33,000 buyers supposedly signed up for GM Volt

Nicely done! :clap2::rofl::clap2:

... Brad

 

Tony, I'll bite. Without any serious competition Toyota has no incentive to manufacture a Prius with increased fuel economy. Rule 1 should be "Don't cannibalize your own sales." Selling the same thing as long as it continues to sell well reduces overhead. Anyone with at least 3/4 of a brain would continue R&D. (Those with 1/2 a brain scrap & forget their R&D.)

If other manufacturers were about to debut mid sized cars EPA rated at least close to 50mpg then I am sure we would see a plug in, or bigger or better batteries from Toyota to regain or maintain bragging rights to the most fuel efficient car.

 

As long as Sienna remains a strong seller here, keep refining the design of Estima (the small HSD minivan available only in Japan). Then when the market here is finally ready, jump on it!

.

 

Two points.
1) Why even develop the Prius to begin with? (Answer-Someone was considering the future of society, not the plans of other car companies.)

2) Company success may depend more on anticipating the future of oil than on anticipating the future GM vehicles.

 

1) Fear that GM would have a product that would leave Toyota in the dust .... just dumb luck iow.

2) Profits often blind companies from planning better.

 

Don't you mean planning at all?

Look at the disaster Hummer turned out to be. GM dismissed the need to compete against Prius in favor of pursuing monster-size SUV profit. Now, they are desperately trying to sell Hummer off and paint a green image with Volt.

Those darn quarterly reports place way too much emphasis on short-term gain at the sacrific of investing in the future.

.

 

1. Toyota wanted to join the SuperCar program but was refused. Fearing something saleable would come of it they went with their own R&D project. The difference was that the Big 3 didn't want to go into production so only 4 prototypes were built (One from each company & the US government). Toyota went into production.

2. True but everyone keeps an eye on everyone else. If you are the leader & the competition isn't even close then incremental changes suffice to maintain market share. When the competition gets close it is time for the next generation.

 

I'm on the list for the Chevy Volt. I'm #645 on the list which means I will get the car in 2010 or hopefully a bit earlier.

This has to be a huge success for GM otherwise the future of them is in danger. They now realize there is a HUGE market for fuel efficient cars.

Although I'm glad gas has gotten cheaper but I wouldn't mind paying $1.25 per US gallon like I did in 2000 when I graduated high school. I would still drive considerably less and conserve if it did get to that price level.

 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but GM is planning limited rollout the first year... starting in CA, then DC, then FL.

And that makes sense. It gives them extra time to continue tweaking the design for less friendly climates. Extreme cold, like MN, introduces seasonal difficulties for Li-Ion which those in the south won't be exposed to.

.

 

I, for one, am not critical of the Volt. I think Volt is a great concept. Unlike some others here whose opinions I greatly value, I think that the Volt concept is superior to the Prius concept. If the Volt were built, and if it were built to Japanese quality standards, it could have the potential to be far better than the Prius.

But the Prius exists and the Volt does not.

I am extremely critical of GM precisely because I do not believe that GM will ever build the Volt. I think GM intends to kill the Volt project and advertised that "We tried. We really did. But it cannot be done." Never mind that they had a 120-mile EV a decade ago. Never mind that Toyota will probably have a PHEV on the market about the time GM finally says it cannot be done.

I am not critical of the Volt. I am critical of GM for not building the Volt.

 

My guess is they found the old EV-1 waiting list (you know the one that never existed) lying around in a drawer and decided maybe it was good for something after all

I hope GM does build the Volt, and its a success. However I have almost 0 confidence in their ability and/or commitment to do so. I fear this is just another way to keep people buying crappy cars in the deluded hopes that something better is coming down the line. When and if they ever build it I'll have to consider it on its merits. In the mean time I'm not going to stop giving them crap about their current pathetic offerings just because they say they are working on something cool.

Rob

 

Didn't malorn promise to sell Volts to the members (or at least some of us)? I'm SURE we're on at least one of his lists.

 

Yes, I will gladly sell you all volts.

 

Show me two generations of Volt reliability data that rival Toyota, cost competitive to the Toyota offering, and much better specs -- and I'll have to check out the car when I next purchase.

Barring all three conditions being met, I wish GM a slow and nasty demise as payback for 100 years of bad karma.

 

Bad Karma, GM created 100 years of bad karma? Please explain yourself.

 

Is this a typo, or was it intentional? A Volt is a car, but a volt is a measurement of how much "push" the electrons in a wire have.

Malorn: If you really meant to say that you will sell us all Volts, GM has to actually build them first. And then they have to supply you with enough of them. Wake me when you have them. If I have not gotten my freeway-capable EV yet, and if the Volt does what I need it to do and is the first on the market to do it, I'm interested.

 

Only 13% are willing to pay $40k or more.



Source: http://www.hybridcarblog.com/

 

So GM wants to charge $40K or more for the Volt because of the "high manufacturing and research costs". What's odd is how they are offering $12,000 rebates right now on their SUV's. I thought those had high manufacturing costs as well?

 

I'm signed up in the $30,000 section but I'd probably pay as much as 45,000 if I had to in order to get a car that does what the volt is supposed to do. As long as it does get 40 miles all electric and a good fuel economy after the battery is low. So using this data as a sign that the volt won't sell is a little bit ignorant.

Look at it, 47% will pay 20,000 for the volt? That would be cheaper than the prius for a car that is much better for reducing gasoline consumption. The people who fill that out are trying to effect price, it's more of a wish price than a cap on what they would pay.