[MountainVolt]

There are so many conflicting GM excuses for the Volt's poor marketing just from GM, I doubt we will ever fully understand what happened.

PHEVs will win over many converts for the next 5 to 10 years. The majority of Volt owners are able to avoid adding gas for months at a time while winning local road stoplight races silently. I have had my 2017 Volt for almost 3 years and I will never own a 100% gas engine car ever again. Someday when EVs can add at least 300 miles of range per 5 minute charge at charging stations more pleantiful than gas stations, I'll switch to EV, but, I'll stay with PHEV until then.

For me it is Volt till end of lease then Honda Clarity next.

Chevy blew it by stopping the Volt just as many were beginning to understand it.
Positive driver experiences along with high mark's from reviewers would have been Volt marketing gold. Shame on GM for not knowing how to support their ground breaking Volt. If GM ever gets back into the PHEV business, with a vehicle as good looking and super performing as the Volt, I hope they refuse to allow any non-Volt driving and any non-certified Volt sales people to market the PHEV vehicle. Any good PHEV salesperson should be able to outsell most of the 100% gas alternatives easily.

It will be interesting to see how Honda does with the Clarity.

 

[marsman2020]

If the dealers don't understand the product they are selling and want to sell it, in my opinion all of the corporate GM marketing in the world won't help.

I bought my Volt used and I knew exactly what I wanted, but my understanding is that most dealers did not have a good understanding of the Volt as a product, and would re-direct people to the Cruze instead.

Dealers make most of their money off of service so there is actually a dis-incentive to sell vehicles like the Volt or Bolt which require less maintenance than a fully ICE vehicle. If they sell a lot of these cars now, they will make less of service in the coming years.

For a car or a crossover like the Volt to be successful, you'd need the sales people at every dealership to try to convert every sale of an ICE vehicle into a Voltec drivetrain sale. I think this could be done in 2-5 minutes of the customer's time with a good sales person who knew about how the Voltec system worked and you'd convert a LOT of the sales - but the dealers would need to have the will do to so.

Just the smooth and quiet driving experience from the Voltec drivetrain (even in CS mode) would make the experience superior for any car it was put in, setting aside everything else about the car. I've hated just about every automatic transmission car I've ever had to drive for an extended period, they always shift at the wrong time and they are so mushy....the Volt is a dream in comparison.

 

[Steverino]

Funny how the two marketing people are saying "GM". Wrong, it was these two dimwits who bungled the marketing.

And yes, many ignorant or obstinate dealers played a role too.

 

[obermd]

I read an interesting article this past week about the demise of sedans. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have spent the last 30 years advertising their highly profitable trucks and SUVs and ignoring sedans the they have emotionally convinced most Americans that they need a much bigger vehicle than they really do. The Volt was a victim of this three decade marketing effort.

 

[Eagleco]

For me it is Volt till end of lease then Honda Clarity next.

You seem to really love your Volt. Why not buy it at lease end, rather than get a vehicle that clearly has a PHEV system inferior to the Voltec system. Is the Volt just too small?

We plan on keeping our 2018 Premier for 8-10 years. By then we should have many long range EV's to choose from.

Your 2017 should be good for many more years. Or you could buy a slightly used 2019, and get the best Volt ever made. Faster charge, power driver's seat, lower deferred ERDTT. Sc#$% the Clarity!

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[MountainVolt]

For me it is Volt till end of lease then Honda Clarity next.

You seem to really love your Volt. Why not buy it at lease end, rather than get a vehicle that clearly has a PHEV system inferior to the Voltec system. Is the Volt just too small?

We plan on keeping our 2018 Premier for 8-10 years. By then we should have many long range EV's to choose from.

Your 2017 should be good for many more years. Or you could buy a slightly used 2019, and get the best Volt ever made. Faster charge, power driver's seat, lower deferred ERDTT. Sc#$% the Clarity!

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I hear you Eagleco. A week doesn't go by that I don't wrestle with buying my 2017 Volt at the end of the lease.

I like the size of the Clarity. The Clarity from most angles looks better than the Volt and according to a Clarity owner that I spoke to, he prefers the even quieter and smoother ride of the Clarity. The Volt he strongly considered, but felt the Clarity better. I can't imagine anything quieter than the Volt, or much better performing but will do a test drive of the 2020 Clarity this fall. I am interested to see if Honda provides a better way to manually turn the Clarity ICE on and off and if the range and performance gets better. I'm also hopeful that the Clarity for 2020 will have a liftback.

