First Volt Rolls Off Full Scale Production Line

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We are very much looking forward to buying one. Been waiting forEVER!!! 😃
 
edwest2 said:
GM will be offering them for sale later this year. So unless GM plans on selling none, this is another sign that the economy is improving.
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While I wish GM the best, and wish the US economy the best… the mere producing of a particular model of car does not mean the economy is doing well, nor does it mean the model of car will sell well enough to produce a profit.

GM’s Pontiac Aztek is a recent example. It never sold enough to be profitable, despite half of sales being for corporate use, rather than sales to the public.
 
While the Volt is certainly intriuging technology, the hard facts are that the emperor has no clothes.

It ideally can run 40 miles on pure electric before reverting to being powered by the gasoline motor. (presumably, that 40 miles is moderate speeds, no hard acceleration, no AC, no headlights, no heat, etc). Once past 40 miles, it gets something more like 42mpg.

Compare to my trusty old 2002 Saturn SL stick shift. Rated 40mpg highway when new, it actually gets that on 70mph freeway trips (and no AC use). On my 58 mile per day round trip commute, it returns about 37 mpg average.

So I’m nearly the ideal user. For convenience, we’ll assume that the recharging electric costs will be about equal to the gas cost difference between my 37 and the Volt’s 42 over the 18 miles per day that the Volt will run on gas for me. That means my daily savings is 40 free miles. In my Saturn ($12,500 brand new) that 40 miles burnt 1.1 gallons of gas. That means I would save $3.24 per day in gas cost when gas is $3/gallon. For fun, let’s expect gas to go up to $5. Now I’m saving $5.50 a day.

The Volt is gonna cost, what, $35,000? 35k-12.5k = $22,500. Divided by $5.50, that’s 4,090 days. IF and only IF gas goes up to $5 a gallon and stays there forever, the Volt will pay for its gee whiz technology in 11.2 years. Mind you, that presumes the battery pack lasts that long! If gas stays around $3/gallon, it’ll take 19 years to pay back the difference. No car LASTS that long around here (snow/salt country).

If you want to have less impact on Earth’s limited resources, as always, the solution lies not in consuming more and fancier technology, it lies in keeping things simple and modest. Learn to drive stick and buy an econocar. A Toyota Corolla or Chevy Cobalt stick shift will get you similar mileage to my old Saturn (and probably not burn oil in the process!).
 
Also made by GM:

2010 Chevrolet Corvette

6.2L- 638 or 430 hp V8
15-16 mpg city
25-26 mpg highway

How “green!” :rotfl:

…Something for everyone…Lol!
(what’swrongwiththispicture?)

God Bless.
+Peace In Christ.
Love, Dawn
 
Sorry, but I refuse to drive a stick shift. I’m not that much of a technophobe.
 
Dale_M said:
While I wish GM the best, and wish the US economy the best… the mere producing of a particular model of car does not mean the economy is doing well, nor does it mean the model of car will sell well enough to produce a profit.
.
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What does Government Motors care about profit?
 
Interesting. If I had posted “GM Scraps Volt - Throws Up Hands” would that have been more acceptable?

GM is adding shifts to plants in the US, and bringing back some workers in Canada. It is also bringing back some dealerships.

God bless, 🙂
Ed
Choose Jesus.
 
edwest2 said:
Interesting. If I had posted “GM Scraps Volt - Throws Up Hands” would that have been more acceptable?

GM is adding shifts to plants in the US, and bringing back some workers in Canada. It is also bringing back some dealerships.

God bless, 🙂
Ed
Choose Jesus.
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Right again! And they’d have found somebody or some group to blame and we’d be off and running with more negativity. Thanks for trying. 🙂
 
edwest2 said:
Interesting. If I had posted “GM Scraps Volt - Throws Up Hands” would that have been more acceptable?

GM is adding shifts to plants in the US, and bringing back some workers in Canada. It is also bringing back some dealerships.
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Ed, if you had posted news that GM was adding workers in US and Canada, everyone would give a thumbs up. If you had posted news that projected economy recovery everyone would cheer.

However, you posted an advertisement/press release from GM which said neither of those things.

I think GM is gambling by moving ahead with Volt production. I don’t think there are enough consumers who are willing to pay more, and get lower performance. I may be wrong, and I hope I am. But so far in this discussion we haven’t seen any evidence to suggest that Volt sales will do well.
 
OK, I’ll be positive. For years people have been paying $23-$27,000 for a Prius that gets real world 48mpg when they could have a similar sized car with similar performance in the Corolla for $16,000 at 34mpg. Again using my above math and 18,000 miles a year of driving and $3 gas, the Prius saves a guy $465 a year in gas costs. 19 years to pay off the difference (good luck with that!). Prius has been a runaway sales and PR success story.

