GM Drowns In Volt Orders, Can't Keep Up With Demand
If you want, and if you don’t feel discouraged by Ed’s op-ed piece in the New York Times, you can go to your friendly GM dealer and pre-order the 2011 Volt for an MSRP of $41,000 (before a $7,500 federal tax credit). A 36-month lease costs $350 a month, with $2,500 down. Bring a cot, we are given the impression that there are long lines at the dealerships. GM’s spokesman David Darovitz told Automotive News [sub], that based on customer reactions, GM expects demand for the Volt to exceed the 10,000 units it will build between its launch and the end of 2011.
To avoid shortages, GM has raised 2012 production plans for the Volt from 30,000 to 45,000. units from 30,000. Why they aren’t building more right away if demand outstrips supply will remain one of the big mysteries of the industry.
Come on. Barak Obama already took the Volt on a test-drive, which PBS calls “the shortest joyride in history.” And he likes it.
While touring a General Motors plant outside Detroit Friday, POTUS was invited to take the Volt for a spin. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. “I hope it has an airbag.” After driving for 10 feet, the president deemed the ride “pretty smooth,” and the test-drive was over. He had already bought the car anyway. For all of us.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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While we will never know the real answer, one can't help but wonder what the state of affairs would be, economy-wise, if the Bush-Obama automaker bailout never took place. How about the bailout of the profiteering bastards in the financial industry who engineered the economic collapse in the first place? In that case, a depression that would have made the 1930s look like a trip to Disneyworld is my opinion. Regarding GM, at this point who gives a crap anymore? If the product is good any you have confidence in it, buy it. If not, buy something else. Government largess comes/came in many sizes. Taxpayers should be more pissed that the government practically gives away land use rights to resources (finite resources, I might add) to Big Oil when we should be making real money on those resources. You can use whatever example you want, but the concept is the same.
It would be nice to move the discussion back to the Volt...and off politics. Using the term "drowning" to describe 10,000 sales, is a bit of a stretch. That is wayyy too few sales to make any impact on the market whatsoever, and not enough to judge if it could be a success. In comparison, the Prius sold almost 18K vehicles in it's first full year...in Japan alone. It sold 20K it's first year in the world market and has been doing over 100K a year for the last 5 years, in the U.S. alone.
Initially, I found the Volt to be a "half measure", that lugging an ICE around was too much of a compromise - now, not so much. At the present level of battery technology, it makes good sense to have an ICE, especially if this car is purchased as the only car. But, GM should not close the door on a full EV-Volt, offering the option of swapping the ICE with additional batteries when the tech improves.
I am seriously considering a Volt as my 60-mile round trip commute could be at least half EV only and I think I can even finagle access to a 120v outlet at work. I contacted my local Chevy dealer (here in Northern California) with questions about ordering a car late last week and here's what I found: 1- He had no idea how to place an order for this car. He's making a list of interested customers but said that despite media reports, Chevrolet had no mechanism for him to actually put in an order and he hasn't received any specifics regarding colors and option availability. 2- The $350/month lease sounds good, but neither the dealer nor Chevy's own toll-free Volt line folks have ANY information about the specifics behind this lease... how many miles per year, for example.