Motors Updated: The Chevy Volt - clever, and it looks like they've hit the spot!

Clever but 5 years too late and $10000 too much. BTW I drive/ride less than 40m a week to work.

 

you are correct sir. There are 304 million. Sorry, I like to round up.

BTW, it's not 5 years to late. 5 years ago the only people that would have looked at this were the eco nazis. Now the petrol prices are high enough to make the US market take a look at it. And how can it be $10,000 too much? What is the logic there?

To be fair, you drive significantly more then the average American. As for being a poor implementation, show me an American car manufacturer that has a good one. Tbh, in terms of bringing ideas to market, this was done fairly quickly on a car product cycle scale. Given the rather abrupt turn in petrol prices, I think a 6 month decision to manufacture is fast; and 1 1/2 years to the show room is like lightning.

 

Is this what your talking about?

I watched a special on discovery about it a while ago. I heard something about it being called a "skateboard chassis"

 

Exactly - saw the same TV show!
John

 

5 years too late as in reactive to a rise in gas prices instead of taking a proactive stance and getting a jump on the market. Big problem with the American auto makers, main reason why they are all taking a back seat to foreign auto makers.
$10,000 too much was an understatement on my part; it should be $15,000 too much.
Working as a subcontractor in industrial controls, I have had the opportunity to work with a diverse group of people and companies, GM being one of them. The markup on vehicles is over 50% after wages, dealer incentives, and materials. Basically a $40,000 car costs GM $20,000 or less to make and market. With the US economy the way it is today $40,000 is too much, take less of a profit, sell to more people at $25,000 and regain market share. It is not rocket science.

 

What I don't like is the front wheel drive in what looks like a sporty car. Grrrrrr.

 

Well you can't have your cake and eat it too.
WTF are you using for an avatar?

 

The car's target audience is city drivers who deal with heavy traffic congestion on a daily basis. All of the time lost to starting, stopping, and waiting in traffic is emissions going up into the air. Plug it in at work and drive home the same distance (within battery range) on a fresh charge to produce zero emissions for the entire day. And these people hardly commute any significant distance, anyway.

If you're buying this car for longer stretches of commutes (including prolonged freeway transport) or something like 100km per trip for work, you've completely and utterly failed to comprehend the car's principle. The car's purpose is extremely specific, with the lot of us not likely representing said consumer niche, which would probably explain your, so far, relatively flopped analyses.

Now, dissecting the car/prototype as one who is a plausible, legitimate customer within their target market:
-the rear window is far too high and short, completely defeating the car's suggested utility in tight city environments.
-the fenders are obscenely high and wide, which complicates spatial sense in tight parking lots
-Instead of a rather high bonnet, why not just raise the cabin position and ride height a bit? As it seems, the passenger seating positions are pretty much lower and and more aggressive than that of a DC2 Integra, and seems as if they wanted to keep the roofline/silhouette smoother and flush than a 997.
-instrument cluster is bizarre, although I highly doubt it would survive testing to production. Centre console gadgets and gizmos aren't too intuitive (if any will exist). Likewise for the fixed non-adjustable centre rear-view mirror.
-front turn indicators difficult to see or cannot be seen head-on. Rear turn indicators not amber.
-and most importantly: the car is BIG.

 

I'm no GM Apologist (my fav. car is a Toyota) but he has a very valid point there.
ICE is most effective and efficient at a certain maintained speed. Add to that the power required to accelerate the mass of your car up to speed, then to bleed that inertia out as heat. What this is doing is running an ICE at a fixed speed, 100% of attainable efficiency, regardless of momentum. Also note the regenerative braking - no more wasting energy to stop.

Essentially this car is working much in the same way as a railroad diesel locomotive. The electric motors are doing all the grunt work, and the liquid fueled engine is turning a generator.

 

This isn't true, the Volt has been a concept for a while now, it's just now that the market is responsive to it, so production was ok'ed and the design locked. These cars never were financially viable because American gas was so cheap. Now, due to the sudden spike in price, all car manufacturers are scrambling to bring designs to market. Only Toyota, and later Honda, had hybrids at significantly higher prices-still well within the reach of the average American. Did Americans run out and buy them in droves? no. It was a niche market until 6 months ago. A white, upper class, educated market that everyone laughed at. Until 6 months ago, a niche market that lost money. Toyota is just now re couping their R&D costs after how long? If 5 years ago, Americans wanted smaller, gas efficient hybrid cars, then the market would look very different today. But you didn't. Your money was spent on 5 liter V8's, so that is what the market gave you.

All car manufacturers have these markups. American ones especially, due to their union obligations. So if you count the union and retiree obligations, that mark up suddenly disappears. Why do you think they are losing money in the US market, even with that 50%? Why do you think they are aggressively pushing for a shift in retiree benefits? You are talking about a) the US market and b) cars that run on platforms that are mature. Internationally, there are different markups depending on the markets, but are much lower-sales are higher and they are making money.

The Volt and follow on models prices will drop as the technology matures and sales volumes increase. Just look at any new consumer product and see the trend. iPone anyone? And, honestly, $40k for a car isn't that bad. The Prius is $30k and flying off the lots, why would Toyota lower the cost? It makes more sense to keep the initial price high, create a buzz and market demand; and then release a lower cost product as a follow on. Especially if the gas prices keep climbing.

