GM Considers Volt Battery Redesign, Halts European Deliveries, Will Miss US Sales Goal, Recall Or Buyback Possible
In the comments section of yesterday’s post on the ongoing Chevy Volt fire investigation, I noted that GM might
retrofit Volts with crash protection that can maintain battery integrity in all crash conditions… Mary Barra has said that GM is
“continuing to work with NHTSA to investigate additional actions to reduce or eliminate the potential of a post-crash electrical fire.”
I think some kind of update on the battery integrity front is inevitable, but we shall see…
Sure enough, today Reuters is running an interview with GM CEO Dan Akerson, who says that European deliveries of Opel-branded Volts (called Ampera) would be delayed pending NHTSA’s investigation, and that maybe, just possibly, the Volt’s battery might have to be redesigned. Says Akerson:
We want to assure the safety of our customers, of our buyers, and so we’re just going to take a time out, if you will, in terms of redesigning the battery possibly
Unfortunately, Akerson’s mangled syntax makes it tough to know if GM is really going to redesign the Volt’s battery, or what the “time out” in question means. He does tell the AP [via The WSJ [sub]] that a recall or buyback are options as well. Though redesigning the Volt’s battery could be expensive and devastating for sales, GM’s current post-crash safety protocol is incredibly human resources-intensive, and likely very costly as well. And the fact that GM is even considering redesigning the Volt for safety a year after its release is going to create a huge sales and marketing challenge anyway. Volt production edged down by 199 units in November, and now GM’s sales boss Don Johnson tells the Detroit News that the Volt will miss its 10,000 unit 2011 sales goal. At this point, GM may just want to take a mulligan on the Volt’s first year, redesign the battery, and relaunch the thing.
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Compressed air has much lower energy density than even old fashion lead-acid batteries and less than 1/12 that of LI batteries!! It is a non-starter today and the petro cartel influence you cite is purely imaginary! GM sales by dealers to customers are up, unrelated to days supply, which relates to factory to dealer sales only. And in response to the "channel stuffing" nonsense- vehicles are ordered by dealers. GM does not ship vehicles without a dealer order! Why did GM gain share while Ford lost share? If it were as you write, Ford should have gained at least some of the lost Japanese share. GM certainly is outperforming second place Ford. You may think that Rattner could have been influenced by a "better" sales pitch, but that is pure conjecture and presumption on your part.
Let's see. The Chevy "Citation," and the GM Diesel cars. Then there is the Vega and of course the Corvair. Who would believe that GM could develop any new technology for mass market use? They had better stick to basic---VERY basic technology vehicles---and leave the new stuff to BMW, Mercedes, the Chinese, Japanese and the Koreans. GM should produce basic trucks and one or two basic cars for fleet and consumer sales and stop trying to innovate. Make a RELIABLE low cost car GM.