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Another Electric Car Bites The Dust: Current Chevy Volt To Go The Way Of The Aztek Due To Plunging Sales

Tyler Durden's picture




 

A week ago when observing the latest GM deliveries, we noticed something troubling:

Here is the unpleasant detail for a car that five years ago was among the biggest hopes for the recently bankrupt auto maker:

 

It was thus inevitable that the car which first went on sale in 2010 amid very high expectations, and whose lackluster sales of 70,000 to date, far below initial company forecasts amid low gasoline prices and the release of more capable electric models from competitors, was about to be mothballed. Today Reuters confirmed as much when it reported that GM will "halt production of the Chevrolet Volt electric car for the summer to whittle down about seven months of unsold inventory and smooth the way for the next generation of the plug-in hybrid sedan."

Production of the current model, which costs $34,000 and up before federal tax credits, will halt early next month, the Detroit auto maker has said. It will be replaced by a 2016 model with a sleeker design and up to 50 miles range on an electric charge. That second generation Volt will go into production at the end of the summer.

Alas, absent a surge in the price of gasoline back into the high $3 range, the prospects of this "upgrade" will hardly be any better.

From Reuters:

The production hiatus comes after a first quarter in which sales fell well behind Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf electric car in the U.S. GM sold 1,874 Volts during the three-month period, equivalent to the number of Silverado pickups sold in a day, and in contrast to Nissan’s 4,085 Leaf sales. Volt stocks are enough to last 210 days, or until November, at their March sales pace, according to researcher Autodata Corp. Car makers generally like to have about 60 days of inventory at dealers.

 

Reinvigorating consumer interest in the Volt, a car that has a battery and a small gasoline motor, is a top priority for GM as it prepares to release its fully-electric Bolt sedan, say analysts. Volt development consumed more than a billion dollars but has failed to generate a fraction of the buzz that Tesla Motors Inc. has with its pricier Model S luxury electric car or Toyota Motor Corp. with its Prius family.

According to Pam Fletcher, GM’s chief electric-vehicle engineer, Chevrolet executives have kept in close contact with initial Volt buyers, polling them on issues spanning quality to performance to design. One key thing it learned, “People said they didn’t want a science experiment,” Ms. Fletcher said.

That's odd because the buyers of Tesla's own electric car have no problem with that particular science experiment. Then again, when it comes to electric cars, the Apple marketing scheme is far more applicable: the price should be higher, not lower, because a "science experiment" is acceptable as long as it also happens to be a status symbol, A very expensive one preferably, which is the primary reason why there is still any demand for Teslas around the globe.

That, however, has not dawned on GM's marketing department just yet, although there is hope: according to Reuters, the marketing plan for the next generation Volt is still coming together said Chevrolet Car Marketing Director Steve Majoros. GM plans to address the confusion around a battery-powered car that has a gasoline engine. Dealers will get “significant marketing support” for the 2016 model. “We will be out publicly and big,” he added.

Brett Hedrick, owner of Hedrick’s Chevrolet in Clovis, Calif., said he is in favor of greater support from GM for Volt sales, but said electric cars won’t catch on until they make financial sense. When gas prices went down consumers weren’t “as conscious about conserving,” he said.

 

Mr. Hedrick said his current challenge is selling the Volt inventory on his lot before the new model arrives—something he hopes GM will support.

 

Chelsea Sexton, a Los Angeles-based electric car advocate, said while GM made a lot of waves when it first launched Volt, it lost soon ground to other auto makers who released fully electric vehicles.

 

She said GM lately has reached out less often to enthusiasts, noting talks with herself and others “have largely fallen off…as those conversations fall off, it’s hard to tell where they stand in the long term.”

 

Dealers say GM has to regain mind share in electric cars. “We just don’t have presence in the space currently,” said Jamaal McCoy, general manager of Findlay Chevrolet in Las Vegas. “When someone thinks of an electric vehicle they don’t think of Chevrolet; they think Toyota or Tesla.”

... For now. Because Tesla's electric "supremacy" days may well be numbered with the arrival of the BMW i8 and other ultra high-end competition. Because when it comes to novelty electric cars which despite the best intentions and efforts of their makers simply refuse to become mainstream, one has to differentiate in other ways. For Tesla that something is appealing to the buyer's vanity and desire to show off their wallet. However, that success of such a strategy is limited as the recent drop in Tesla sales in China is confirming.

As for the current iteration of Chevy Volt, it has finally met its fate on the recycling lot, which as many had predicted long ago, will be right next to that other GM "shock and awe" concept: the infamous Pontiac Aztek.

 

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Thu, 04/09/2015 - 17:10 | 5976474 Boxed Merlot
Boxed Merlot's picture

which fail pretty quickly...

 

So as they fail, does it take less time to charge or just decrease the range?  Is this information available on board, visually?   Is there an app for this?  What's the actual amortized cost / expense per mile?

Something tells me this will not be nearly as economical as initially billed in the long run regardless of the acceptability of the marketplace.

 

jmo. 

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 17:47 | 5976609 vincenze
vincenze's picture

Of course, the range decreases from the Day 1 as the battery gets older.

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 16:05 | 5976256 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

I don't have an electric car, I have 3 electric scooters which cost me about 5 euros a month to charge off home system. I do have an older Nissan Micra that gets 45 mpg.   I only put 3000 km on it last year.  

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 16:25 | 5976330 homiegot
homiegot's picture

Bah ha ha ha a ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hah a hah a ha ha ha hah!

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 17:09 | 5976465 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

I read some very ignorant an uninformed commenters here.  All Americans , no doubt.

