From the beginning GM has said the extended-range electric car platform of the Chevy Volt will be globally produced. At this point GM has publicly revealed the portfolio of 4 brands of electric cars the world will receive.
1. The Chevrolet Volt
This we know will appear in the US in 2010. GM has stated the car will sell in other countries that offer Chevrolet as well, including Europe.
2. Opel Ampera
Continental Europe will get the left-handed Opel Ampera in late 2011
3. Vauxhall Ampera
The UK will get a right-hand drive Vauxhall Ampera sometime in 2012.
4. Holden Volt
New Zealand and Australia will get a right-hand drive Holden Volt in 2012
?. China
Still missing from this equation is China. GM revealed a hydrogen fuel cell version of the Volt at the 2007 Shanghai Auto Show, and thus has demonstrated interest in getting an electric car into the Chinese market. Indeed China is GM’s most rapidly growing market and has a lot of potential. However, electric car competition in China is already expanding rapidly with the $22,000 BYD F3DM already on sale, and a $15,000 Chery S18EV on the way.
GM spokesperson David Darovitz told GM-Volt.com, “the Volt is a global, mass market vehicle. We intend to bring the Volt to Asia soon after the North American and European launches. “
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 8:06 am and is filed under Brand, Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Mar 8th, 2009 (8:09 am)Lyle says:
Holden Volt
New Zealand and Australia will get a right-hand drive Holden Volt in 2012
Oh yes please.
The UK will get a right-hand drive Vauxhall Ampera sometime in 2012.
Hey they will work here as well. hehehe.
Could GM have decided they can’t compete there on a cost basis?
With the average car cost in China being $11,000, you may well be right in this assumption.
LJGTVWOTR
NO plug, NO sale
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Mar 8th, 2009 (8:21 am)But does GM have to “compete” in China to be successful? There are lots of high priced cars in the US that don’t “compete” yet they exist. China market is potentially huge. Getting a small sliver of the china pie is better than nothing.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (8:30 am)the real concern is that if GM doesnt hurry up and get into the US market (and realize years of sales – not just first year production), China may pull the rug out from under them here given their speed to market and the other upstarts (Tesla) and domestic competitors. TIMING is EVERYTHING.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (8:31 am)How about the Buick Lightning? Buick is a cachet car in China, they have great brand loyalty from the Chinese drivers. Hard to believe, yes, but true. They won’t have to compete on price with BYD, there is no comparison between domestic chinese cars and Buick in perceived quality. Buick is viewed as superior to Toyota, which sounds incredible, but in Beijing, Buick is King for the upper middle class professionals and business owners. The owner of the cafe/bar I frequently ate at near workers stadium drove a Buick and was unreasonably proud of it.
Robert, I don’t think that anyone has a car in the works that will beat the Volt’s ER-EV flexibility until the S Tesla shows up, and it will be way over a net price of $30,000, which is ballpark for the Volt with an AER of 40 miles or the Prius plugin with an AER of 7 miles, which may have a slightly higher net price due to a lower tax credit. Bring on the competition, break the markets oil addiction and the world will be an immensely better place.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (8:52 am)Buick is a great brand – once had an old Electra and she never gave me any trouble. Many of my friends had LeSabres, 30 mpg highway and rock solid reliability. Even Consumers gave a nod to Buicks. GM has never gotten the credit it deserves for GOOD cars only lots of publicity for not so good cars.
Saying it again, the real reason folks hesitate to buy American cars is that they will get hosed at the dealership if they need help with quality issues. The dealers do not stand behind the product – the entire focus is to squeeze the customer. It’s just like computer printers and ink cartridges; they’ll practically give you the printer to abuse you for the cartridges. Eventually the market fixes these problems all by itself, the magic hand works.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (8:56 am)They can’t even compete HERE on a cost basis.
Oops. Just got a tad closer:
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid={56A7FB25-00CD-4F3A-93BE-26CD43C77BA8}
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Mar 8th, 2009 (9:03 am)Great topic for today, Lyle! Hopefully, some of the Obama Auto Task Force scheduled to be at GM tomorrow will take note of GM’s BIG, world-wide rollout plans for Voltec-based cars. If so, GM’s long-term viability should be enhanced in the eyes of the Obama Administration, which itself has made no secret of its plans to take BIG, BOLD, TIMELY steps toward mass producing American-designed plug-in electric cars!
