There are a few rumors in the press about the future of the Volt. I hope that GM doesn't make the mistake of cutting this product. Customer goodwill and perception is a hard thing to build, and in my opinion cutting the product would be a huge blow in this regard. If they do decide to morph the Volt into a crossover, then they better have the good sense to keep the product name. Changing the name to something like "CrossVolt" will look like they have dumped the product and in my opinion that will not go well for GM.
Mentioning cutting products, you can argue all you want about the history of GM's EV1, but when you have guys like Danny DeVito, in the press with "Who Killed My Car?" Then you have a serious problem. This really set the tone and perception of GM for a number of people.
As an example of building customer goodwill, Toyota built a huge following with the Prius by being first into hybrid the market - "The Prius first went on sale in Japan in 1997, and was available at all four Toyota Japan dealerships, making it the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. It was subsequently introduced worldwide in 2000. ... As of January 2017, the Prius liftback is the world's top selling hybrid car with almost 4 million units sold." (Source Wikipedia)
As a past purchaser of a number of GM vehicles, I started a boycott of GM products until I started seeing products like the Volt. GM lost several sales from me due to this loss of goodwill. Now I own and drive a Volt and do like the vehicle. I consider it to be best in class of the plug in hybrids.
Mentioning cutting products, you can argue all you want about the history of GM's EV1, but when you have guys like Danny DeVito, in the press with "Who Killed My Car?" Then you have a serious problem. This really set the tone and perception of GM for a number of people.
As an example of building customer goodwill, Toyota built a huge following with the Prius by being first into hybrid the market - "The Prius first went on sale in Japan in 1997, and was available at all four Toyota Japan dealerships, making it the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. It was subsequently introduced worldwide in 2000. ... As of January 2017, the Prius liftback is the world's top selling hybrid car with almost 4 million units sold." (Source Wikipedia)
As a past purchaser of a number of GM vehicles, I started a boycott of GM products until I started seeing products like the Volt. GM lost several sales from me due to this loss of goodwill. Now I own and drive a Volt and do like the vehicle. I consider it to be best in class of the plug in hybrids.
