Volt production dead in 2020? Fact or fiction?
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GM has made no announcement about Volt production plans for 2020. I personally doubt that will happen. There plugin sedans being produced by other manufacturers now so why should GM walk away from that market segment.
Actually I should have posted 2022. Just found this article: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2017/12/unplugged-chevrolet-volt-to-reportedly-exit-production-in-2022/
The only problematic point I see here is: "but another plug-in hybrid like the Volt seems less certain by the month."
Based on all the discussion on this board, the all EVs planned will need to have significant range to get people out of their Volts.
All speculation. PHEV's are interm vehicles until the charging infrastructure gets built up enough and EV market has a big enough market share and EV technology has advanced (there are still people who like in the 1800's believe that everything that can be invented, has been invented). Until then GM (and other manufacturers) will have at least one PHEV on the market and not give it away to the others. When this will happen is up in the air and dependant on a number of factors from rebates, to local and national laws and strategies etc. It's all just a guessing game right now.
Yes, it is a guessing game -- for us! But car companies make production plans years in advance. There's no telling if they've made the "best" decision until it's too late.
And the NAFTA madness currently percolating makes things even more risky for them.
Highly likely.
1. US trend is for larger and larger vehicles. SUVs, trucks outselling Sedans. Hatchback sales almost non existent.
2. Next iteration will need even more range (battery).
3. Volt is very tight inside due to battery. Any larger battery will make it even worse with the same platform.
4. They are losing money anyways.
5. Model X sells ok. EV SUV has a market.
6. SUV/Crossover will have more space for a larger battery.
Given all of the above I don't see a point not to divert from a hatchback EV to crossover/SUV EV. Once they have it there is no point pushing Volt sales. Fleet mpg averages will be much better with a larger vehicle.
1. US trend is for larger and larger vehicles. SUVs, trucks outselling Sedans. Hatchback sales almost non existent.
2. Next iteration will need even more range (battery).
3. Volt is very tight inside due to battery. Any larger battery will make it even worse with the same platform.
4. They are losing money anyways.
5. Model X sells ok. EV SUV has a market.
6. SUV/Crossover will have more space for a larger battery.
Given all of the above I don't see a point not to divert from a hatchback EV to crossover/SUV EV. Once they have it there is no point pushing Volt sales. Fleet mpg averages will be much better with a larger vehicle.
Forgetting about the format for a moment, the real question posed is whether the Voltec propulsion system will survive.
I suspect PHEVs will be around for some time. It would be silly for GM to give up on it when they have the best system in the industry.
Even if the Volt were to be discontinued today, GM has sold almost 200,000 plugins - the vast majority are Volts. By law they will stock parts for at least the next seven years. And the wrecking yards will have parts cars for many years after that...
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According to Dan Nickolson VP of Propulsion for GM the Voltec technology will be around in the future, BUT where vehicles with Voltec will be sold depends on factors like infrastructure. Not sure where this leaves us in the US. Hopefully it stays.
Reference to Volt is at about 15:50 in this video. The rest of the video is pretty interesting.
https://youtu.be/iBtl7cbQcJc
Reference to Volt is at about 15:50 in this video. The rest of the video is pretty interesting.
https://youtu.be/iBtl7cbQcJc
At the risk of being tiresome, WHAT infrastructure? Access to liquid fuel like gasoline or diesel? Wall power? The entire point of the Voltec drivetrain is that you get 70, 80, 90% of an electric implementation WITHOUT special infrastructure. You could time-travel a Volt 30 years into the past, and until something went drastically wrong with it, it wouldn't be any different than what living with a Volt is like today.
Nah, it all comes down to vehicle tastes. And what I expect to happen is to see Voltec drivetrains in a more OTHER things. Pickup trucks with a double-power size Voltec come to mind as a natural fit. MASSIVE tow-torque, and short "move the truck a few miles" doesn't even fire the ICE.
Agreed. Yet, to capture a larger market share, the Volt has to get simpler. They need to eliminate the Mode button/concept, and the regen paddle. Maybe even get rid of some of he graphics. A guess would be that the car simply drives all EV and then drives all extended range mode, with no option to switch when you want.
I don’t agree with that. The car defaults to do that and unless you are nerds/geeks like us, you don’t care about this extra stuff, but for those of us who are geeks it’s added value I suppose.
But the car is pretty much defaulted to run that way now without the casual user having to do anything different than with an ice car.
They really just need to explain this car better from a marketing standpoint, but right now I don’t think they’re all that motivated to sell too many of them because the profits are in the big planet killing suvs and other large ice vehicles. That’s not gonna change for a while.
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This is never going to happen. Car salesmen sell colors and style.
True — GM will have to in advertising, but they aren’t interested in selling more now. Honda’s Clarity marketing campaign does this, I think.
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My experience has been that there are dealers that want to sell Volts, who educate their salespeople on how they work, and who then sell Volts.
Then there are dealers who fall into the "A Chevy is a Chevy, how big do you want it to be, and we'll charge you a corresponding price." They tend to stock only one or two variants of each color, their salesmen are given a book of what value they can go down to, and they keep a Volt on the lot because GM corporate told them to.
It is not an insolvable problem. GM did well in training Volt techs. They should do the same for salespeople.
You're not going to convince me on this one. Salespeople's job is simply to sell. Anyone can get the job, and many are quite transient. And most people buying cars are not particularly savvy either. They are attracted to one color or another, or one style or another. I've ordered lots of cars in my life because I know exactly what I want. Most buyers compromise and take whatever is on the lot. Sure there are salesmen that will know more about a Volt, but they are very few and far between, and GM is not about to spend money on training them because they don't need to. Mechanics are a different animal altogether.
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