GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

A year ago I had to make a decision. The lease was up on my Infiniti G35 and I had to decide what car I was going to get next. I love the G35, so much that I have had three in the past 10 years. I didn’t want to get locked into another 3-year lease, and I didn’t want to buy. I wanted an electric car. My wife has a Ford Escape Hybrid, and we love that car too – but I wanted an electric car, not just a hybrid.

I researched online and there were virtually no options. Most of what I found were conversions or conversion kits, or were concept cars with no future launch date. Then I found Tesla. Wow, what a car. There just happens to be a dealership near me, and they let me take one for a drive. I immediately called my wife and asked “Do you want to go for a drive in an electric car?”. The Tesla is super fast…and super expensive. It was a great experience to drive it and made me even more motivated about getting an electric car, but clearly not practical for me or my wallet.

I also found the GM Volt blog started by Lyle. I immediately added myself to the wait list (#749). This car looked real, affordable, and would allow long road trips for business or vacation too. But it was not coming out for a year.

So I called Infiniti and they let me extend my lease for a year. I religiously followed the GM Volt blog, and was a little devastated when I found out Florida was not a launch market. So I got creative and ordered a car from a dealership in the Washington DC area, red with white trim. Here is the timeline of my volt getting home to Florida.

December 9: I was told by GM that I would probably not be taking delivery until January. That was cutting it close to the end of my lease, but still doable. No Volt for Christmas though

December 14th: I got another call that the Volts were shipped priority and would arrive this week! So I bought a plane ticket to DC to pick up my Volt and drive it back to the sunshine state.

December 19th: Bought $20 worth of gas for Infiniti @ $3.05/gallon, hopefully last gas purchase for that car.

December 20: Downloaded “Road Trip Lite” for iPhone. I plan to track all fuel purchases for the Volt. I know the GM app does that, but this includes odometer, date, charts and more.

December 22: Landed in DCA…very cold here. Dealer picked me up at airport and drove me to the dealership. Everyone came up to meet me “The Volt owner is here”. The dealer hid the Volt in their “car wash garage bay” as everyone was trying to test drive it and sell it. Funny.

Volt #169 is mine!

The dealer walked me thru the car: we setup onstar, I downloaded app, I connected the iPhone to the build in Bluetooth, and I connected it to the USB port allowing control my iPod from the built-in touch screen (sweet) and I was on my way.

December 23: Left Baltimore at 6:10AM. Still lots to learn about the dash, controls, and features. Nothing like a 1,000 mile trip to learn a new car.

The generator kicked in early in my trip, before DC actually. I didn’t really even notice it for a few moments, it went really smooth. I noticed a slight high-pitched whine when generator charges the battery (immediately after I took my foot off the accelerator). Curious if anyone else hears this.

Fillup #1: Hallifax NC. 6.57 gallons, $3.079/gallon, $20.21 total. Guy at gas station asked me about it “I didn’t think they needed gas”, we talked for a moment.

Fillup #2: South of the Border (I know 4.82 gallons, $2.959/gallon, $14.28 total. Two more people “nice car”, one wanted to see under the hood, I obliged.

Fillup #3: Savannah, GA. 8.16 gallons, $3.099/gallon, $25.28 total.

Total: Baltimore to Tampa $59.77

During the next couple days I gave many “demo drives” to family and friends. Everyone is really impressed. But this new car category takes a lot of explaining. GM will need to do a lot of work to get over this education hurdle for the mainstream public I think. The good news is everywhere I go people are asking me about it

In addition to the OnStar App, I have also since downloaded the Chevrolet app, which includes the entire user manual. I also scanned the the mobile bar codes (QR codes) in the manual to view instructional videos available. Well done Chevrolet.

December 26: Finally home. The last leg of the trip I only got 46mpg, and I felt disappointed. Then I realized I was disappointed in 46mpg!!! The standard is now high, and I love it.

The business case for the Chevrolet Volt hinges critically on the price of gas.  Certainly there are a group of us out there who will run out and pay top dollar to drive the latest and greatest technology, and there are also those among us who will pay a premium for the ability to drive will little to no gasoline.  However, for the Volt to be embraced by a large swath of the population, it has to make economic sense.

Also for GM to be able to justify a high selling price for the car, making it profitable, consumers need to benefit financially through the use of electricity as a major fuel source.