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Mar 8th, 2009 (9:04 am)I’ve got big news : if GM cannot compete in mainland China against BYD, they also can’t compete in the US against that same car, which costs about half the Volt and has a 50% longer electric driving range. The Volt as it is now priced is simply nowhere near
being cost competitive, despite Obama’s typical BS about making profitable green cars and his promised $7500 ($7 billion) subsidy. I’d love to see that “car czar committee” that Obama threw together in an afternoon provide an answer as to how the Volt will make GM competitive and viable. That would be quite amusing. Washington has become a source of an endless stream of jokes about tax cheats running the IRS, etc. etc. etc. Now THAT’s real change.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (9:12 am)#5 Shawn said Saying it again, the real reason folks hesitate to buy American cars is that they will get hosed at the dealership if they need help with quality issues. The dealers do not stand behind the product – the entire focus is to squeeze the customer
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There’s a big difference from one dealership to another. I go to the dealership in Hilllsborough NC. It is superior in standing behind the product and service in general. Another dealership closer to where I live is as you describe. So the customer has to be aware of the independence of dealerships and look around. I don’t know that this system is the best, but it is what we’ve got.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (9:22 am)GM has been losing money and market share for quite some time. I think selling the same car as if they were different cars erodes the commitment of builders to their loyal buyers. And who wants an American car built in Mexico, but sold in America. Note they do not re-badge these as Mexican cars, such as the Chevy Enchilada.
Deception might make a quick sale, but don’t expect return customers.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (9:46 am)Regarding GM and the Volt in China, I’m sure GM has a plan. The market there is too critical to ignore, so most likely they have given it intensive thought. There is just no announcement yet, leading to the non-response response. It will happen.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (10:17 am)Shanghai PRC , the home of GM in China , with the product most assembled there being Buick.
From a long time ago the Buick became known as the car of the successful business man in China and that thinking is still followed today .
If the decision boys know what they are doing , and I believe that they know very well what they are doing , they will introduce a Buick version in China , probably called Electra .
The car would most likely look something like the Converj fitted with a Buick Converj looking grill , be four doors and longer to seat three in the back seat.
It would be a real status symbol for the wealthy Chinese and there are thousands and thousands of them who would buy one.
They mostly live in gated communities so plug-in would not be a problem for them either .
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Mar 8th, 2009 (11:25 am)It may be missing from the equation, but the spokesman DID indicate that the technology would be available in Asia (why would they not?). GM has the design of the Volt right. The car WILL be the leading edge of a revolution. It would be a guess to say how long GM can keep it’s lead, but they certainly don’t have time to waste. From what folks are saying on this site, Keith (#12) idea might make a lot of sense for GM—a Buick ‘Converj’ in China.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (11:46 am)Re: BUICKS
My first car was a 1965 Buick GS. It had the 401 Wildcat engine and 4 speed from the factory. It was FAST! Massive low end torque. You could go down to 20 mph in 4th gear and hit the gas and it would just move right on out. Very solid car.
I was 18 then. Years later after my wife and I had 4 children – all girls – I got a 1992 Buick LaSabre. That was the first year for the new body style which they made until 1999. Those were excellent cars. Anyway, it was the family car for years. All my girls eventually drove that car, and I wound up giving it to our two youngest daughters when they moved to Los Angeles to go to USC and UCLA. They beat the heck out of it down there. (Los Angeles is BRUTAL on cars – pot holes, constant braking and accelerating, hotter than blazes in the summer). It held up extremely well, no major breakdowns, just the front power seat motor sometimes didn’t work.
It was sold last November, and it was still going strong at 170,000. It was a smooth, safe, reliable car, and we all loved it.
(The daughter was using it last bought a new Cobalt by the way).
Ok, so I’ve been wanting to say this for a while but didn’t get the chance — when Buick comes out with a Voltec vehicle, I vote that they call it the Electra!
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Mar 8th, 2009 (12:01 pm)I understand the need to get the car out here, but why not focus on your biggest market first? China and the US should have a launch at the same time. As a USA citizen it does not bother me that China could get the Volt at the same time as us.
Go there and get it done GM!
