GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

This week General Motors released its long anticipated MSRP for the Volt, and it is no secret that the $41,000 was not received very well. In fact if you were around the comment section here on July 27th, you would have sworn that GM had swooped into people’s houses in the middle of the night and stolen their babies.

For many of these newly child-less persons, the moment of anguish was quickly soothed with GM’s announced of a $350/month, 36 month, $2,500 down lease deal. This was not your typical payment for a car with a price tag starting with a 4, and it was a well calculated figure by GM in regards to its ‘competition’ on the market.

Personally, I have never been a big proponent of pitting two EVs against each other and having them fight fictitious battles to the death to see who reigns supreme. We have exactly zero mass produced EVs on the road now, and quite frankly if we can have 150 different types of SUVs, we surely can have a couple EVs co-exist.

However, it is impossible to not recognize that GM’s lease, is eerily similar to Nissan’s $349/36 month, $2,000 down lease. In fact, it can’t be ignored. The General, newly invigorated with the power of AmeriCredit, has decided to go to war with the LEAF for pocket books of lease customers. For all the gnashing of teeth over the lack of competitive pricing spirit against the LEAF ($32,780 vs $41,000, with both cars eligible for a federal $7,500 rebate), General Motors brought out the ‘hurting stick’ to Nissan with the lease.

Before I digress further, I should say, in the majority of situations, heck almost all situations, leasing a car is a terrible idea.

In a lease, your capitalization cost of the portion of the vehicle you use is huge, you have to guard your car against excessive wear/damage, and in the case of the Volt, your are also giving away your $7,500 rebate as a lump sum to lower the payments (that is your money, regardless how you choose to view it).

Specific to the Volt is the fact that a good portion of the cost of the vehicle is in the long term warranty cost on the battery (8 years/100,000 miles), you need to drive the Volt to get any real return from the warranty benefit in this case. The more you drive, the more value you regain…in a lease, you are capped at 3 years/36,000 miles before fees kick in.

Also, just basic driving patterns themselves are counter intuitive to the value of a standard lease. When the last data set came out of the NHTS, they found that the average driver puts 13,673 miles on their car on a year, and it is increasing. Even worse, males drove 16,749 miles per year (10,174 for the ladies). With a 12,000 cap on mileage before fees kick in, the average driver will have a issue using the Volt as their daily driver…which of course is one of the big advantages of GM’s EREV platform over something like the LEAF. The Volt can certainly take on the more meaty commutes some of us have worry free…but with a lease, it is only worry free if you aren’t worried about cost per mile bonus fees.

That being said, there are also some reasons to lease. If you just want a new car every three years or so, free from the hassle and commitment of the ownership and re-sale of a car, then a lease is for you. Also, if you simply cannot afford/qualify to purchase the car, but you really want it anyway…a lease is for you. This financially stressed/under qualified buyer is really what GM’s acquisition of AmeriCredit was all about, regaining the sub-prime consumer, who wants a fancy new car.

So, while most potential customers weighing a decision between the two EVs would be hard pressed to swallow the $41,000 + price associated with a Volt, if they are also considering a lease, the similar structure of GM’s lease along with the added benefit of the extended range should make the choice a virtual ‘no-brainer.’

In the case of leasing, GM will win this battle with Nissan easily. The question now is, how many people want to lease a electric vehicle from GM?

/stay tuned

A few weeks ago GM announced they would be producing 10,000 Chevy Volts in 2011 and 30,000 in 2012.

Now apparently due to strong consumer interest the company has decided to increase that second year production number by 50% to 45,000 cars.

This decision comes only days after GM announced Volt pricing and on the same day President Obama is visiting the Chevy Volt production plant at Detroit-Hamtramck Michigan (DHAM).

In fact just an hour ago, President Obama got into a Chevrolet Volt and drove it for a few feet before Secret Service agents stopped him.

“Some of you saw me drive the Volt about 12 inches; they don’t let me drive much these days,” said Obama. “Pretty smooth.”

He is addressing crowds both at the DHAM plant as well as a Chrysler plant in support of his previous decision to bail out both companies.

“A lot of people were skeptical. There were many who said we should just let the market take its course. Let GM go bankrupt. Let Chrysler go out of business,” Obama told the crowd at General Motors’ Hamtramck plant. “But I had confidence in you.”

Dealers have seen strong consumer interest stemming from Volt pricing, and GM has indicated their email interest list has exceeded 70,000 names. This is not including the 54,000 names found on the GM-Volt want list.