It has been said many times that $2.50 per gallon gasoline does not help Volt sales.

People surely remember two years ago when oil reached $140 per barrel and gas prices broke the $4 per gallon barrier.  Interest in hybrids available at the time skyrocketed as did interest in the Volt, based on the traffic surge seen on this website.

That small peak faded but recently prices are beginning what appears to be a steady sustainable climb.  National gas prices have just broken the $3 per gallon mark and oil prices are approaching $100 per barrel again.

John Hofmeister is the former president of Shell Oil, and as such could be considered an authority on the subject. In a recent interview he revealed that it was his opinion the US could see $5 per gallon gas by 2012.

“I’m predicting actually the worst outcome over the next two years which takes us to 2012 with higher gasoline prices,” he told Pratt energy television.

He believes these high prices will result from growing global demand. Sales of gas-powered cars are continuing their dramatic  pace in China and India, and as those economies continue to grow so too will oil demand there.  The supply of easily accessible oil can only go down. Also with recent reports indicating American gas usage is declining since the 2008 gas price shocks, higher prices will be required to sustain revenue.

At $5 per gallon gas, the Chevy Volt becomes economically viable, and frankly could only be a good thing for the electrification of the automobile.  The greater economy, perhaps not so much.

Source (CNN)

The EPA has determined through testing that the Chevy Volt would go a typical 35 miles on a full battery charged.  Using the full 10.4 kwh of stored battery energy available, GM has determined the majority of drivers will experience from 25 to 50 miles of range.

There are several examples in which journalists and fellow advisory board drivers have gotten more than 50 miles of range in their Volts.

Today I report on my first experiences just barely crossing or not even reaching the 25 mile threshold when the engine came on.

This first time I left home on my typical daily commute with a full charge.  It was a cold day of 32 degrees outside.  I had the cabin temperature set to comfort mode of 72 degrees with a medium fan speed and one bar (out of three) on the heated seat control.

My drive is almost all highway with 65 MPH speed limit.  I traveled mostly at that speed plus or minus a few miles per hour, and was using the Normal as opposed to Sport mode setting.  Mostly I kept the car in D, or coast brake setting.

At about 11 miles into my journey I hit standstill traffic resulting from an accident on the highway. Helicopters were circling and I spent about 40 minutes in a very minimal crawl as two lanes were funneled into one in which extensive rubber necking took place.

During the stop and go portion I left the car in L mode to use motor braking, and covered about 4 or 5 miles.

After, traffic moved smoothly, and I arrived to my office parking garage just feet from my parking spot and waiting outlet when the generator went on at 25.3 miles.

On warmer days I would have arrived with about 8 miles to spare, indicating the significant drain from being in standstill traffic for 40 minutes with the cabin temp cooking.

Thus my first experience only getting 25 miles per range had less to do with extreme cold temperatures or aggressive driving style, but more to do with unexpected traffic.

On two subsequent driving days, I experienced just below 25 miles of range, with the lowest being 24.4 miles.  These days were colder, in the low 20s, and included a bit more use of the Sport mode, though not continuous.  In neither case did I drive meaningfully above 70 mph.  The day with the lowest range included a 20 minute traffic jam.

Most recently I drove to work after the Northeast snowstorm and several of my low speed roads were a bit thickened with snow.  This extra tractive effort seemed to drain a lot from the battery.  The temperature was again about 30 degrees and this time I kept the cabin at 74 degrees of comfort mode.  I did not use Sport mode at all and kept my speed around 65 MPH.  The engine went on after 22.7 miles.

Using aggressive cabin heating combined with high speed highway driving in sub freezing weather may lead to electric ranges of less than 25 miles.

I am someone who typically leases my cars.  I like the simplicity of monthly payments and the ability to turn in a car after three years so as to be able to go out and get a new one.  For the most part the lease allows me to pay the depreciation of the vehicle without having to deal with the hassles of selling it.

It was my original intention to do the same with the Volt, but after reviewing the difference between leasing and buying I decided to buy it in the end.

The main differences for the Volt that led me to this decision was the presence of the $7500 tax credit and the possibility of having a particularly valuable car after two or three years, due to limited supply, an early VIN  number (008), and possible underestimation of residual value in the lease.

