” only get the gas milage of a standard gas powered Camry. The Prius pulls in 44 MPG. Or: twice as much as all of GM’s “Hybrids”.
Fourth, GM Is not doing well. The Lambdas were a fluke. THey did well at first, then tanked. The new CTS is going to tank now that leases are gone. (Rich people don’t drive their cars until the wheels fall off people!), and as I said above, GM’s product portfolio is too large where the company can be saved by one or two hail mary products.
I have been accused of being “anti-GM” many times by GM fanboys. That is not the case I am simply out of denial and in touch with reality. GM is in a really tough spot to the point where everybody with a keen and futuristic insight is putting it’s survival in doubt.
In addition to all of that, insurance premiums are much higher on the prius compared to similar cars b/c of how expensive it would be to get fixed in an accident.
Depends on what your definition of “much higher” is. I did a quick quote on a 2008 Prius and a 2008 Corolla using my own insurance data to gather the information. The six month difference in premium was a little over $50 ($14 for comp coverage, $39 for collision, all other coverages were the same), or less than $10 a month.
No automaker has any car on the same level as the Volt.
Including GM; being that they don’t (and may never) make the Volt. I know it’s hard to understand, with GM so heavily advertising a currently non-existent car.
I’d buy an electric Volt if the price was right. I don’t want another gas motor. Just dumped another $30 in the tank today. For a half a tank..
I believe GM will be able to build the Volt. The concept is sound; there is no specific technological problem with being able to build one. Now, the problem is that there is no way they will be able to not lose billions of dollars on such a project. Either they price it so they break even ($40-50k) and sell almost none, or they price it close to what the Prius costs ($25-30k), and lose at least ten thousand dollars per unit sold. Now, Toyota can afford to lose ten grand per Prius sold if they needed to (although they claim to make a profit off of it). GM, well, can’t.
Either they price it so they break even ($40-50k) and sell almost none, or they price it close to what the Prius costs ($25-30k), and lose at least ten thousand dollars per unit sold.
If GM gets this built, and it basically works, and they aren’t beaten to market by someone else, they’ll easily sell their first batch of 10,000 at $50K. The environmental cred from driving one will be huge, and in a country of 100,000,000 homes it won’t be hard to find 10,000 people willing to pay a premium just to give a big UP YOURS to the oil companies.
nonce,
If the Prius is all about “environmental cred” (never mind the posters here who have said they purchased the Prius for other reasons), what makes you think the Volt will sell for “environmental cred?”
The Prius sells “environmental cred” (again, I’m simply agreeable) for $22K. The Volt will be selling “environmental cred” for at least $40K. Today, there’s no way to know if anyone thinks “environmental cred” is worth an extra $18K. Bear in mind that the current attempt to sell “environmental cred” for close to $47K is failing (Yukahoe hybrid = $51K – $4K rebate).
That’s not real promising.
Because it uses NO GAS AT ALL! (except after 40 miles, but, sssh! you’re harshing my mellow)
People will flock to it. It won’t be economically sound, but I cheer them on, because they’ll be the early adopters buying it while the more rational buyers wait for the price to come down.
The shine will eventually fade, like with all fashions.