Industry insiders predict GM will make 60,000 'Volt' electric cars in first year
General Motors Corp. (GM) recently announced plans to build as many as 60,000 of its Volt electric cars for their inaugural year on the market — four times the sales of Toyota Motor Corp.'s hybrid Prius in its U.S. debut, according to industry insiders.
Production at that level may allow GM to sell the plug-in Volt for less than $30,000 and seems to indicate that the Detroit automaker, which has been racked by losses and U.S. sales declines, believes an affordable electric car will help spur a revival. Toyota's Prius currently retails for $22,175.
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It's certainly a step in the right direction, IMO.
Just seeing GM advertising dollars going toward educating the public in this small step should help the cause.
Not that GM will go out on a limb to promote anything that is not entirely to their benefit, but I think we all benefit from this to some degree.
I look forward to the day that Electric and Hybred are household words ... I still run into people who's hair bristles when anyone even mentions anything remotely related to the environment, it's a shame.
Dave
MB-1-E
Electric - Bridgestone MB-1 Mountain Bike
Yeah - I agree it's a step in the right direction. I have very mixed feelings about plug-in hybrids. On the one hand with most journey's being below the 40 mile all electric range they should have a big impact environmentally and that's good.
However, I can't get over being annoyed that as yet there is no big player looking at doing a 100 mile range all electric car. My belief is that the one reason the big players can get behind a plug-in hybrid is because the resulting vehicle is more complex and still needs servicing at a stealership (sorry, I meant dealership). One of the biggest "problems" for the big players with an all electric vehicle is that it will greatly reduce the important revenue stream related with maintenance. As well as hurting their own bottom line it will virtually destroy the dealer's bottom line and they can't afford to anger the dealers...
So, good news on the environmental impact but bad news on the continued operating expense of a hybrid compared to an all electric. I'm glad that the Volt looks good and is a 4 seater - I may yet be tempted to buy one if none of the all electric vehicles by small independents pan out.
John H.
Blue XM-2000
Ann Arbor, MI
I agree it's a big step forward. I always get tripped up when someone uses a word that clearly means one thing, and applies it to a different thing. It's a very subtle kind of lie.
Anyway.. John, you've really touched on an important point. Why are the car companies fighting clean vehicles? When someone at the EV rally last week asked me that, I answered "Duopoly relationship between the oil and car companies, they're protecting each other". But I forgot the more complete picture. The duopoly extends to the whole slew of service and spare parts and performance parts companies. All these companies have a stake in the continuation of liquid fuel burning vehicles with complicated innards that require regular maintenance.
- David Herron, http://davidherron.com/
However, I can't get over being annoyed that as yet there is no big player looking at doing a 100 mile range all electric car.
Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries) is working on the R1e. Most of the information on the web is years out of data, but the Wikipedia article is being kept up to date. The prototypes don't meet these specs, but the car is still years away from the customer market.
--
Full time ebiker
BionX and Wilderness Energy
They aren't electric cars, they are plugin hybrid. It's curious why there are so many articles calling this an electric car. Maybe GM is trying to recoup some image after being accused of murdering the EV1.
- David Herron, http://davidherron.com/
- David Herron, Green Transportation Examiner, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, http://www.7gen.com/store, Electric vehicle blogs, podcasts and news, Electric Vehicle search engine, What is Reiki
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