No, Tesla found out that working with weak drivetrain parts, designed for weak gas engines, that can’t handle superior electric drive torque and dealing with pricey, inconsistent suppliers is just as tough as they feared. They improved both issues as they’ve produced and sold their product, which is not designed to compete with the Volt, to satisfied retail customers. No business is easy.

I really appreciate all your comments. Also I heard about the new breakthrough in battery technology and one of the companies that made a contract with the developers is going to supply the batteries for GM! This must be a very good news for Volt.
I also keep my car for about 10 years. I agree with your point about long-term cost. At the same time, I still think many customers will not be attracted to Volt simply because of the upfront price. Price can be everything when you compare only a small number of ‘electric’ vehicles. This may be only me but long-term cost argument may not be a strong point for Volt if you consider the resell value too. Volt might have a much higher resell value than other GM cars. But, as you may know, the brand image makes a big impact on resell value. In addition, the fuel cost for Insight might not be very bad even when it is compared to a pure-electric car.
However, if Volt adopts the new technology and arms with better specs because of that, I will seriously consider it. But, I still think Volt may not be a big attraction to many existing Japanese car users. GM needs to take them back and that will require a big blow.

If price was everything, we would all be driving a Kia RIO!!!

I guess a lot of it will depend upon how long you keep your vehicles. I usually keep mine for about ten years. So I am going to use that as an example.

A well equipped Honda Insight will cost $21,000, according to their website. I am using round numbers. A Volt with federal tax credit is expected to be about $33.000. So that makes the Volt $12,000 more up front. Over ten years that is $1,200 per year, or $100 per month. Since I currently spend more than that in gasoline now, even at $2.00 per gallon, I think it is a long term winner. Plus, I think it is a reasonably established position that gasoline is going to go back up in price, so that makes the long term economics even better. As a final thought, you have to consider that any current parallel hybrid requires gasoline to function at all. In my particular driving pattern with the Volt, I would only be using gasoline one day per week. So if there was any type of disruption in the gasoline supply, I would still be able to have working transportation for almost all of my needs.

All I am really trying to say is that there is more to consider than the sticker price. The long term operational costs have to be considered….

The Honda is what is commonly called a parallel hybrid. This means that for almost all of the time, you will be running the gasoline engine, with a smaller assist from an electric motor using a small battery pack that you do not plug in to charge. Your mileage, according to the Honda website, will be 40 mpg city, and 43 mpg highway.

The Volt is called a serial hybrid. For the first 40 miles, you will be running on just the battery pack, which you charge up at night with a standard 120V AC outlet. After that, a 4 cylinder gasoline engine kicks in automatically to power a generator to provide electricity to the electric motor. Only the electric motor drives the wheels. There is a very large argument about how to determine mileage, if you never use the gasoline engine, that has yet to be fully answered.

So in your case, you should use almost no gas in your daily commute to work and back. And the cost to re-charge the battery pack should cost about $1.20 per night, depending on the electric rates in your area.

Plus this car does not have to be considered as a second vehicle. If you want to take a long trip, the first 40 miles will be powered from the batteries. Then you will get 50 mpg when the gasoline engine starts up.

It is not the answer to everyone. But for me, my gasoline consumption will be cut by over 90%, and that is important to me, and is worth a premium price for the vehicle. For you, that may not be the case.

As far as the tax credit, it is dependent upon the size of the battery pack. The Volt, with a 16KWh pack, can receive the maximum credit. I do not know what credit would be available to the Insight. Perhaps someone else can answer that for you.

One final thought. For the first few years, the Volt is expected to be more expensive, until the manufacturing capacity of the battery packs ramp up and those costs are lowered by the economies of scale. Then, probably with the second generation of the Volt, you should see much lower costs.

I hope this helps.