Earlier this week GM released the 2011 Chevrolet Volt ordering guide for dealers to use. Included in the description about the gasoline generator were the words “requires premium fuel.” This led to specualtion and surprise from fans and skeptics as to why in the world the car would require premium gas.

According to Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz, there are two main reasons.

“The Volt is all about efficiency,” he said. “Premium fuel offers the opportunity to have a little bit more spark.”

“Ninety one octane fuel also offers the opportunity to be a little more efficient, he added. “So technically its a five to ten percent fuel economy improvement the few times that most people will run the range extender.”

Posawatz also claimed the increase is cost will be offset by the efficiency gains.

“Based on our calculations the fuel economy and efficiency gains you get will effectively compensate for the extra cost of premium fuel,” he said

Additionally, premium fuel is apparently slower to go stale.

If people are not using the extended range capability a lot, the premium fuel does last a little longer,” he said

“There will be a few that will have their gas go bad,” he added. “We have ways to address that as well.”

The AAA Fuel Gauge Report shows the current national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is $2.74. The national average for a gallon of premium gasoline is $3.01.

The two most closely guarded secrets about the Chevrolet Volt have been its price and its fuel economy while running in generator mode.

Now that we know the price, how about the other secret?

It turns out we may never see an official announcement from GM even after the car launches into retail deliveries.

GM has insisted, rightly so, the Volt should not be compared to other cars, and that its in a class of its own. Without doubt for the majority of drivers during the majority of their drives the Volt will use no gas at all. And although gas will burn at a certain rate while the generator is running, its contribution to overall fuel economy may be minimal.

When GM announced last Summer that the Volt could get 230 mpg on average over time, they took into account nightly recharging and typical driving patterns. It was an illustration but not fact.

The fact is the EPA is still trying to determine the best method for creating a consumer sticker for the Volt. Recently ratified SAE J1711 standard will be used to measure the car’s efficiency and still takes use over time into account.

Because the typically slow-moving bureaucratic EPA still hasn’t concluded what label the Volt will have, GM admits they might not even have one from them come November when the car reaches showrooms.

“Its possible the EPA still won’t have a label when the Volt goes into production,” said GM spokesperson Rob Peterson. “They’re just trying to do what’s right.”

Instead GM may issue its own detailed chart label to go with the car illustrating typical fuel usage in a variety of scenarios that will serve temporarily.

“The VOLT will have a label for launch with a lot of information to assist the customer,” says Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz. “It will not be the final label beyond 2011 MY.”

The eventual EPA label “will have a lot of info including a fuel efficiency number if you never charge your VOLT,” he said.

As for who will release that generator (CS) mode MPG, it “wont be GM,” said Peterson. We won’t then likely get fuel economy in generator mode estimates until the cars is driven for extended periods by early buyers and the media.

Wow.  Its hard to believe we finally know how much the Volt will cost.  $41,000 well-equipped before the $7500 federal tax credit.  Or $350 per month for a three year 36 month lease, and $2500 down, at 12,000 miles per year.

Of course yesterday turned out to be one of the highest traffic spike days in GM-Volt history as every news media outlet across the globe reported pricing, and Googlers found themselves here.  Welcome to all.

Clearly the $41,000 price tag was more than most people, including myself, expected.  Our GM-Volt want list of 52,499 people said they were willing to pay an average of $31,445.62, which would have meant $39,000 before the tax credit. In a recent poll of 1200 GM-Volt readers only 12% predicted the Volt’s price would be more than $40,000.

The lease price is much lower than expected, though.  Assuming one doesn’t object to the idea of leasing, $350 is very reasonable, and “will allow a lot of our customer to purchase a Volt” said Volt marketing director Tony Disalle.  And that appears to be GM’s point.  They seem to prefer people to lease the car.  Like Nissan, GM is using the $7500 tax credit to subsidize the lease price.

$41,000 speaks of a more premium car though than a basic Chevy sedan.  Though the technology , experience, and connectedness of the car and the priceless gift of being able to drive without oil and drive without limits surely adds value, the basic driving experience and space is similar to a conventional compact sedan. Not to mention standard cloth seats.

At an effective cost of $33,500 however what the buyer gets is more reasonably in line with the price.

The lithium ion battery and associated technology makes up a large portion of the excess cost in the Volt.  At this early point in time trying to prove buying the Volt offers economic advantage simply isn’t possible.  As some reporters have said we must “throw away the calculator”.  Buying a Volt now is a matter of wanting to be the first to posses new groundbreaking technology and being highly motivated to drive without oil.  It is not to save money. However, at a lease pricing economic advantages of electricity over gas do come into play.

