Erick Belmer's "Sparkie" is nearing 400,000 miles. At the current rate, he will reach this major milestone in 4-5 months. Mary Barra and Chevy marketing should turn this into a media event, and award Erik, who is a GM employee, a new 2017 upon reaching 400,000 miles. This would make a great commercial, and do more for advertising the electric vehicle division to new buyers than anything which has been done to date.
Countdown to 400,000 miles!
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Could award him a MY18 which is projected to be available in 4-5 months...However, 400K is somewhat an odd duck of a milestone, 500K is a far more powerful number...I'd rather see GM offer to cover any repairs to get to 500K then offer him a new ride once 500K is reached...
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Seriously! I have an 80 mile/day round trip and if it weren't for the sheer beauty of the Shenandoah Valley I'd have gone googly a while back <grin>
400,000 is a great achievement in this time period but 500,000 will be much more notable and at a time when most other car companies are coming out with new plugins and hopefully doing some advertising.
Chevrolet can say this is just one of the plugins we offer .
Chevrolet can say this is just one of the plugins we offer .
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+1 at least on par with Tesla AP1 functionality.If anyone needs a self driving car, it's Erick
I get the psychological impact of the 500,000 number. However, most cars driving the average 12k miles per year will only have half this in the vehicles lifetime, and 400k is double this. Whether 400 or 500k, either milestone would be a great marketing opportunity for Chevy. I hope they are at least aware (I would think so with him being a GM employee).
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The other issue is it's questionable if the gas generator would survive to 500k. He's 65% on gas, so there would be 325,000 miles on the generator at that point.
I will change one thing from my original post. I'll say give him a Bolt instead; he has charging at work so this would eliminate the gas bill as well as showcase the new EV.
I will change one thing from my original post. I'll say give him a Bolt instead; he has charging at work so this would eliminate the gas bill as well as showcase the new EV.
While his statement is over a year old and his opinion can change at any time (and for all I know, maybe it already has), this article states:
"he admits the 200-miles of the upcoming 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV would make him a little nervous — presumably because its range is right on the limit of his daily commute.
Why? Failed charging, and the age-old spectre of range anxiety. Belmer reports that while his Volt has operated perfectly, he’s experienced more than one failed charging session with his Volt, making him worry that the same in the all-electric Bolt EV would leave him stranded."
https://transportevolved.com/2016/0...miles-with-one-third-on-electric-power-alone/
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There is an obvious flaw in using Sparkie in a commercial, it's owner is a GM employee. You can make any car run forever if you are willing to spend the time and money replacing the failed parts, as a GM employee there would be the suspicion that he was capable of doing all the work himself and that he has access to cheap replacement parts, it might not be true if he was a GM accountant but anyone seeing he commercial might assume he's a Volt engineer. There is an old saw called my grandfather's hammer which goes "this is my grandfather's hammer, he bought it 80 years ago, of course since then it's had four handles and three heads but it's still my grandfather's hammer". The same is true for a car. If Sparkie was owned by a regular customer it would play better, note that it's owner might be just as skilled in fixing the car as anyone at GM but it still sounds better.
It's hard to find lease vs purchase data but there are all sort of articles claiming at least 55% of PHEVs/EVs are leased...Possibly could be higher than that thanks to the lease on the Volt (unlike the Bolt EV) is heavily subsidized and has low resale demand...So while it could be a cool web story, does it make a lot of sense to create a commercial which is going to only appeal to the purchasing minority?
We have to remember the whole point of GM marketing is to simply to get people to buy cars and the car that would be showcased is the previous generation so it isn't even for sale...Do we really think that carshoppers who pass on the Volt do so because they believe it wouldn't last past a certain mileage number? The marketing efforts should be spent elsewhere...
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Hopefully Sparkie is the first of many Volts that make it to 300K+ miles with relatively few issues and no $,$$$+ issues. Assuming that is the case I think it will go a long way towards keeping people who defected from Toyota/Honda to the Volt with GM. It will also eventually result in strong resale values which in turn leads to lower lease prices and a willingness for people to pay more for the vehicles. I won't be one of the ones putting 300K+ miles on my Volt any time soon. I have been averaging 8K miles / year so far.
So in your mind, you believe a TV commercial showcasing one Volt owned by a GM employee making it to 400K will result in YOUR Volt's resale value? We all want more money and things that are in demand but if somehow GM ever greenlighted this kind of commercial it's just more of the same imaging problem, showcasing stats that John Q public doesn't care about...There is probably one type of commercial that could increase your resale value but the irony is most Volt owners will hate it...Select a spokesperson from the top of the pop culture totem pole, think a Kardashian, which would immediately change the image of the Volt...
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I think when there are *many* Volts with over 300,000 relatively trouble free miles on them (assuming of course that happens) I think it will help resale values. We are obviously many years away from numerous Volts with 300K plus miles on them. Personally resale value isn't important to me because I keep cars 10+ years.
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