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Chevy Volt Meets High Resistance, GM Suspends Sales

Posted by timothy on from the get-it-resistance-ha-ha dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "The Hill reports that GM has announced to employees at one of its facilities that it is suspending production of the Chevy Volt for five weeks and temporarily laying off 1,300 employees. Back when GM launched the beleaguered electric car, it boldly targeted sales of 10,000 in 2011 and 60,000 in 2012 but GM only sold 7,671 Volts in 2011 and just 1,626 so far this year. 'We needed to maintain proper inventory and make sure that we continued to meet market demand,' says GM spokesman Chris Lee. 'We see positive trends, but we needed to make this market adjustment.' Although President Obama promised he would buy a Volt 'five years from now, when I'm not president anymore,' the Volt has come under criticism from Republicans in Congress because of reports of its batteries catching on fire during testing. Ironically, the shutdown comes as gas prices are soaring, exactly the time when an electric car should be an easy sell." If it's still true that GM was taking a loss on every Volt sold, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise.

8 of 599 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdot Suspending Editing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Suspending production != Suspending sales. The two mean quite different things.

    1. Re:Slashdot Suspending Editing by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Suspending production != Suspending sales. The two mean quite different things.

      Very true. The sales number are low, and that's possible related to the cost of a Chevy Volt. I just did a quick search in my area and they're about $40,000. I'm never going to save $15k - $20k in gas over the life of the car, so buying a comparable car that runs on gasoline is probably a better value. There are some tax credits for buying an electric car, but even with those the price is still going to be far more than a "regular" car.

    2. Re:Slashdot Suspending Editing by nschubach · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not everyone leases vehicles though. I did once, and I'll never do it again. Tracking how many miles you can put on in a year and hoping you don't change jobs to somewhere further away is a PITA.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    3. Re:Slashdot Suspending Editing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's not the point, the point is that the headline is _FALSE_

      GM is _NOT_ suspending Sales.

      unbelievable sloppy editing here.

    4. Re:Slashdot Suspending Editing by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's all about flexibility. Your Cruze's overall energy cost (electricity + gas) will be much higher than the Volt for regular commuting, since the Cruze can't run on electricity, whereas the Volt can do so for 30-40 miles, which is enough for most commuters. A true EV like the Leaf can go farther, but 1) the Leaf is slow as shit, and tiny too, and 2) once you run out of juice in the Leaf, you're dead. In the Volt, you just switch over to gasoline and keep going. Then when you run out of gas after 300 miles (not too far from a regular car's range), you pull into a gas station and refuel and keep going. You can't do that with a true EV; it's limited to local driving only. So the Volt gives you the option of taking long-distance trips once in a while, even though the economy isn't as good as some smaller cars.

      So whether the car is for you depends on your usage pattern. If you mostly commute, but want the ability to take long-distance trips with the same car, it might be a good choice. If you just want to do a lot of long-distance driving, pick another car. If you want something for commuting only, and never plan to exceed 60-80 miles, then a Leaf might be a better choice. The main problem with the Volt as I see it is the price tag, which is $40k (but there's a $7500 federal tax credit too that you should take into account). However, Edmunds says the Leaf costs $35k (minus that same tax credit), so you're not saving that much going full-EV, and you're getting a smaller, slower car with probably a cheaper and more econobox-like interior (Edmunds says the Volt has the nicest and highest-quality interior they've seen in a Chevy). $35k is quite a lot for an economy car really. But the real one to beat is of course the Prius, which is downright reasonable at only $23k, though it doesn't have a plug-in option. There is a different Prius model just now coming out, with limited availability, that's a plug-in, but it costs $32k, a whopping $9k more than the regular version, though again the $7500 tax credit probably applies here; don't know if you can get that credit with the regular Prius but I doubt it.

  2. No surprise by msobkow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can buy TWO Ford Focus 40mpg cars for the same price as a Volt.

    Unlike other districts, there are no subsidies for the Volt in Saskatchewan.

    $20,000 buys a HELL of a lot of gasoline.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  3. Re:I know, I know by hawguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Cannot get 4 adults plus dog plus ancillaries in a Yaris."

    Have multiple vehicles. I don't drive my F350 Ford or 366 big block Chevy truck unless I need to, but liability insurance is cheap and they are paid for.

    Multiple vehicles allows selection of the right tool for the job.

    Or rent what you need when you need it. We have a small car which we mainly use for commuting. When we need something bigger or with more cargo space (like a pickup), we rent from the city carshare program or a regular car rental agency which has surprisingly good weekend rates since they have a glut of cars from business travelers). The city carshare program is especially nice when I have to work late unexpectedly, they have cheap overnight rates and there are several locations within easy walking distance from work so I've always been able to get a car when I need it, even last minute. The overnight car rental rate is cheaper than it would cost to take a cab home.

    Our occasional car rental bill is much lower than our car payment would be on a second car.

  4. Re:Simpler than that by silverhalide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can't compare the Volt to the Prius. Reviewers who do so are technically incompetent and dishonest.

    If you go by just putting gas in the thing, then yes, the Prius comes out favorably. If you compare a Corvette to a minivan by how many passengers you can haul in it, yes, it sucks.

    You're not supposed to regularly put gas in the Volt. If you are, you're using it wrong.

    The Prius is a gasoline-only hybrid (ignoring the new short-range plug-in version this year which only goes 8-11 miles on a charge or half a typical commute). The Volt is an extended-range electric vehicle.

    The Volt is a new class of vehicle. You plug it in regularly, and ideally you almost never put any gas in it. The Prius doesn't do that.

    So if you don't want to plug in your car and you want to keep using gas, yes, buy that Prius.