Before going into this discussion I strongly advise anyone buying a Volt should only be paying MSRP and not a dollar more.  If your dealer wishes to charge a surcharge, go elsewhere.  Each car has a profit for the dealer baked in.  Beware of variably named items such as coating, tinting, prepping and freight and shipping.

Though I have the added option of heated leather seats, for the purpose of this exercise, consider a base model with an MSRP of $41,000 and 15,000 miles per year (higher than the usual 12,000).  Also keep in mind my discussion for the sake of discussion is a bit simplified and slightly inaccurate.

Leasing

When you lease a car, your monthly payment is based on the selling price, the down payment, the residual value, the tax on the car, and the money factor which is the interest rate the bank is charging.

To calculate the lease price you add the cost of the depreciation (MSRP -RV), the financing cost [(MSRP) + RV x MF], and the tax (MSRP*tax).  Divide the sum of these three by the number of months of the lease and you have the monthly payment.

The finance plan for the Volt, however, is skewed unfavorably against anyone who might wish to buy the car at lease end.  The leasing company, US Bank, gets the $7500 federal tax credit.  They could have applied that to reduce the selling price of the car, but instead tacked it on to the residual value, artificially inflating it.  In either case, the depreciation paydown would have been the same, but by tacking it on to the residual value you would have to pay back that $7500 if you decided to buy the car at end of lease. I took issue with this.

As it stands, the car costs $41,000 and has a residual value of 43% (at 15,000 miles per year).  That means at lease-end it is worth $17,630.  The depreciation paydown should be $23,370/36 or $649 per month. The $7500 tax credit is added to the residual value, and there is a $2500 down payment (includes first month payment.) There is also a $695 destination charge and a $2000 cap cost reduction which is a large subsidy apparently paid by GM, and another redeeming value of the lease. Thus the total depreciation paydown is $41,000 – ($17,630 -$695 + $7500 + $4500). That’s $12,065, which divided by 36 is $335 per month.

The finance charge is an extremely low 0.6% APR which converts to a money factor of 0.00025. The finance charge is thus (RV + MSRP * MF), or [($17,630+$41,000)*.00025] which equals $14.65 per month. At this point the lease is thus $350 per month.

The last item to add is the tax.  Though the Volt lease deal is $350 per month, taxes on the car have to be added.  They amount to ($41,000*.0875).  That sum divided by 36 months equal $100 per month.   Thus the total monthly payment is $450. I, however drive 22,000 miles per year.  Adding 21,000 more miles at 18 cents per mile is $3780.  Divided by 36 months and adding to each month results in a grand total of $550 per month.

Thus at the end of three years I would have paid out $21,950. To then buy the car would cost an additional $25,130 for a total cost of $47,800.

Buying

I reasoned the best way to buy the car outright would be to put down $7500 in cash and then recover it next April when I receive the tax credit. This would allow me to purchase the car for $33,500. The finance company will float you the $7500 (with interest) that can be paid back in April of 2011. Or they will give a 0 percent loan for the $7500 if you pay for the rest of the car in cash.

 Added taxes is $2931, which are unfortunately paid on the pre-tax credit amount. Also I chose to finance the car which is offered at 4.74% adding $5999 in interest when paid over 6 years. In this scenario, the total effective cost is $42,431 which is still significantly less then the $47,800 it would cost to first lease then buy.  Also by owning, I could also easily choose to sell the car at year 2 or 3, a much more difficult proposition if I had leased it.

Conclusion

The lease deal is extremely favorable if you are certain you will only want the car for three years and plan to drive less than 15,000 miles per year, or are limited by a monthly budget.  If you wish to take full advantage of the tax credit and plan to sell the car, buying is the better option. Purchasing is also a benefit as the future market value of the car may turn out considerably higher than the 43% currently estimated on the lease, depending on battery performance and the future price of gas.

What have you done or decided to do?

On Thursday, December 24th, I took delivery of my Chevrolet Volt. I opted for Cyber Gray Metallic with black leather and dark accents. Shortly after my delivery, I drove approximately 400 miles to northern New Hampshire to visit with family for Christmas. While I intend to write some future posts about my delivery experience and subsequent long trips (including a soon-to-come 375 mile trip to Central NY), I wanted to take a moment to write this review about the Volt’s performance in snow.

As I arrived to visit my family, I was greeted with about 2-3 inches of loose snow pack on all the roads. I was a little worried that I may be sliding around with the Volt’s low rolling resistance tires. As I started to drive around in the snow-filled streets, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Volt behaved more like a tank than a compact hatchback.

