You are currently browsing the forum as a guest which gives you limited access. To make use of all forum features such as posting to topics, reply to other postings, starting polls and using the Private Messaging System (PM) you are invited to register. Registration is free and simple. All you need is an e-mail address and a password and you are ready to go! Sign up and join the Green Car Network today!

Should you have problems with the registration process, please contact us.

Forum » Prototype Forums (EV's, Hybrid, Hydrogen, Fuel Cell, Petrol, Diesel) » Chevy Volt

Critical voices: Will the Volt become an affluent family's third car?

Author	Message
Written on: 07. 08. 08 [21:11]
ecoadmin Administrator Topic creator registered since: 20.07.2007 Posts: 387	From the EV World Insider Newsletter: @ evworld.com Admittedly, GM's Volt program is a huge gamble for the struggling corporation that some are suggesting is on the verge of bankruptcy, including most recently Merrill Lynch. So, it should not come as a surprise that someone would come along and question the wisdom of developing a plug-in electric car. One of those louder voices is Holman Jenkins, Jr. who wrote in the Wall Street Journal that pouring "hundreds of millions into a race to launch an electric car, the Chevy Volt, guaranteed to lose money on every unit sold, begins to seem a peculiar strategy for a company in dire liquidity straits." Jenkins thinks, "At best, the Volt will be an affluent family's third car" largely because of its supposed sticker price of $45,000. He makes a number of other "interesting" claims such as thinking the car "will be lucky to get 15 mpg under gasoline power," despite GMs not unreasonable projection of 50 mpg in engine-on mode. In the end, he considers -- not unlike a number of other skeptics -- that the Volt is just a one big public relations gimmick intended to make an eventual government bailout of General Motors more "politically acceptable." His comments didn't go unremarked by EV World readers -- and elsewhere on the internet -- most not all that kind to Mr. Jenkins or the once-respected-now-Rupert-Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal. One commentator noting, "This ranting scribble is so poorly researched it wouldn't make it into the NY Post." What Mr. Jenkins seems to want to ignore are two salient facts of life in the 21st century: oil is dear and becoming increasingly so, and cars will have to become increasingly electrified. GM, Mr. Jenkins, has no choice in the matter. They do this or they perish....which probably means getting bought up by Mahindra & Mahindra in India or SAIC in China. The Volt is a very big gamble, we all understand and recognize this. We live in a new era where gas guzzlers like big bore engines and tail fins are "so last century." GM realizes they made a serious miscalculation when they killed the EV1 program, now they are trying to rectify that mistake. The only real question is the Volt too little, too late? Let's hope not. ecocarforum.com - Green Car Network Community for sustainable transport
	Profile WWW Skype
Written on: 09. 08. 08 [10:05]
Lensman registered since: 31.05.2008 Posts: 81	I'm with you 100%, Ecoadmin. It seems pretty foolish to me to claim that GM is only, or mainly, pursuing the Volt PHEV project so they can make a more credible appeal for a bailout. Okay, let's say Congress does bail them out. *Then* what? They still need to sell cars that customers actually want. And customers no longer want gas-guzzlers. Congress won't continue to bail them out forever, and if they want to stay in business they're going to have to start selling PHEV cars or pure EV cars. Hopefully both. So I've got to wonder what this Holman Jenkins, Jr. is selling. Maybe he's shorting GM shares-- that is, betting their stock will go down even faster than it has been.
	Profile

Powered by mm_forum v0.1.7