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Mar 8th, 2009 (12:10 pm)You guys make me laugh….
We are talking survival for GM next month yesterday and now we are saying GM to lauch Volt to conquer the world…
Have a trip to China, you will see the market leader is VW/Toyota….
GM is a 2nd grade brand there…..Japs and germans are leading
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Mar 8th, 2009 (12:11 pm)Let’s get the Volt on the road, and worry about the rest a little later.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (12:43 pm)#15 Adrian says “I understand the need to get the car out here, but why not focus on your biggest market first? ”
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At present the biggest market is the US government. It sends money without taking cars, the best kind of arrangement.
(Symbolic Volts do help marketing.)
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Mar 8th, 2009 (12:49 pm)I see the opel ampera image under the chevy volt section.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (1:57 pm)I totally dig this talk of a broad Voltec rollout, but I can’t get my attention off the storm clouds looming over the horizon, namely that in 2-3 weeks we’ll probably see that GM will announce a chapter 11 restructuring. A few weeks ago when Bob Lutz announced his retirement, I saw that as the writing on the wall.
Look, GM sold what? 17 million vehicles in ‘06 and less than 9 million per year for the forseeable future. That’s like the guy who loses his job and has a $3,500 monthly nut on his house. So with 60% of production capacity sitting idle, where does that leave GM?
Thinking about getting out from under the pension, retirement, etc obligations, no doubt.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (2:01 pm)Another Buick fan!! I have owned several and my last one I have had since I retired. It is a 99 Park Avenue Ultra with 185,000 miles and the only thing I have had to do that was not normal expected cost such as oil changes, struts, and tune up was to have the intake manifold gasket replaced. I would have no fear starting from Fl. and driving to Vancover. I still do not need to add oil betweeen changes which I have done every 6,000 miles. GREAT CAR
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Mar 8th, 2009 (2:07 pm)I have bought chevys and fords most of my life, but my wife wanted a new corolla sport and by the way she loves it. last week we were invited to the Toyota dealership for a tri-tip dinner and a fun evening of door prizes and gifts and all they talked about were our warranties and the free service’s they offered, no sale pitches. And does anybody wonder why American auto makers don’t get it, I’ve never had anything like that from GM,Ford or from my dodge dealer
However I still want my Volt
NO PLUG NO SALE (for me anyway)
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Mar 8th, 2009 (2:08 pm)Ugh! Those Amperas have the absolute ugliest front end I have seen on a car in ages. It looks like a Cylon centurion. Give me the Volt any day.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (2:33 pm)#20 David siad:
Look, GM sold what? 17 million vehicles in ‘06 and less than 9 million per year for the forseeable future. That’s like the guy who loses his job and has a $3,500 monthly nut on his house. So with 60% of production capacity sitting idle, where does that leave GM?
Thinking about getting out from under the pension, retirement, etc obligations, no doubt.
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They wish. I think you are getting GM’s sales confused with the NA SAAR. The total production of all auto makers was at around 17 million in ‘06 (16.6 actually), and is in the 9 million range now…probably hitting around 7.5-8 before year’s end.
GM’s yearly worldwide production:
2008 –8.3 million
2007 –9.3 million
2006 –9.1 million
2005 –9.2 million
This doesn’t ’seem’ as bad as the NA situation, but the deeper you get into it…the worse it is if you are trying to look ahead.
NA numbers will go ‘year over year’ in a few months, hopefully ending the -50% months…but the international numbers are just falling off cliffs now, so the bottomline pain is still another 8-10 months from working its way through worldwide sales.
