We patiently wait for the Volts to be built, and hope they will be available late 2010 as promised. We have heard for months that GM hopes to produce Volts in the tens of thousands; in fact 60,000 was a number tossed around previously ( see post ), and exec will tell you themselves they would be happy to sell them in the millions.

We are also aware that the first production models may have to roll out slowly with plans to ramp up to scale as demand requires.

Yesterday an article cited the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association as reporting they expect to have 200 Chevy Volts in 2010.

Does this mean GM is actually orchestrating the geography of the initial rollouts or is it just a baseless claim. I cannot say based on any discussions I have had.

What do you think?

Source ( The Honolulu Advertiser )

Thanks to Lyle L. for the tip!

 

i think the news is sparce today...

 

Lyle, I hope I'm not stealing your thunder by posting news links but here is one from boston.com dated today. The writer talks with Ric Fulop, A123 Systems.

http://www.boston.com/cars/news/articles/2008/02/02/in_volt_an_all_electric_pioneer/

 

Some days ago someone mentioned starting a trend of the # of people on the waiting list. I started one in early Dec and here are the weekly #'s if anyone is interested in looking at them. I think we will be at 20k in no time.

12/9/2007 6404
12/15/2007 6922
12/22/2007 7343
12/29/2007 7686
1/5/2008 8500
1/12/2008 8978
1/19/2008 9601
1/26/2008 10003
2/2/2008 10920

 

Nice article mmcc. Thanks.

The Hawaiian article is interesting. I don't know much about Hawaii but I wonder if they receive a certain percentage of new cars. If they do, that could be where the 200 number came from. This is pure speculation though. To my knowledge, GM doesn't know how many Volts they are going to build exactly. I have heard 60,000 or 100,000.
So I doubt anyone knows how many any dealer is getting at this point in time.

My babbling is over.

 

Jim said "i think the news is sparce today…"

I think it's kinda sparse, too.

 

Thanks mmcc, I wondered where were the numbers and thanks for the link. And have you seen the GM share quote the last days ? +2,73% yesterday. The financial slump does not seem bother GM share quotes (does the news about the development path for the Volt explain part of this ?) and a last news on the market (7 hours ago) is : GM sales up, Ford & Toyota down, Look previsions are not always correct, Toyota seems to loose terrain.

See link :
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=AP&Date=20080202&ID=8128850&Symbol=GM

 

And this, sorry I pushed the submit button too early :

GM Expects To Make 'Tens Of Thousands' Of Plug-In Volts

(...)
"We are not doing the Volt to sell 500 or 1,000 of these. We're talking about tens of thousands of vehicles," GM Vice President of Global Program Management Jonathan Lauckner said at a forum on plug-in electric vehicles here.
Lauckner told reporters afterward he is "encouraged" by the results of initial tests GM engineers have performed on a lithium-ion battery that is being developed for the Volt. (...)
"We've run an extensive number of tests, and we're fairly confident that we're going to be in very good shape on the 40 miles of EV (electric vehicle) range," he said.

Thursday January 31st, 2008 / 21h40

 

Sorry for the source for #7, it refuses to be copied and when I write it in full the submission is not uploaded,
Hint : type in the words : Lauckner and Mainz in the advanced search of Google, normally its the first reference.

 

mmcc #3. Thanks for those numbers. It really jumped the week after it hit 10,000.

You said, "I think we will be at 20k in no time.".

I agree. I think the bigger the number gets, that faster it will increase.

 

I think GM should allow GM-VOLT.com waitlist members have the first opportunity to order and take delivery of their Volts. This site has been a huge asset to GM and gives them an insight on how we think and react to issues and developments related to this car. We are truly passionate about this car and what it means. We would be the best people to inform others of what we are driving because you know many people will come up to us and ask about the car.

 

10 ROMI

I totally agree!

 

On a sidenote, supposedly Tesla is offering both a BEV and R-EEV version of it's Whitestar sedan to compete with the Volt. Wouldn't it be great if GM did the same? Just a thought.

http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9863202-54.html?tag=recentPosts

 

I think that GM should start thinking in terms of a 100K per year. I think the market is going to find the car, but the biggest threat to the success of the Volt is short supply to be filled a few months later by Toyota's competing product. If GM is on the fence as to the ability to sell 100k, then build contingency by introducing in other markets at the same time.