Plus, I'm really pissed off at GM for killing the Volt, our government for not extending the tax credit and the over ten years of GMs PHEV development that looks to be getting dumped by GM just as multiple other PHEVs come to market.

I also wonder how supportive GM will be of cars no longer under production. I was surprised recently when I encountered some concern from my Chevy dealer's service guy about Volt state emission inspections. He didn't seem to be much of a Volt fan and said that because Volt owners rarely use the ICE, he has trouble getting them to pass the annual inspection. I assured him I once every week or so run my ICE when on the thruway. Mine passed the emission inspection fine.

But will dealer Volt service and warrantee work for a 2017 suffer 2, 3, 5 years from now???

 

[obermd]

I hear you Eagleco. A week doesn't go by that I don't wrestle with buying my 2017 Volt at the end of the lease.

I like the size of the Clarity. The Clarity from most angles looks better than the Volt and according to a Clarity owner that I spoke to, he prefers the even quieter and smoother ride of the Clarity. The Volt he strongly considered, but felt the Clarity better. I can't imagine anything quieter than the Volt, or much better performing but will do a test drive of the 2020 Clarity this fall. I am interested to see if Honda provides a better way to manually turn the Clarity ICE on and off and if the range and performance gets better. I'm also hopeful that the Clarity for 2020 will have a liftback.

Plus, I'm really pissed off at GM for killing the Volt, our government for not extending the tax credit and the over ten years of GMs PHEV development that looks to be getting dumped by GM just as multiple other PHEVs come to market.

I also wonder how supportive GM will be of cars no longer under production. I was surprised recently when I encountered some concern from my Chevy dealer's service guy about Volt state emission inspections. He didn't seem to be much of a Volt fan and said that because Volt owners rarely use the ICE, he has trouble getting them to pass the annual inspection. I assured him I once every week or so run my ICE when on the thruway. Mine passed the emission inspection fine.

But will dealer Volt service and warrantee work for a 2017 suffer 2, 3, 5 years from now???

My wife and I have a Volt and a Clarity. Based on my observations the Clarity is more fuel effiicent than the Volt. Not by much but definitely measurable. The Volt definitely has better control over when the ICE runs. The Clarity is definitely a more comfortable car to ride in, though.

 

[wssix99]

Thanks for posting. That was a really interesting article. It was clear that very few people understood how the Volt works (obviously few dealers do) but I never put that in the light of it being a marketing problem and an insurmountable sales barrier. (it is)

Maybe the marketing department never really understood how it worked, either???

 

[Bill Step]

and just a few minutes ago,,I see an ad on tv for a prius all wheel drive -E thats gets 50mpg.see,toyota for a win again.GM,,wake up

 

[Eagleco]

and just a few minutes ago,,I see an ad on tv for a prius all wheel drive -E thats gets 50mpg.see,toyota for a win again.GM,,wake up

An ugly car that takes 9.8 secs to go 0-60?
Not interested.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[marsman2020]

The Prius AWD gets better MPG because it has a smaller battery pack, smaller electric motors, etc to carry around. It's a normal non-plug-in hybrid and designed to get ~70% of the torque from the ICE engine.

If you do the math for gas use and carbon emissions of the non-plug-in Prius vs the Volt charging overnight on a 120V outlet every night before you start your commute, the Volt will almost certainly win.

For example, I've driven my Volt about 900 miles since I bought it, and used about 1/2 of the 9 gallon tank in charge sustaining mode. It could have been less gas than that if I were more diligent about charging.

The Prius Prime PHEV might work out differently in the math but my understanding is it is quite anemic to drive in EV mode.

Toyota hypes these MPG numbers but the Prius is 2001 technology. Toyota has spent all of their efforts on their stupid fuel cell vehicles instead of producing a real BEV, squandering the early lead they had with the Prius.

 

[Bill Step]

An ugly car that takes 9.8 secs to go 0-60?
Not interested.

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actually its 10.6secs,,hell,my electric specialized bike may be faster.lol

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a25475797/2019-toyota-prius-awd-e-drive/

 

[Buzzz]

Rather have a FWD PHEV than an AWD hybrid any day of the week. All wheel drive is an “occasional imperative” for many of us, and with the proper tires, near worthless.

