That’s kind of… projecting intent. The Volt was in R&D back far before 2007, and was set to be released late 2008-early 2009. Than, oops, recession and financial collapse of automakers. At this point they probably are as eager to recoup some of the costs and still keep their toe in the green water as they are getting some kind push from “Obama”.
It gets 50mpg on gas, which it can do mainly because the gas generator isn’t tied to the drivetrain at all, so it can run at a constant, efficient rate, instead of cycling up and down and idling and what-not, like a gas engine would have to do.
Interesting. I like the tech behind it, but don’t like the look and definitely don’t like the price. I wish they had made the production design more like the pre-pro concept:
Now that looks like it’s worth $41k. Stylin’.
Yeah, that’s the one I remember. I had a feeling they were going to make changes–there’s no way they were going to put 19-20" wheels on a fuel-efficient car, and how much would those molded side windows cost?
Yeah, change the color of the concept Volt to black, and you practically have a Tron vehicle.
Concept Wheels never translate. Filling up a wheelwell with giant wheels looks great on the show floor, so all the concepts do it, though.
I didn’t say they should have kept every part of the concept. I just think the production model is vanilla and ugly.
That’s exactly the point. This is not a full launch; this is a limited market initial production run of a new technology - not too far from a public beta. GM is even requiring that those dealers who do get a shipment have to keep one Volt on premises at all times as a demo vehicle. Given that they’re going to sell out no matter what, why shouldn’t they price it high? It’s a pretty good bet that when they launch nationally a year from now they will have reduced production costs and will price it accordingly. Prognostibation about long term market prospects from today’s announced price is just silly.
Related, here’s a paper from the DoE with estimates (FWIW) of falling battery costs over the next decade: Autoblog Sitemap
Looks like the cop car from the first Crackdown.
Just FYI, you attributed the second set of text to me as well, but that wasn’t my quote.
The wind tunnel tests killed any chance that had. The new design is 30 percent more aerodynamic, which is a must because drag is a greater consideration than weight in hybrids with regenerative braking.
The Volt concept was a sexy car, but the promise of 40 miles on battery had to be met otherwise there was gonna be hell to pay.
My apologies, I did some editing and forgot to fix that.
I planted about 750 trees in an old pasture on the family farm.
I think I am set for a while for my carbon footprint.
Agreed. Just… don’t play the radio.
I’m interested in the Volt leasing options - at the least it limits my liability if the technology winds up not working as well as intended.
The Volt certainly is an interesting idea, but the price point bothers me. I’m sure it will sell out of the 10k initial run, but that won’t come anywhere close to even covering the R&D costs on this thing. The lease is somewhat attractive, but to buy the thing it’s not practical - you just can’t drive that much to ever cost-justify the additional expense of the car. As Talisker pointed out, you can get a comparable car for $17k that gets 40 MPG.
Not to mention that you have to plan on replacing the battery after a few years at $10k…that’s a huge backloaded expense. If they can prove and then improve the tech, then it may all be justified in the long run. Again, the initial run of these will sell and that’s not a bad thing, but I don’t see Year 2 or Year 3 of these flying off the shelves. I believe a large portion of these will be leased, but then what happens when the leases are up, the battery is a couple of years from needing to be replaced and they’re not up to par to be leased again?
The battery has an 8 year/100K mile warranty, so after a 3 year lease there will still be 5 years left on the warranty. I think it’s a pretty safe prediction that in 8 years replacement batteries will cost less than the $10K that they do now.
But if you’re buying the car now, you have to consider the repair/replacement cost down the road. It very well may cost less than $10k, but there’s no guarantee of that. So buyers will need to count on disposing the car prior to the battery needing to be replaced or they’ll have to count on a huge additional expense later on.
It’ll also be interesting to see how the battery degrades over time and whether that impacts the distance the car can go on the electric charge.
No, there’s no guarantee, but new technology tends to follow a pretty well-worn price curve as it goes mainstream. I think it’s a bit unfair to say that anyone buying a Volt will have to replace the battery ‘in a few years’ for $10k. In any case, I’m pretty sure that anyone outright purchasing a first generation Volt has plenty of experience with the risks of being an early adopter. They could always just lease it and make it GM’s problem.
It’ll also be interesting to see how the battery degrades over time and whether that impacts the distance the car can go on the electric charge.
Disclaimer: I have no citeable sources for any of the following, it’s just what I’ve picked up from various blogs and comments.
From what I understand, all of the range numbers are based on an 85% charge and in fact the battery system will not charge over 85%. This overhead means that you shouldn’t notice any degradation over the 8 year lifespan, i.e. the battery will have degraded to 85% capacity but that’s all you were ever using anyway.
I live in rural england. If I drive anywhere, where actual people live, I’ll see at least 1 prius a day. Maybe more.
Thats a fairly affluent part of the UK, but generally, people don’t give a prius a second look.
You probably wanted actual stats :D