Now that the prices are known, further comparisons with Nissan’s LEAF BEV are inevitable and rampant.  In many ways the LEAF is a similar car in driving behavior, function, size, and technology though glaringly does not offer range extension and is thus less useful.  The LEAF effectively costs $8200 less than the Volt, though the lease is roughly the same, Volt has a $500 more down payment.  Some pundits ask whether the elimination of range anxiety is worth $8200.  Your guess is as good as mine. However once again at the same lease cost the answer is obvious.

Nissan has surprisingly matched GM’s Volt battery warranty and has announced the LEAF battery warranty will be 8 years/100,000 miles as well.  This is despite the LEAFs deeper depth of discharge and lack of thermal management.  GM claims it can offer the Volt for the same lease price as the LEAF, despite it being a more expensive car, due to its tremendous confidence in its battery technology.

The issue of how GM has priced the car boils down to availability.  GM will produce 10,000 Volts through the end of 2011, and Nissan will produce 25,000 LEAFs.  Both cars will be rolled out in a graduated fashion accross the country, and many would-be buyers won’t get realistic access to the cars until the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.

Considering this very limited availability both companies will undoubtedly sell out their entire inventory.  Thus the price really doesn’t matter.

Even though we’ve been watching this day on the horizon for more than three years its significance cannot be overstated.  The high entry point for the Volt has much to do with a new GM unwilling to sell cars at a loss.  The old GM might have sold them at a loss, but included in the $41,000 MSRP is some element of profit.  CEO Ed Whitacre once assured “we’ll get a margin,” on the Volt.  And its the new GM and its financial strength we count on for future generations of Voltec technology. Indeed US Marketing director Joel Ewanick promised “the Volt is just the beginning” and many other Voltec offerings will be on their way in the years ahead.

What’s important here and now is that the affluent early-adopter, with little or no regard for price will buy up all the Volts and LEAFs there are.  This will open the door for lower priced future generations to come, and a world less and less dependant on oil.  And at a bargain lease of $350 per month GM has opened the door for almost any consumer to drive a Volt.

Let the games begin.

After more than three years of intense debate, discussion, and speculation and over a fifteen hundred articles on GM-Volt.com, the moment has finally arrived for GM to unveil the Chevrolet Volt’s pricing.

The Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) starts at $41,000.

Taking the $7500 tax credit into account the net cost to the buyer will thus be $33,500. The MSRP includes a $720 destination charge.

GM is pricing the car’s lease price much more aggressively. The 3 year 36 month lease payment will be $350 per month with $2500 down payment.

GM is able to offer such a low lease price because of the determination that the car will have a high residual value, though they are not releasing it at this time.

GM will begin taking orders for the car at participating launch market dealers in California, Washington DC, Michigan, Texas and New York starting today.

The car comes with a generous list of standard features for the base MSRP. If a buyer decides to, he or she can add up to 4 premium options which include leather seats and steering wheel, rear camera and parking sensors, polished wheels, and one of three premium paints.

Fully loaded with all the premium features the MSRP will be $44,600 or net $37,100 after the tax credit.

“The Chevrolet Volt will be the best vehicle in its class…because it’s in a class by itself,” said Joel Ewanick, vice president of U.S. marketing for General Motors, who made the announcement at the Plug-In 2010 conference. “No other automaker offers an electrically driven vehicle that can be your everyday driver, to take you wherever, whenever. The Volt will be packed with premium content and innovation, standard.”

To assist the ordering process and manage expectations GM has a specialized customer call in number of -888-VOLT-4-YOU (1-888-865-8496), where a Volt adviser will take your questions. As well there will be a special website to see the status of the order and build process.

Local Volt dealers can be found on the website getmyvolt.com

Included in the MSRP of the car is an unprecedented 5 years of OnStar directions and connections as well as mobile phone connectivity.

“We wanted to make the Volt ownership experience unlike anything we’ve done at Chevrolet, because the Volt is unlike any vehicle we’ve offered,” said Tony DiSalle, director of Chevrolet Volt product marketing. “We want customers to fully enjoy the Volt lifestyle by providing unprecedented connectivity to their vehicle through the Volt mobile app.”

The car comes with a 120V standard charger that will recharge the car in up to 10 hours.

An optional 240 V charger will be available. 4400 customers in launch markets will be eligible for a free charger made available through DOE grants.

And there you have it. Now we know the price.

You can also ask your questions of the Volt team in the box below. Volt vehicle lien director Tony Posawatz and Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle will answer selected questions in a videocast that will appear at 4PM Eastern time.

FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE