Comments on: Project Better Place CEO Calls the Volt a Niche Product

By: GreenMonk talks to General Motors about the Chevrolet Volt

GreenMonk talks to General Motors about the Chevrolet Volt — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:46:21 +0000

[...] saw a report on the GM-Volt site where Shai Agassi of Project Better Place said: the Volt is a $20,000 car that will cost $40,000. [...]

By: klh

klh — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:29:54 +0000

The first one…is just wrong, the world has changed.
“The average cost of a new car as of February 2008 was $28,715″

Try $25,632, which for the quarter was “the steepest drop recorded in the bank’s 41-year-old survey, the analysts said” So extrapolate that drop down until 2010. (Of note, this is for ‘vehicles’ not just cars…take out trucks and the number is probably around 20K).

Okay Statik, I can’t tell the future, but even a $3000 hit to the price of a new car does not affect the economic analysis of the Volt. You have to look at cost of ownership, which you haven’t.

Just one month ago we were all convinced that gas was going up to 10 bucks a gallon or 200 bucks a barrel. Will we have a depression, if I knew that I would have already purchased my bunker. But assume that this is just a run of the mill recession. It lasts18 to 24 months. We haven’t seen a major drop off of employment yet. If it is a major recession, then it will turn around sooner, rather than later. But turnaround it will at some point. And the Volt is going to lead the way.

Please look at the economic analysis. Is there any fault you can find there on the Volt’s payback over 7 years?

By: Casey

Casey — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:29:10 +0000

In terms of disruptive innovations, starting with a niche is absolutely CRITICAL.
GM *IS* starting with a niche segment: The oil-hating, upper-middle class psuedo-environmentalist. They’ve been here before with the EV-1, but times have changed and now they are sitting square on the attributes that the general public wants(except price).

The powerful part of this is that disruptive innovations have a fantastic evolution: the S-Curve. The disruptive innovation starts as a niche and as economies of scale and awareness build, the price comes down and the mass market adopts it. Then it becomes the norm.

We are in the fun part of the S-curve: the phase of wonder and achievement 3-4 years before mass-market take-off…

By: Steve Dye

Steve Dye — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:56:09 +0000

My work is a 16 mile round trip drive. At 40 miles to a charge, I’m ready to buy the Volt right now. I could immediately get triple digit gas mileage. Enough said in my case. Love the concept.

By: Shawn Marshall

Shawn Marshall — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:52:52 +0000

Agassi must see a funding problem on the horizon; the Volt solution is a problem for him.

The Volt is a niche Car?
Good God Gertie what a Nice Niche you got!!!!