This particular town in New Hampshire has a fair amount of hills as well, and despite the snow and hills, the car seemed to accelerate effortlessly in anything I threw at it. I could get the traction control light to blink if I floored the car, but that was expected. Otherwise, I was able to accelerate as quickly as I wanted, and the car handled the conditions effortlessly. It was amazing. I have not had any experience in freshly fallen snow just yet, but so far I am very impressed. My previous vehicle, a Honda Civic, would’ve spun a fair amount in these conditions even with snow tires, and the same is true for my relative’s SUV and pick-up truck.

I also had my father and uncle both test drive the Volt within the past day or two. My uncle, who at first expected some sort of golf cart in the garage, commented, “it’s like a real car” after driving it. (Of course it is! Here’s a good example of how we can all help to dispel the electric car myths and show people what the Volt is really capable of.) When trying the vehicle on snowy hills and trying to accelerate faster than he expected the car to be able to handle, the Volt continued to perform effortlessly, and he then commented, “it’s as if there’s no snow at all”.

Needless to say, both my father and uncle were impressed with the Volt’s handling and ride quality, especially in the snow. I was consdering getting snow tires, but at this point I’m content in using the all-season tires and the Volt’s stunning traction abilities.

I’ve also posted a video below showing the Volt negotiating up a steep grade, stopping, and then resuming up a hill. The hills don’t look as steep in the video as they really are, but hopefully it helps get the points across.

I hope to have more posts about my Volt experience in the near future, here as well as in my forthcoming VoltNation blog.

Happy Volting!

Delivery day for my Volt was Tuesday December 21st. We drove to Austin from DFW the night before. It is a little over 200 miles.

We made an appointment to do the paperwork at 10am on the 21st. We arrived about 9:40am. We spend 20 minutes meeting all the principals of the Dealership. We met everyone from the owner down to the service advisor. Everyone at Capitol Chevy in Austin were very excited about the Volt. They had taken delivery of 4 or 5 of the first batch to arrive in the area.

The Austin area received 13 vehicles between 12/17 and 12/20. These all came in enclosed transporters designed to carry show cars. They will receive another 7 cars between now and the end of the year.

About half of the cars were delivered for local owners but DFW area owners claimed 5 Volts and 1 Volt is going to “mybatcar” in Florida. I am sure I have missed one or two others that may be headed outside the Austin area.

Delivery of my car went well even though it was a long wait. We did not get to see the finance manager until almost noon as he was still working with US Bank on the lease. Capitol Chevy had only dealt with Allied on leases before and had just signed up with US Bank the day before to accommodate my request for a lease instead of a purchase. Our finance guy was very sharp and had worked until 6pm the night before on the lease and all morning of the 21st.

When I looked at the lease it seemed to be right on the mark with all that I had read in this forum. The residual percentage was correct for a 15K lease and the money factor was .00025. My car was fully loaded at $44,600. We had a trade in with equity enough to pay the down payment, all the taxes and offset the extra MSRP to get the figure down to the correct amount of the loan at the correct money factor. If fact we had a little money left over and were able to secure a monthly payment of $330.

While waiting on the finance manager a TV crew showed up and I let the reporter drive my car while they interviewed me about the Volt. Mark, of the forum, had taken deliver the night before at Capitol and he was there also. He got his turn with the TV crew also.

After the car finally belonged to us it was time to head downtown to meet up with the media, guests and the other Volt drivers. To my surprise 12 of the 13 cars showed up, the only one not there was getting shipped off to mybatcar in Florida. What does that say about the enthusiasm of the Volt owners?

There were the normal introductions then for some reason they asked for me to address the group of about 100 people. I had no warning on this so I winged it best I could. After that I was off to meet the other Volt owners and to do interviews with the media. I did three TV and two newspaper interviews. There was a lot of interest in why a guy (me) that has a very few months\weeks to live would be so passionate about a car that he would only get to be around for a short while. I don’t think I have to explain it to any of you here.

I believe this was the largest group of publicly owned Volts to get together so far. You folks out there will need to try to beat our record.

That was our day in Austin. It was very exciting and pretty exhausting. We drove from the media event home to Dallas and got home about 7:30pm.

If you have any question I will be watching the comments area and answering questions from there.