 

[supchrgamx]

when they tried to market the volt they explained it wrong. or not at all
they tried to justify the cost of the car, by the car giving you further saving down the road, to offset the initial cost of ownership
most people are the mind set of, what can you do for me today, not so much, tomorrow
they should have presented it
GM is proud to present the new volt, with the 90 km range on battery, that for pennies you can recharge in the comfort of your home (pan from a shot of the volt to a couple sitting on their couch eating doritos) ,that's a good start, but we don't stop there, when the batteries run out , the car seamlessly tranfers ( show the dash with the batteries dropping off and the engine picking up) over to the gas engine that gives you another x amount of km per tank of fuel that you can refill anywhere(shot of the car at a gas station). so the car wont leave you stranded on a dead battery(shot of a car sitting on the side of the road with someone standing beside it). the car also saves some of the battery when depleted to give the car, a hybrid system that will cycle back and forth between battery and engine to further give you better gas mileage while using the gas engine. and then follow new roads or something

 

[alfon]

We have a 2016 Volt now with over 60,000 miles and over 20,000 miles just on gas. Here is a picture of the dash on my return home from fishing down in Tillamook Oregon fishing one of the many coastal river systems there via Highway 101.

Now we have a 2010 Prius for comparison. This same trip would be $8.00 for the Prius at 55 mpg and gas at $3.30 / gallon
The Volt, $1.84 for a full charge, 16 KWH taken into account the 2KWH for charging losses via a 240 Volt system. So the Volt cost
$5.54 for the same trip. (reg. 87 octane Costco gas with 10% Ethanol added)

Note: The last fillup with the Prius was only 50 MPG calculated so I am being generous.

I have no issue with having to use gas especially when the Volt beats the Prius just in gas only mpg's.

Does anybody know of another car, besides a Volt, that can do this?

 

[Jmaj]

I wouldn't overanalyze this. The Volt showed up with a MSRP starting with a 4 and that pretty much made it DOA as a mainstream vehicle.
I bought a Volt but I would have been far ahead financially if I bought a Cruze. I knew that up front but I had the disposable income not to buy just based on a spreadsheet. The Volt had enough cool factor to make me want it.

 

[MountainVolt]

I wouldn't overanalyze this. The Volt showed up with a MSRP starting with a 4 and that pretty much made it DOA as a mainstream vehicle.
I bought a Volt but I would have been far ahead financially if I bought a Cruze. I knew that up front but I had the disposable income not to buy just based on a spreadsheet. The Volt had enough cool factor to make me want it.

GMs VP in 2012 (Bob Lutz) said the Volt was close to breaking even and would be profitable in a year or two. With today's EV batteries being one tenth the cost, the Volt is profitable today, so let's cut the GM bs crap. I think the bottom line with GM is that today's execs just don't want to abandon the ICE route yet. They think a market shift to EVs is still many years away.

 

[Bill Step]

Does anybody know of another car, besides a Volt, that can do this?

my old 97 passat tdi,tuned,at 58mph it would get 65mpg.My best in that car was 72mpg.on the dyno,car put down 122hp,217ft-lbs of torque.fun car for sure.
new engine w/ ported head and big turbo should hit the 200hp mark.
I always wanted to put an electric motor to the rear wheels,,then the volt showed up and wanted one.

 

[Tacoma]

GMs VP in 2012 (Bob Lutz) said the Volt was close to breaking even and would be profitable in a year or two. With today's EV batteries being one tenth the cost, the Volt is profitable today, so let's cut the GM bs crap. I think the bottom line with GM is that today's execs just don't want to abandon the ICE route yet. They think a market shift to EVs is still many years away.

I think there is something to this.

Also, the big truck crowd they are selling to will be slow to come around to the new EV market. They like people buying the trucks and SUV's because their markup is bigger. It is one reason they are not chasing sedans down the drain.

But I think one of the more interesting things in the article was that they admitted to the importance of education with the introduction of a new technology. So to that point, you would think they would put some value on people like these here in social media, because they are the real ambassadors to the new technology. Yet they pretty much ignore it and put no value in it because it didn't cost them any thing. By virtue of the fact that it is free, it has no value to them.