9/10/2012

GM is losing about $49,000 per Volt that it sells?

If you are going to subsidize every unit of a model car you are selling by $49,000 (plus of course the Federal government is giving another $7,000 tax credit), you would think that you should be able to sell a lot of those cars, right?  Apparently, GM still can't get people to buy the Volt.
Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts.

Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher. There are some Americans paying just $5,050 to drive around for two years in a vehicle that cost as much as $89,000 to produce.

And while the loss per vehicle will shrink as more are built and sold, GM is still years away from making money on the Volt, which will soon face new competitors from Ford, Honda and others.

GM's basic problem is that "the Volt is over-engineered and over-priced," said Dennis Virag, president of the Michigan-based Automotive Consulting Group. . . .

GM's quandary is how to increase sales volume so that it can spread its estimated $1.2-billion investment in the Volt over more vehicles while reducing manufacturing and component costs - which will be difficult to bring down until sales increase. . . .

Labels: ,

1 Comments:

Blogger Martin G. Schalz said...

Moore's Law does not apply to energy storage devices, and until an 'battery's' energy density level that approaches that of Gasoline is achieved, an electric auto is not feasible, nor economical.

Besides, how much carbon based fuel must be converted into electrical potential to power a Chevy Volt? Have the tree huggers or Obama and his cronies ever thought about that?

Diesel has a better energy density per gallon than does gasoline, yet we fail to follow Europe's example of Diesel powered autos that are very clean as far as emmissions, and get very good mileage when compared to petrol powered autos.

It is a pathetic situation when there are those in government who are too weak to admit that their policies and viewpoints are not in keeping with reality.

9/10/2012 1:34 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home