Volt Birth Watch Volt 85: Pics Were a Mistake
No, really. The Detroit News says that The General didn’t mean to release snaps of its plug-in electric gas hybrid Chevrolet Volt. GM blames “human error” for the plug-in’s premature publicity– I mean the most recent premature publicity. “Those were put up in error and taken down quickly thereafter,” Chevrolet spokesman Terry Rhadigan said. “It was not intentional.” What, putting them up or taking them down? I kid. Marty Padgett, TTAC’s good friend over at The Car Connection got the scoop. And he ain’t buying the GM “oops we did it again” line. “I think they’re getting very good at playing the game of public relations,” Marty Padgett told the DetN. “Everyone is interested (in the Volt), so why not let some teases float out there?” Because the Hail Mary is more than a year away from production? Here’s a more interesting question: even if it’s true, that the Volt snaps were unintentionally leaked, why is GM admitting it? Like we need something else to convince us of their institutional incompetence?
More by Robert Farago
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Far too many "accidents" in the PR world these days. Makes you wonder. After seeing the pic with the execs absent, I think I actually prefer them in front of the car. (Not so I can check them out, but rather so the car can stay covered.) And RF, according to this article which you posted recently, the Volt will launch in just over two years, in November 2010 (see the third paragraph in "The View from the Launch Pad").
GM has a few choices with pricing here: 1. Charge forty grand for it and sell a few hundred a month, but more or less break even (although at production levels that low, their break even point might be even higher). 2. Charge twenty grand for it and sell ten thousand a month or more, but lose at least ten grand and as much as twenty grand per car sold. 3. Somewhere in between, with losses and sales to match. Can GM really afford such a major loss leader right now?
Looks like a first gen Dodge Stratus: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:1st_Dodge_Stratus.jpg No, that's not a good thing.
Everything at GM is designed by committee: the cars, the PR, the spin...