 

10 and 11

I agree also. I think that as soon as GM nails down price and is able to provide photos and dimensions, they should put the car for sale in the form of advanced orders. They can charge $250 to put in an advance order which would apply to the purchase price and could be non-refundable. Additionally, they could allow perspective buyers to visit a prototype in a detroit showroom, a Walt Disney showroom (the GM pavilion) and a Las Vegas showroom.

Heck -- charge $500 for the pre-order.

If this works well for them (and I think it will,) they could roll out the car 2-3 months before production by expanding the pre-ordering program to the 300 major US markets (1 car per market at a trusted dealership.) At this point, lower the price of the pre-order to about $100.

GM has an opertunity to make this the most successful new car introduction in their history -- and I'm willing to help.

Here's another thing -- GM should be working with the 10 largest electrical utilities in America to see if they are willing to kick in $500-$1000 per car.

I think also that many large American companies would be willing to buy some of these in pre-order format as fleet vehicles and executive cars.

 

3mmc:

Wow!

14Wise Golden:

Amen!

 

#13 Wise Golden:

I think you are correct ...there will be a huge demand for the Volt. In my opinion, GM should start production at 300,000 or 400,000 annually. Americans are sick and tired of relying on petroleum for a number or reasons (high cost, pollution, trade deficits, unrest in Middle East, etc.). GM needs to steal the show from the get go. Build it and they will come!!!

 

Where has the waiting list total been moved too on this new website lay-out???

 

My Volt project for yesterday afternoon was to send e-mails to my Senators and US Rep. asking for tax credits for the Volt. I commented on this on the thread below referring to the excellent comment by Mark in WI, #55.

My theme was that tax credits of about $3400 for Toyota and Honda hybrids were appropriate and had clearly helped to accelerate public acceptance. Since the Volt will get easily twice the mileage, and be produced in the USA by a US company with US workers, obviously an even larger subsidy would be in order. I modestly proposed $10,000 (ahem, ahem).

I think that, if all of the 10,000+ people on the waiting list sent similar e-mails, it might (would) create quite a buzz in Congress. Again, GM lobbyists are fine, but grassroots buzz is better.

Come on GM, how can we coordinate this with you?

I personally plan to follow up with additional short e-mails at least twice a month. It's really easy, and only takes a few minutes. I daresay that every one of you is more computer literate than I am. Maybe you can figure out ways to leverage this effort. Thanks.

 

For one thing, we could refer them to this blog, which I didn't think to do.

 

Lyle:

When you talk to folks from GM, will you ask them about this idea? I think that this is something concrete which we could be working on while we wait for the Volt.

 

I think we will see 2 different battery packs, very much like the EV1 1999 model, one will be LG chem. and the other 123. I bet the LG chem. will be the 40 mile one, and the 123 will give you about 60 miles. This way they will split the costs and give options. the LG chem. will mostlikely be the one around 30k and then the 123 will be around 35k. It makes some since that way those that want more range will help pay for the lower cost version. We will see.

I think the roll out will be similar to the project driveway, since they have service departments in those areas that handle the H2 cars, they will have the tools to handle those cars.

My guess that those of us that don't live on the coasts will see them in 2011.

 

19 Mark H

ATTN GM!
Your idea, Mark, of offering EITHER an A123 or an LG Chem -based battery is very insightful! It seems entirely possible to me that the A123 cells (which employ nanotechnology) might have substantially higher energy density than the more conventional LG Chem cells ....thus your hunch that the A123 battery could have much longer range (say 60 miles) & that it very probably costs more seems like be a pretty good hunch.

ALSO, offering EITHER battery as an option (for "40 mi" or "60 mi" gas-free ranges) could help address a problem I'm truly concerned about ....that BOTH battery supplier's full manufacturing capacities may be needed to allow GM to meet the huge market demand for Volts!

 

Noel Park #16 :

Some news about tax rebates in Europe, note that 1 Euro = more or less1.47 US $ today.

In Belgium : Income tax rebate (directly paid on purchase of the vehicle) of 15 % of the purchase price (with a maximum of 3,280 €) if CO2 emissions are lower than 105 gr/km

It's 3% of the purchase price with a maximum of 615 € if if CO2 emissions are lower than 115 gr/km,( that's what I got two years ago when I bought my Opel Corsa with a 1.3l turbodiesel engine).

There is a law proposal of a subsidy of 4,000 € if the main propulsion is electric and the E-range is "sufficient".

More info for other countries on :

http://www.avere.org/state_subsidies.pdf

 

Noel @ 16,

Good suggestion on lobbying. It would help if you pasted what you wrote so we wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.

Lyle, what about a new spot for lobbying efforts?!