Perhaps you need to watch THIS in its entirety and learn something.,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-grdspEWQ

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 17:21 | 5976522 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

The naysayers are all losers and probably on food stamps.  They really don't get it and will be left behind. Its already happening.

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 17:34 | 5976554 Seek_Truth
Seek_Truth's picture

Poor troll is poor.

Ad-Hominem, Non-Sequitor, Begging the question- three logical fallacies in one statement.

Get back to your scooter, Dummkopf.

Fri, 04/10/2015 - 21:10 | 5981024 Who was that ma...
Who was that masked man's picture

You live in a fantasyland with fairies, gnomes, and unicorns.  It must be nice.

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 17:31 | 5976547 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

The most important piece of news on the energy front isn’t the plunge in oil prices, but the progress that is being made in battery technology. A new study in Nature Climate Change, by Bjorn Nykvist and Mans Nilsson of the Stockholm Environment Institute, shows that electric vehicle batteries have been getting cheaper much faster than expected. From 2007 to 2011, average battery costs for battery-powered electric vehicles fell by about 14 percent a year. For the leading electric vehicle makers, Tesla and Nissan, costs fell by 8 percent a year. This astounding decline puts battery costs right around the level that the International Energy Agency predicted they would reach in 2020. We are six years ahead of the curve.

Fri, 04/10/2015 - 18:04 | 5980572 Who was that ma...
Who was that masked man's picture

You may be interested to learn that electricity is not manufactured in the wall outlet, much of it is made by the burning of coal so, many of those "green" "electric" autos actually run on coal.  Isn't that interesting?

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 17:32 | 5976550 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology offers a safe alternative to many commercial batteries in wide use today.

“We have developed a rechargeable aluminum battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames,” said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. “Our new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it.”

Dai and his colleagues describe their novel aluminum-ion battery in “An ultrafast rechargeable aluminum-ion battery,” which will be published in the April 6 advance online edition of the journal Nature.

In addition to small electronic devices, aluminum batteries could be used to store renewable energy on the electrical grid, Dai said.

“The grid needs a battery with a long cycle life that can rapidly store and release energy,” he explained. “Our latest unpublished data suggest that an aluminum battery can be recharged tens of thousands of times. It’s hard to imagine building a huge lithium-ion battery for grid storage.”

 

Aluminum-ion technology also offers an environmentally friendly alternative to disposable alkaline batteries, Dai said.

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 20:01 | 5976994 I Write Code
I Write Code's picture

Gigundo news, if true.

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 17:38 | 5976576 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

Car manufacturers in Europe.  most have an EV . and working on improving daily

 

European Brands
  • Alfa Romeo
  • Aston Martin
  • Audi
  • Austin
  • Autobianchi
  • Bentley
  • BMW
  • Bugatti
  • Citroen
  • Dacia
  • DAF
  • Daimler
  • Donkervoort
  • Ferrari
  • Fiat
  • Innocenti
  • Jaguar
  • Jensen
  • Lada
  • Lamborghini
  • Lancia
  • Land Rover
  • Ligier
  • Lotus
  • Maserati
  • Maybach
  • Mercedes-Benz
  • MG
  • Mini
  • Morris
  • Opel
  • Peugeot
  • Porsche
  • Renault
  • Rolls-Royce
  • Rover
  • Saab
  • Seat
  • Skoda
  • Smart
  • Triumph
  • TVR
  • UMM
  • Vauxhall
  • Volkswagen
  • Volvo
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 18:11 | 5976658 Seek_Truth
Seek_Truth's picture

EVs versus Combustion powered vehicles are worse than changing the brand of cigarettes you smoke, because EVs are more polluting than Combustion powered vehicles:

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21636715-why-electr...

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1418421-is-the-tesla-model-s-green

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1091060_electric-car-batteries-graph...

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/hold-smugness-tesla-might-just-worse-e...

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/07/05/electric-cars-actually-dir...

And don't even get started on Nuclear Power Plants- the dirtiest, most polluting, most life-threatening power generators on this planet, considering lifecycle costs.

You have permission to get off your scooter now, if you promise to educate yourself by reading the above links, Dummkopf.

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 18:17 | 5976672 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

US inventors should rake their inventions overseas.

Germany would love to talk with you.

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 20:28 | 5977063 countryboy42
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 18:32 | 5976718 Who was that ma...
Who was that masked man's picture

Electric vehicles have been around since the dawn of the automobile, dozens of them, and every single one has ended in failure.  It's a really stupid idea and it's time to admit that.

Fri, 04/10/2015 - 03:57 | 5977730 DutchBoy2015
DutchBoy2015's picture

Yes thats why they are converting all hi speed trains to gasoline engines.   LOL   Jesus Christ , you are fucking stupid beyone imagination.

Listen up ,dipshit, the oil companies wield MASSIVE power.     EV means no oil changes and motor runs more or less forever. no mufflers either.

Get a clue and get up to date and foremost start USING our OWN brain.

Fri, 04/10/2015 - 16:35 | 5980250 Who was that ma...
Who was that masked man's picture

My dear Dutch Boy, better get your finger out of the dyke for a minute and notice that trains travel a set route on rails which can be used to transmit electric power to the trains while cars do not and must carry their power source with them, and therein lies the difference.  Trains running on electric power have been successful for more than a hundred years while electric cars have never been successful.  So sorry to burst your little bubble my dear.

Thu, 04/09/2015 - 18:39 | 5976737 OKUSA
OKUSA's picture

I'd rather drive the Aztec

Fri, 04/10/2015 - 11:07 | 5978678 Bumbu Sauce
Bumbu Sauce's picture

The electric car needs to go the way of the steam powered car until local power generation is viable.  Until then it is just a vanity outlet for vain fucktards based on a prescription to right a hoax.

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