Additionally, GM’s ‘cash on the hood’ dollars have gone way up per vehicle to try and sustain the sales…around $3,000 per car (depending on how you calculate the metric internationally)….or about 15% per car sold. For GM, this 15% represents about 13% more than their cost (at traditional 9 million level volumes)…ie) they are selling cars at a loss
On top of that, the growth driver (and what is propping up those sales) for GM is in China, now up over a million units per year…unfortunately, while they count every car sold, they only have a fractional ownership of the business. ie) 1 million = 500,000
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Mar 8th, 2009 (2:36 pm)By the way, that Buick Lesabre I mentioned earlier got a solid 32 MPG on long highway trips. And that was usually ripping down the freeway at 75+ mph. We’re talking big six passenger comfort, too. Way more efficient as a people mover than todays SUVs.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (2:52 pm)Statik, thank you for correcting my math. The message is still kinda the same for me and that is: how is this going to play out? It seems GM has so little coming in these days, it’s hard to see how they can weather the storm.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (3:38 pm)There will be some hard choices coming. I looked at the photos of the Opel Ampera, and GM Volt. Then I saw the photos of the Chery S18EV and the BYD F3DM. By our American standards there is a huge difference in style. The reality is that for 15,000.00 and 22,000.00 the choice between style and function will be a determining factor for the American auto industry to survive, whether we like it or not.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (4:36 pm)I’m VERY confused looking at the pictures…. so the US Volt is now going to have the front-end of the Ampera?????
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Mar 8th, 2009 (4:49 pm)Since China likes Buicks so much why doesn’t GM take the vehicles they can’t sell and rebadge them as Buicks and them put them on a boat to China. They couls sell them there to get rid of overcapacity here.
All companies are loosing sales including Toyota and Honda (as mentioned in previous article). The reason all sales are down is due to the fact that everyone is loosing their jobs. We were planing on getting a new vehicle ourselves till I found out I was loosing mine. With my loss of income it does not make sense to go buy another car and that is the same situation everyone else is in. Sadly I can’t even find another job if I tried as there is so many other people off work, companies laying off. McDonalds is not even hiring.
If you want to save the auto industry you need to save the economy. When people go back to work at good or even decent paying jobs the will be able to get caught up on their existing bills then they can afford to go buy a new car.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (5:15 pm)India ?
Chevy is a small player there ( last time when i was there, i saw the adv ” Indian revolution” ).
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+1
Mar 8th, 2009 (5:17 pm)Australia 2012 ?
What Are they waiting for the price of production to drop and get all the bugs out ?
By 2 Years the Japs & Chinese WILL be already be in here to give GM an A$$ whipping price wise when they arrive.
Another way to drop the Ball at GM headquarters yet again.
(Company going down the toilet and the only thing to save them is the Volt technology which is a money loosing model)
They should have started years ago – What in the world were all their experts with forecasts doing? Were they playing with themselves in the boardroom all these years?
This aint helping getting me an affoordable “volt type” of vehicle is it?
Staggering!
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Mar 8th, 2009 (7:07 pm)To J Man #29
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Actually GM is planning to sell Buicks made here to the Chinese market:
Enclave is the first Buick built in North America to be exported to China since the early part of the last century. The Enclave will be imported by Shanghai GM and sold through a network of more than 400 Buick dealerships across China. The Enclave will be Buick’s first luxury crossover in China and will complement the rest of the Buick lineup, which includes the Park Avenue, LaCrosse, Regal and Excelle sedans, GL8 and FirstLand executive wagons.
Buick is a storied brand in North America and one of the most well-known automobile brands in China with more than 1.3 million Buick owners.
Also see this:
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/29/buick-enclave-gets-passport-for-sale-in-china/
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Mar 8th, 2009 (8:01 pm)The Voltec technology is so far ahead of the other technologies regarding practicability, that it really hasn’t any competition whatsoever. I have been a technical writer and educator since 1983 with 14 service manuals published in the 1980’s alone.
(The Auto Parts Datasystem published on microdisk, 1983-1990).
Down through all those years, I have seen how practicable and friendly and unfriendly all of the various technologies have been.
The Voltec technologies are, well, breathtaking for me (in studying the component layout from that first one published several months ago.)
The best way that I can prove my credentials in saying this is if I am permitted to let you know to do a “Google search”
Dan Petit Texas DPS
(That would be me, 10 pounds overweight from the Holidays).
There are 5 pages to scroll down, and you can see the work that I do.
The Texas DPS (Department of Public Safety) are the State Police of Texas who administer the automotive emissions inspection machines (and the safety inspections as well). My company (just me) trains the auto technician to diagnose the resulting causes of when a vehicle fails to pass emissions inspection. (I also train them to diagnose EVERYTHING ELSE as well with the Genisys scan system, which is the one that has high-enough definition waveforms which provides visual distinctiveness with its large waveforms so as to identify more easily which diagnostic “ball park” to devote diagnostic time with various additional small hand-held testers).