Sometimes people go for the hype. Maybe they’ll go for GM’s too. It IS cooler technology than the Prius. You just gotta wonder how many people will spend the money just for the technology bragging rights.
 
Negativity - the common currency of the internet. What a waste.

God bless,
Ed
Choose Jesus.
 
Swan said:
Right again! And they’d have found somebody or some group to blame and we’d be off and running with more negativity. Thanks for trying. 🙂
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Hey. The internet, where looking for any tiny sign of negativity is job one. 😃

or - No! You’re wrong!

God bless,
Ed
Choose Jesus.
 
Dale_M said:
Ed, if you had posted news that GM was adding workers in US and Canada, everyone would give a thumbs up. If you had posted news that projected economy recovery everyone would cheer.

However, you posted an advertisement/press release from GM which said neither of those things.

I think GM is gambling by moving ahead with Volt production. I don’t think there are enough consumers who are willing to pay more, and get lower performance. I may be wrong, and I hope I am. But so far in this discussion we haven’t seen any evidence to suggest that Volt sales will do well.
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My post had nothing to do with Volt sales – don’t you get that? It had everything to do with movement, on the part of GM, into full scale production. The plant doing the work is in Hamtramck of all places.

No one can predict the future. I certainly can’t. But the media has made it their business to strike fear into the hearts of Americans everywhere, and I thought a little mention of something actually happening would have been welcome. I was wrong.

God bless,
Ed
Choose Jesus.
 
edwest2 said:
My post had nothing to do with Volt sales – don’t you get that? It had everything to do with movement, on the part of GM, into full scale production. The plant doing the work is in Hamtramck of all places.
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No, I didn’t get that, and I apologize for being obtuse.

But Ed, do you understand why people wouldn’t necessarily see good news in the announcement you posted? A short term investment doesn’t necessarily make for long term financial health, and GM is already a very sick company. Moving forward with what may be a money losing car is a risky business move. Companies have poured money down rabbit holes before. I am not sure this isn’t one of those instances.

I think its wonderful that you are willing to post good news here at CAF. And I think its something we should probably do more of. But sometimes we also need to explain why news is good.
 
Okay… here is some good news about the Volt.
The White House said Wednesday that the government will “purchase the first 100 plug-in electric vehicles to roll off American assembly lines” before the end of the year. The Volt, which GM describes as an extended range electric vehicle, is the only model fitting that description.
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freep.com/article/20100401/BUSINESS01/4010471/1320/White-House-to-buy-1st-Chevy-Volts

I think that is a start, and it will get the vehicles on the road where they can be seen. That may help spur interest from consumers.

The Volt also got a favorable, if preliminary, review at Cars.com
blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2010/04/chevrolet-volt-quick-drive.html

And some good news about GM:
(Vice Chairman Bob) Lutz believes GM will be profitable by 2011 and will have a successful story to tell when the company goes public again to help repay its government loans.
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detnews.com/article/20100312/AUTO01/3120404/1148/auto01/GM-s-Lutz-says-hybrids–electrics-are-future

That last article also mentions that GM plans a variety of hybrid and all-electric vehicles. Lutz also gives his opinion of why GM got in trouble, and ways it is correcting itself.
 
Dale_M said:
That last article also mentions that GM plans a variety of hybrid and all-electric vehicles. Lutz also gives his opinion of why GM got in trouble, and ways it is correcting itself.
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I’ve never quite understood the oft-repeated conventional wisdom (in newspapers and media outlets at least) that the American car industry did itself in by not investing in green technology. It seems to me they invested in sports utility vehicles and trucks to the exclusion of everything else, because Americans like to drive trucks and SUV’s. There’s no evidence I know of that just because the car companies manufactured a lot of electric cars that consumers would flock to them.

By the way, I think electric cars are a good thing and I have no problem with people reporting good news. I’m just skeptical about the claim that producing lots of innovative electric cars would have “saved” the Big Three.
 
I’m all for sharing good news and encouraging others to do so as well.

I just prefer to critically sift news to decide for myself if it is good or not. Sorry if that bothers you, but I think we should all do that! I earnestly hope there are enough buyers out there with the disposable income to nurture electric vehicle technology until it is competitive with conventional.

On the other hand GM ALSO just announced an ECO version of its upcoming Chevy Cruze model. With a 1.4 liter turbo gas engine, stick shift available transmission and 40mpg highway rating that no conventional compact Japanese car can currently match, there are other things to feel positive about out there too! 😉 An earlier poster above who considers stick shifts to be a Luddite perference likely will get all negative on this news item! Ah well, pearls and swine you know… 😃
 
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