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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (27399)	8/3/2011 1:21:37 PM
From: miraje	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 86356

GM Confirms Slow Chevy Volt Sales I might have mentioned this here before, but I'm currently working at a Chevrolet dealership. We don't have a Volt in stock, but are due to receive one in a few months. A couple of points. First, the Volt is a child of CAFE regs. GM had to produce it in order to bring up their fleet MPG average and keep the government nannies happy. If there was no CAFE, there would be no Volt. Second, it is probably the most technologically advanced car on the road today. It combines plug in electric only commute capability with an extended range gas fueled IC engine for uninterrupted longer trips, something the Leaf and Tesla cannot accomplish (sorry Eric, but your Seattle to Mexico EV trip really is BS). Third, unfortunately, the Volt is also not economical to produce. Even at its $40K+ sticker price (before the $7K tax write off), GM is probably just breaking even, or more likely, losing money on each one sold. It's not my cup of tea, personally, but I do look forward to being able to test one out when we get one in stock.

To: TimF who wrote (27399)	8/5/2011 10:31:03 AM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 86356

Wow. Thx for sharing. That pokes a hole in that theory, at least for the Volt. On the Nissan front, I can tell you that there is no supply at any dealership in my area. So we are most certainly supply constrained. However, all of that will change by the end of this year. So next year will be the real barometer of sales, unconstrained by supply. Then we'll see if these things will sink or swim. Keep in mind that there is a learning curve among consumers on these vehicles. Even the iPhone took time for people to get used to and for them to work out the kinks in their supply chain and sales plans. Then it took off like a rocket. I'm hoping for the same on EVs.