The Voltec technologies have all “the right stuff”, and, it is my hope that President Obama and the other team members bring to GM a far, far wider and extensive set of funding programs in order for an entirely radical, but careful, expansion of the Voltec programs, as these programs are truly technically-deserving of our National Investment in them.
Dan Petit Austin TX.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (8:32 pm)Well, of course the more markets they get into the better. Why? Because the design is basically done. The more cars they make the less design cost per car, just like software.
People need to remember that every market is different. There is no way we are going to produce the Volt in Detroit and ship it to China. Right? If there is a Volt for sale in China it will be built using their $1/day non-unionized labor and very inexpensive supply chains.
If the government in China wants to go electric then they will. The consumer will pick which of the approved cars they want based on some of the same things that people all over the world select their cars on – Image, quality, cost (upfront as well as long-term). Probably in that order for a good economy and the exact opposite order during a bad economy.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (9:52 pm)#33 Dan Petit: “The Voltec technology is so far ahead of the other technologies regarding practicability, that it really hasn’t any competition whatsoever……”
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Dan, I always read your posts here with great interest. As you suggested in post #33 above, I googled “Dan Petit Texas DPS” and read that pdf file reviewing what you do for a living with real interest! …..Now I know why I’ve appreciated your comments in this blog for so long!
I come from a different background — a life-long career in the space program — but I also have a great interest in automotive design. And I agree that, as you’ve said in post #33 above, “The Voltec technologies are, well, breathtaking for me (in studying the component layout from that first one published several months ago.)”
In my own case, the inherent propulsion system redundancy, along with the extremely-high reliability of an electronic/electrical/electromotive drive train employing only a small fraction of the parts needed in conventional drive trains, are really breathtaking for me too!
[And in case anyone here is curious about my credentials, simply clicking on my user name (nasaman) at the top left of this post will open a small website that outlines what I do for a living today (and reflects what I've done in the US space program for the last 45 years). It also has my email address & phone #, by means of which anyone here is welcome to contact me directly.]
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Mar 8th, 2009 (11:40 pm)The Opel Ampera looks a lot cooler than the Volt. I’ll take the Opel
Ampera.
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Mar 8th, 2009 (11:47 pm)An interesting thing about Chinese market Volt is that it doesn’t have to provide 10 year/150K mile warranty like the US and Euro versions. Thus GM could source cheap Chinese batteries with a life span of 4 years for Chinese market models only.
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Mar 9th, 2009 (12:09 am)I too am a little perplexed by the fact that they are waiting 3 full years to import even the first vehicle into Australia, New Zealand, and basically Europe for that matter (late 2011). I would expect UK to be coming after the Volt more aggressively than shoppers at Best Buy on the day after Thanksgiving, with their high fuel prices and over valued currency converted from dollars. Plus the fact that they love Vauxhall and Opel. Besides that, the countries is so small that they would only need a relatively small amount of trained dealers to take care of them all.
It may have something with the fact that there will only be X amount of batteries available a year, limited production and right now they deeply need to fix their brand image in the US, they’ll need all of them, not just a token 500 or something in the UK.
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Mar 9th, 2009 (7:05 am)LOL. This white/black Ampera should be a smash in China. Is it just me, or at quick glance does it look like a Panda?
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Mar 11th, 2009 (11:46 am)Today it came on my Opel newsletter. Opel launched a microsite related to the Ampera: http://www.opel-ampera.com/
(Btw, I think in white colour they should find a better name tham “Ampera” if they are not allowed to use “Volt”. What about “Shamu” – I am seeing some similarities.)
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Mar 12th, 2009 (5:15 am)********* Don’t call the UK variant a Vauxhall Ampere *********
Give it the same name and insignia as it’s European counterpart, the Opel Ampere that is.
Vauxhall’s image in the UK may hinder it’s desirability (sad and superficial but true).
Using the new name and insignia would help to re-brand the company’s image as modern,new and a technology leader.
Plus the lightning strike badge is so apt (and would be ever more so if it were bright yellow/gold), what’s a Griffin or whatever it is got to do with electric power?
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Nov 18th, 2009 (7:35 am)Thanks for a sharing this articles. That’s very interesting.
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