You may work as a subcontractor in industrial controls, but your business and marketing degrees aren't helping you here.

 

With the $40,000 you have to look at the slightly larger picture, fuel costs will be down, tax breaks will be in place, you're going to be doing something green, and you'll be hopefully stopping one of your number 1 auto makers going down the tubes. %50 markup isn't bad when you are in the financial state GM is. Hopefully they actually finish it nicely in side though!!

I do like the idea that there are options between the fuel cell and the ICe system, this shows foresite by GM, shows they expect to sell it in places other than LA.

 

I think in the next year, you see the fit and finish of all GM cars improve as to they move away from US standards to the global platforms. The cars I have seen in the last 6 months show a marked improvement in interior design, except Saab, which was always fantastic. A good example would be the 2009 Aveo. A big leap in interior quality.

 

To the uneducated as well, the Prius, ironically, isn't a very green car, it produces more polution in it's production than many other cars, and isn't particularly effecient compared to come of the eco models we have in europe (all powered by small diesels with particulate filters and aero body kits).

If the new Vauxhall (Opel) Insignia is anything to go by JJ then you are right about the interior finish

 

Im willing to bet this idea will be improved, it's the "first" of its kinda to my knowledge. and first one the new gm chassis so im sure like all things will improve with time.

 

GM abandoned their unfortunate EV-1 project as well, which is really the ancestor of the Volt.

 

You miss my point the Prius did not sell because it was overpriced and did not offer significant fuel savings over non hybrid models; that car was made for a Hollywood California market not middle class America. American auto makers knew long before the Prius that foreign auto makers were gaining ground at an alarming rate and did nothing to diversify their lineup. Yes the auto workers unions are just as much to blame for the sorry state of US auto industry as the companies themselves.
The reason I did subcontract work for GM is they dumped most of their internal engineering department (non union labor) in a failed attempt to cut costs. Smart move on their part wasn't it.
$40,000 is a lot of money for the majority of the US auto market, times have changed and the "they will buy it because we made it" attitude of the US auto industry no longer works.

 

Look at the "Wal-mart" mentality of the majority in the US, they want it all and they want it cheap. This isn't the first time GM has been in trouble, problem is nobody including the union auto workers really gives a rats a$$. Everyone just wants more. To survive in the US GM and others must cater to this market with cheap, efficient, and reliable products. Most here don't really give a fling F**K about being green, the only green they care about is the green $$ in their wallet.

The idea and systems of the Volt are nice but not what GM needs now IMO to pull it out of the gutter. Personally I like the car and look forward to test driving one.

 

Sorry, I think you have the wrong idea when it comes to how markets work. The Prius didn't sell because most Americans didn't want it. It was small and fuel efficient. It wasn't made for the Hollywood market, it was made for a global market. Do you think Toyota spends millions on R&D for a market that is limited to a section of LA? Get real.

Americans voted with their money, and bought gas guzzling cars with huge engines. The Golf, A-class, Prius, and any number of small fuel efficient cars just sat there. Foreign manufacturers did not gain market share with small fuel efficient cars, they did it with cars with big, powerful engines. In automotive, you plan 5-10 in advance. What did we know 5 years ago? That Americans bought Big Cars. When the gas price spiked 6 months ago, who got caught with their pants down in the US market? Everyone. 3 years ago, if you weren't in the mid-sized SUV segment, you weren't selling cars in the US. Why? Because that is what Americans wanted. V6, V8, V10- you needed to have them to make sales. Big trucks? You had to be there to make sales. No one wanted a 4 cylinder Corsa UTE. They wanted a Lumina SS.

So now it takes a product cycle to get the cars to market. In the meantime, we're stuck with hatchet job hybrids in Explorer bodies that use more gas then the normal ones. So again, taking a prototype, getting the design locked and approved, then the tooling, infrastructure and to market by 2010 is fast.

Cars for the Hollywood market.

They have them. You know what? No one in the US wants them. The Chevy Spark, Aveo and Optra/Cobalt. Opel Astra, Corsa, Corsa UTE. Saturn's small car line up. The Daewoo stuff. All are on the market and selling globaly. You don't think that GM looked at bringing them to the US market? Of course they did. And market research showed that no one wanted them. They wanted the Tahoe, the Escalade. Why would you expect them to have cars on the market NOW, when everything from that last 10 years has shown otherwise? Psychic foresight?

And, seriously, have you looked at GM's line up lately (besides Pontiac, which is kak no matter how you slice it)? There are some good small cars there, some good designs coming out of the global system.

 

This has been the issue really hasn't it, changing a nations ideals isn't easy. The american truck is part of the american dream, it's one of the things us foreigners associate with America, so changing a nations thoughts and convincing them that smaller (not thats small, Astra's and Focus's are pretty big, more than enough for 4 adults I'd say) and more efficient engines are required, hell, you never know, they might buy in to diesel eventually, although I hope they don't, it'll cost us even more if the demand goes up that much!

So back to the Volt, I tell ya what, maybe GM are on to a winner here after all!

 

we, in Europe, will get the opel Flextreme:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Flextreme