For a company with so much history and so many brands, you'd think GM's problem would be having too many valuable nameplates. Not so, according to GM President for the Americas. Troy Clarke tells Edmunds Inside Line "At an awareness level, the Volt obviously has consideration intent (based on 80,000 leads submitted on GM's Web site)." Clarke seems to have conveniently forgotten that the car business involves actually building and selling cars. And overhyping a car that hasn't been built actually has some downsides, even if it is GM's "MVB." "Everybody who's heard of the Volt can give you a description of what they think it is," explains Clarke. "Part of the role of our market research is to understand that, so that we make sure that as we execute the vehicle on something other than just its technical basis, we can build on the brand that the concept has already created." Translation: we still need to figure out which elements of our all-encompassing Volt hype we'll actually have to deliver. Meanwhile, Clarke confirms how much GM is actually relying on the Volt by admitting how badly GM has flubbed its post-SUV strategy. Crossovers like GM's Lambda triplets were supposed to provide a more-efficient alternative to downgrading SUV owners. Clarke says market research shows SUV owners are actually "falling into cars," while CUV buyers are upgrading from cars. In short, one-time SUV buyers can survive in a "regular car." Who'd have thunk it?
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Ed, where I grew up in the SW suburbs of Chicago, there is an old Ford plant, now a shopping mall called Ford City.
It was also the location of a maverick car developer/dreamer named Preston Tucker.
He also built a car and advertised it and started selling it long before it was even built and tested.
Its a wonderful story, but again this is a lesson about image and substance.
Ya gotta have the substance!
The Volt is a great plan, one we car dreamers love to see.
But its success is far from reality.
Check out the film link:
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/tucker-the-man-and-his-dream/1036837/main
Years ago I questioned GM’s logic to a customer of mine who is a GM lifer. His reply was, “You have to remember that you’re trying to understand a company who loses money on EVERY SINGLE SALE of particular models.” I’m reminded of this every time I hear about the Volt. Someone please explain to me how this car is going to save the General.
If GM is too successful with the marketing of the nonexistent Volt then they risk becoming a victim of the Osbourn Effect. Especially if they keep projecting unrealistic availability dates.
Volt is the most valuable brand in the GM portfolio? Tell me it isn’t so. With everybody and his dog in the car industry working feverishly on BEV’s GM is still betting the farm (quite literally) on a PHEV project. The Volt has to account for a cool 1.5% of GM’s sales by 2012 at a hefty 40 k price tag at which -according to GM- they’ll still barely break even and is supposed to safe GM somehow this way. Poor General…Maybe time to join the BEV mob and capatalise on it’s EV1 expertise. Just mass produce an advanced version of it at an affordable price and retake a leading position and a future by showing vision by offering the market something that will really be a game changer in the industry.
BEV’s rule! Well ,in the not so distant future they will. I ‘m checking my crystal globe here and ….no…I don’t see any Generals in this future….
So, let me see if I understand this:
GM’s most valuble brand is for a car that doesn’t exist (yet)?
Oh dear…….!
Anyway, it can’t be THAT valuble. Didn’t GM say they were going to change it to Vauxhall/Opel for Europe?
I was disapointed when Rock Hudson didn’t REALLY invent VIM!
I really so wanted that one to be true!
I agree — looking forward, it is GM’s most important brand! Everyone keeps chastising Detroit for only looking at the next quarterly profit statement, yet when an automaker is visionary, they get whacked across the knees.
The Volt will not succeed initially on volume or profit-per-car, but as the foundation for many other vehicles that can utilize the E-Flex platform. With a body change, GM can produce midsize SUVs, wagons, sports coupes, urban delivery vehicles, taxis, etc.
The Volt is also not classified as a PHEV, but is a BEV or electric car, with a range extender. For millions of folks, 40 miles or less without burning any fuel is plenty for commuting, shopping, dropping kids at school; yet with the ICE, a 600-mile trip to Grandma’s house for the holidays is as easy as a regular car.
My take: the Volt will happen and mark the beginning of a new paradigm in how we view the personal car and manage energy resources.
wave54:
I agree — looking forward, it is GM’s most important brand! Everyone keeps chastising Detroit for only looking at the next quarterly profit statement, yet when an automaker is visionary, they get whacked across the knees.
The Volt is a product, not a brand. Confusing a product with a brand is a very, very bad thing, on all sorts of levels.
For you to do this is acceptable. For the President of GM NA to do it is beyond unacceptable; it’s seriously nuts. As in End of Days bizarre.
GM will be back in (financial) black when
-Bob Lutz manages to the get Holden stateside as a GTO
-The Cobalt arrives
-Customers realize how awesome the Pontiac Solstice is
-Customers realize how awesome the Saturn Aura is
-The GMT900 trucks arrive
-Two-mode hybrids make all prius drivers suddenly covet Escalades
-Customers realize how awesome the Chevy Malibu is
Now…
The Volt arrives.
Another “killer app” from a company whose “killer apps” are as killer as the Easter Bunny.
Samir:
As they said in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “That’s no ordinary rabbit!”:
Tim: There he is!
King Arthur: Where?
Tim: There!
King Arthur: What? Behind the rabbit?
Tim: It *is* the rabbit!
King Arthur: You silly sod!
Tim: What?
King Arthur: You got us all worked up!
Tim: Well, that’s no ordinary rabbit.
King Arthur: Ohh.
Tim: That’s the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!
Sir Robin: You tit! I soiled my armor I was so scared!
Tim: Look, that rabbit’s got a vicious streak a mile wide! It’s a killer!
Sir Galahad: Get stuffed!
Tim: He’ll do you up a treat, mate.
Sir Galahad: Oh, yeah?
Sir Robin: You manky Scots git!
Tim: I’m warning you!
Sir Robin: What’s he do? Nibble your bum?
Tim: He’s got huge, sharp… er… He can leap about. Look at the bones!
King Arthur: Go on, Bors. Chop his head off!
Sir Bors: Right! Silly little bleeder. One rabbit stew comin’ right up!
Sorry, the MP reference was just TOO easy…
# KatiePuckrik Says:
st valuble brand is for a car that doesn’t exist (yet)?
A zero is more than a negative?
Well, I am no fan of GM but I hope the Volt works. I support the Volt concept but I have little faith in GM. Lets hope GM doesn’t rush the Volt to market and ruin everything. Or if they do screw it up I will purchase Toyota’s version.
Wondering how the reception will play when Toyota comes to the table with an actual plug in product?
Everyone will be sporting a chub?
After all, GM already HAD an electric plug in. All they have to do is make another one. They were the first to market with one when gas was cheeep.
They already have the technology.
In my area of California, GM brands have negative equity. As in, you could sell an unlabeled generic car and have higher consumer interest and pricing. In my social circle, GM has about the same brand cachet with the exception of the Corvette as the inferior Chinese plastic housewares sold at Walmart.
I firmly believe GM should just give up and bring in new models badged as Vauxhall, Opel, and Holden as blank slates to replace Buick and Pontiac. Those brands are not just damaged and worthless but have been rendered liabilities by decades of inferior products.