Volt High Tension: GM Says Reuters Wrong, Ignores Suggestions By TTAC Commentariat

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

“The estimate of the current loss per unit for each Volt sold is grossly wrong,” GM says as a retort to the Reuters story that GM loses around $49,000 on every Volt. GM says that “it allocates Volt development costs across lifetime volume, not across the current number of Volts sold.” TTAC commenters that rushed to the aid of the beleaguered company suggested the same. Oddly enough, GM passed on a much stronger argument that would have turned the Volt into a money machine. If not immediately, then much earlier than suggested by Reuters.

After the usual lame back and forth that in its first years, the Prius wasn’t a money machine either, long time commenter Pch101 came up with a hard-hitting argument that should fit right into GM’s creative accounting:

Most of the development of the Volt was paid for by a company that is now called Motors Liquidation. Motors Liquidation is a bankrupt entity that used to be called General Motors.

The new General Motors essentially got that R&D from Motors Liquidation for free. In terms of accounting, it would have acquired it at a steep discount through the bankruptcy sale, as the Volt was only one of many assets that would have been acquired through the court sale.”

As painful as it may be, GM should read TTAC more. Among the chaff of amateur spinmeistery, there are some masterful gems, such as this one. Instead, GM decided to write the full development and tooling costs off over the lifetime of the platform, even if it means many more years of non-profitability. Let’s hope that platform will live long. Says Reuters:

The average per-car costs for development and tooling will drop as sales volume rises. But GM will need to sell 120,000 Volts before the per-vehicle cost reaches $10,000 — and that may not occur during the projected five-year life cycle of the first-generation Volt.”

If that is true, then the Volt will need to stay on the government drip for many years until it can be made at a price that is competitive in the market. At $7,500 a pop, that intravenous infusion will cost the tax payer close to a billion dollars to prop up a car that can’t make it on its own in the market place.

The meek denial that ignored Pch101’s creative reasoning already had its Streisand effect. Fox picked up the story, along with the denial, only to say that the consulting firm that did the analysis “stands behind the number,” adding that “it was calculated based on industry standards without any specific inside information about the Volt program.”

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

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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  • Jimmy7 Jimmy7 on Sep 11, 2012

    Anybody actually contacted a dealer and tried to get a Volt for $199 a month? Good luck.

    • Sunridge place Sunridge place on Sep 11, 2012

      A lot of the 'under $200' crap came from an absolute moron writing for Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/09/05/at-this-price-we-should-all-own-chevy-volts/ She says she 'writes about the global auto industry' in her bio but appears to be an absolute moron when it comes to vehicle transactions. She shows her grasp on the the process by writing things in the comment section like: 'Ah, the downside of leasing a car that’s so cheap to drive: you go over your lease miles limit! I hadn’t considered that possibility before!' She said her friend got $159 per month...no money down. Its quite simple how they got it. They took the basic advertised Volt lease plus $3000 in GM Card Earnings plus a $1000 dealer discount. $249 per month with $2000 down on a 24 month lease was the GM deal. The walked in with 3k 'cash' from their GM Card. So that left $1000 to lower the monthly payment (after the down payment) and the dealer also discounted $1000. So, $2000 divided by 24 months is $83 bucks a month to lower the payment from $249 to $166 per month. The fact that she quoted $159 in the article vs $165 is a bit off..but not by much. Perhaps the dealer discounted a shade more than 1k? Who knows. But, the $3000 in GM Card earning was not 'free.' This friend probably spent around $60,000 on that credit card to earn the $3k in rewards.

  • Bd2 Bd2 on Sep 12, 2012

    I'm wondering if TTAC was as harsh on Toyota for losing $$ on the Prius program for its 1st gen and most, if not all of the 2nd gen run? (Likely not.) Toyota also subsidized sales of the LS400 when Lexus was launched. Sometimes, the "payoff" is down the road. Think about it - likely GM won't be making any serious $$ on the Omega platform until the 2nd gen products. That's why Ford and Honda gave up on their RWD/V8 projects, and why Nissan gave up on a RWD flagship for Infiniti and is looking to save development costs for Infiniti by pairing up with Daimler on a no. of things.

  • Slavuta Inflation creation act... 2 thoughts1, Are you saying Biden admin goes on the Trump's MAGA program?2, Protectionism rephrased: "Act incentivizes automakers to source materials from free-trade-compliant countries and build EVs in North America"Question: can non-free-trade country be a member of WTO?
  • EBFlex China can F right off.
  • MrIcky And tbh, this is why I don't mind a little subsidization of our battery industry. If the American or at least free trade companies don't get some sort of good start, they'll never be able to float long enough to become competitive.
  • SCE to AUX Does the WTO have any teeth? Seems like countries just flail it at each other like a soft rubber stick for internal political purposes.
  • Peter You know we’ve entered the age of self driving vehicles When KIAs go from being stolen to rolling away by themselves.
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