GM is NOT losing Money on the Volt

[flacaltenn]

I love the concept of electric drive --- I just don't think we should jump into an infrastructure makeover before we even agree how to keep the lights on NOW TODAY.

Agree on what? The lights are on NOW TODAY. And there isn't any sign that they will be going off anytime soon. What would that have to do with how well the Volt works as electric transport, using local produced, distributed and used fuels?

You wouldn''t know that from the $MILLs spent on promoting NegaWatt production. THat is pulling out 1W phone chargers, turning off lights in airports while I'm sitting there reading, and getting everybody to buy squiggly bulbs.. When you pursue a policy of making electricity RARE and EXPENSIVE instead of PLENTIFUL and CHEAP -- the question is are you still gonna be harangueing me about turning off the freezer lights in the grocery store until I walk down the aisle? Because what you're proposing is moving TERAWATTS of energy to a wholly BEEFIER GRID in order to drive electric..

So which is it RGR?? Are we committed to ADDING capacity to the grid for this whim because we have NO PROBLEMS in agreeing on cost distribution, technology, and enviro implications? Or do we have to badger folks about EACH WATT they consume..

Once you have folks JOYRIDING on electricity --- I'll be damned if I'm gonna feel like sitting in the dark and freezing my ass off so that they can feel like they are saving the planet...

 

[martinjlm]

Another example of the epic fail that is Volt.....

Chevrolet Volt In September Sets All Time Record For Sales.

Curious, have you actually driven one, to comment on its "epic fail" or not? Seems a bit difficult to proclaim it a failure without at least the most basic of familiarity with how it does at its job.

It is like proclaiming that a Pulitzer Prize winning author is an epic fail...because he is short. Methinks using sales figures to determine success or failure is just an excuse to not actually consider what it would be like, supporting the American economy, keeping the production of our transport fuels locally produced and distributed, and telling the big oil companies, "No thanks...I am not suckling at the teat of Big Oil no mo".

RGR,

You are missing my sarcasm. I am simply responding to Politico's statement that Volt is an epic fail. Since he hasn't bothered to substantiate that opinion with anything resembling fact, I posted the article on the latest sales figures.

We took delivery of a 2012 Volt in March of this year. We have clocked more than 7,000 miles and still haven't been to a gas station.

 

[martinjlm]

thats all well and good.

I understand chasing the market by tooling for what you hope or see indicators of selling, then there is making the market.

GM tried to make a market for the Volt, would you say it has been successful? I wouldn't, as they will now retool at the Volt final assembly plant, Detroit-Hamtramck, to chase the Impala. Great, but the Impala isn't the mission standard that was advertised for the Green agenda ala the Volt and their predictions for sales etc.

If the volt was all that and a bag of chips, then they would not be decreasing production and changing direction over there to build the Impala QED.

I misspoke, as I cannot find the link I saw for $1.5bn yesterday but found this, it appears that there was $336 mn directly for Detroit-Hamtramck, and a total apparently of $700 mn. for the Volt overall spread across several locations.

GM Invests $336 Million In Detroit-Hamtramck Plant To Build Chevrolet Volt

Either you don't get my point, are ignoring my point, or I'm not doing a good job communicating my point. One more try.

Decisions on what vehicles would be produced at D-Ham when were ,
Made before the 1st Volt was rolled off the assembly line. The addition of the Impala to that plant in September / October 2012 was the completion of a decision probably made in 2009. Before the first Volt left D-Ham.

As far as whether GM is pleased with the current market position of the Volt? Absolutely. I've spoken personally with a number of key people involved in the development, engineering, and manufacture of the Volt and they are happy with the rate at which it is moving in the market.

I'll spare you the Reuters take according to Reason mag. and skip to the GM response;

Replies GM:

Reuters’ estimate of the current loss per unit for each Volt sold is grossly wrong, in part because the reporters allocated product development costs across the number of Volts sold instead of allocating across the lifetime volume of the program, which is how business operates. The Reuters’ numbers become more wrong with each Volt sold.

more at-
Is GM Losing $50,000 per Volt? - Hit & Run : Reason.com

so, the position is; GM made a decision back in 2009, to pull the volt assembly now in summer of 2012 to go with the impala, but invested 336Mn there, at that plant last summer anyway.

market position? are they selling according to forecasts? No, IF the Volt was selling what they were making with a predictable back log would they still be shifting there to the Impala? Especially in light of future and ongoing competition, tooling costs etc. that would defray the costs of the Volt as the GM response states? And as far as each Volt sold, well, they are channel stuffing and leasing at an extremely low costs to boot....dude....

Okay....let's try this one more again........

It was DECIDED way back when, probably 2009 or 2010 that the D-Ham Plant would have capacity to build three different vehicles. Those vehicles would be Volt, Malibu, an Impala. Period. The Malibu would clearly be the highest volume of the three.

The plant was already building three other models because D-Ham was configured to build three models. So as the Cadillac DTS, Buick Lucerne, and whatever the third vehicle already in D-Ham were taken out, one at a time, Volt, then Malibu, and now Impala were added in, one at a time. It's really not that hard to follow. End production on an old model, add a new model until the plant is back to three models.