GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Now into the second quarter of 2011, General Motors announced last month it sold 608 Chevrolet Volts in March and had delivered about half of the demos intended for 595 participating Volt launch dealers.

Several stories have spun it positively, saying 608 more than doubles 321 sold in January plus 281 in February. But reports also mention Chevrolet’s year-over-year sales increased 11 percent, thanks in part to a 54-percent spike in new model sales numbering in the tens of thousands.

So what is the true picture for the Volt? Is it doing well? Just alright? Is there cause for concern?

According to GM spokesman Rob Peterson, any doubtful conjecture would be misinformed.

Since its launch last year, the Volt has received lots of attention. Here students and faculty at the Detroit International Academy celebrate $10,000 given from the $225,000 sale of Volt number 1.

“We’re right on target,” Peterson said, “Our sales target for 2011 is we’re going to build 10,000 units, and our expectation is we will sell every one of those 10,000 units.”

First off, only seven states are initially selling the Volt. This will increase to all states by year’s end. An ostensibly slow start has no one at GM caught by surprise, even if reporters and others may wonder.

“Many other people will look at the raw numbers and try and either extrapolate that we’re going to come short for 10,000 units, or they’re just going to take the raw numbers and say it’s not a success,” Peterson said, “And I don’t buy that, I think it’s a short-sighted analysis. We’re 100-percent confident that we’re going to get there.”

In fact, Chevrolet will sell more than 10,000 Volts for 2011. GM will actually build 15,000 Volts at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant this year. And while we’re on the topic, next year it won’t build 45,000, it will build 60,000.

This is not an announcement of new production increases, however. The extra production is for European and other foreign customers who next year and the year following will take up the extra units comprised of Volts, Vauxhall Amperas and Opel Amperas.

Matt Stehouwer is pictured with his Volt in March in Lansing, Mich. He said he was getting 62-miles-per-gallon after 1,500 miles driven, including a trip to New York, where he bought the car.

How did GM decide on these numbers? It carefully calculated the initial roll out based on a few factors, Peterson said.

“You’ve got a couple different things. You are going to have to manage your supply chain and you have to manage your customer experience. And the two of them go and in hand,” he said. “They all lead to having a high-quality launch. Our internal calculus came up with this target of 10,000 units [plus 5,000] and deemed it the appropriate level at which we can build them at the quality and manage the customer experience.”

First things first, is a deliberate process of training service personnel, sales, and monitoring initial customer feedback, Peterson said.

“It’s a very gradual, measured approach,” Peterson said, “it’s the way all vehicles get launched.”

Also, going forward through 2011, don’t expect to see 12 months neatly divided into the number of units projected, he added, or even a consistent progression. Peterson already predicted April’s sales numbers may look lower.

“There are months in which we have more production not going to retail and April happens to be one of those months,” Peterson said. “We will be billing out the remaining demonstrator vehicles for the dealers. And so we’ll be earmarking a large portion of our production to hit dealer demonstrators rather than going to retail. So you might see a retail sales dip in the month of April.”

So you read it here first. The Volt already was the brunt of several April Fool’s jokes. If April’s sales are low, don’t let an after-the-fact April fools lark concern you.

Vanessa Branch poses with the Volt on the green carpet of Global Green USA’s 2011 Pre-Oscar Party in Hollywood.

If sales this month are lower, it will have “nothing to do with lack of demand and everything to do with lack of supply,” Peterson said. “If anything right now we’re supply constraining.”

GM’s emphasis now is on getting more people in dealer demonstrator drives, he said. As mentioned yesterday by GM’s legal VP Mike Robinson, Peterson confirmed the Volt has become a public relations tool par excellence.

“So many people are intrigued by the Volt and they want to drive it. We’re confident that as soon as they get in the car, and experience the car, they’ll recognize the beauty of the car, Peterson said, “Many people who are buying Volts today have never been in a Chevrolet dealership before, or don’t even own a Chevrolet or don’t own a GM product. So we’re drawing new people in to dealerships with this product.”

Papers around the country are featuring these kinds of human interest stories – from senators to everyday citizens drawn to the new electric- and gasoline-powered curiosity by Chevrolet.

“We’ve heard countless stories from dealers” said Peterson, mentioning one of a dealer who brought a Volt back to Atlanta. Once parked in the showroom, it was “immediately seen with flocks of people coming into the dealership to see the Chevrolet Volt and possibly get a test drive. So those dealer demos play a very important marketing role for the entire Chevrolet dealership network.”

James Brazell, stands by his new Volt. He took delivery in February, but the retired oil company executive deserves mention for having placed his deposit on the oil-beating technology in 2008.

After its deliberate and careful first year, GM does plan to ramp up Volt production. With 45,000 Volt sales planned for 2012, the U.S. is to get the lion’s share out of 60,000 Volts and Amperas.

Although Europe has shown itself most ready to embrace electric mobility, we were not able to ascertain why more Volts and Amperas are not projected to be delivered there.

Nor did Peterson confirm any plans to build the car in Europe – or China – at this time. Other reports have said the former is probable, and Chinese production could be possible.

But for the time being, the Volt is made in the U.S.A., and being exported only.

Most people believe oil will some day run out. It’s less a question of “if,” and more one of “when” it will be before western society and its cultures will be made to fully adopt to its realities.

According to a televised report from the UK last week, a senior global economist for HSBC bank has pinned a round number on it: 49 years remaining, assuming no increased demand – which given that is not happening, could mean a shorter time frame than that.

“Energy resources are scarce,” said Karen Ward. “Even if demand doesn’t increase, there could be as little as 49 years of oil left.”

Ward’s comments came on behalf of an international, London-based, multi-billion dollar financial institution with a dedicated Web page describing its expertise on the topics of which she spoke.

“As a leading international and emerging markets bank,” says its Web site, “sustainability for HSBC means managing our business across the world for the long term.”

The Chevrolet Volt is not yet available in the UK where the interview took place. The world energy situation described nonetheless make it look smarter by the minute.

But the predictions HSBC’s representative gave in congenial and benign terms spoke of a relatively short term before the upheaval of life as we know it – as Ward has done before.

While in the video (not above url, but see below) she alternated to the round number “50” years, she also conceded estimates allow for more time or less.

A “confident” estimate, she said, is right around that number, assuming the world stays busy looking for ways to curtail consumption.

The picture for natural gas availability is not as severe, she said, “but transporting it and using it to meet transport demand is a major issue.”

Time left for coal could be a rather-lengthy 176 years, she said, but it is the “worst carbon culprit.”

Thus, worldwide energy security “will be an increasing concern,” she said. “Diversifying to natural gas to ease the pressure on the oil market won’t overcome it since its supply is as geographically dense as oil.”

As things are, some individuals, corporations and government bodies are adapting in various regions, but in others too little is being done, as demand for more oil still surges.

Over the next 40 years, she said, if supplies are not restricted, demand in emerging markets could surge to 190 million barrels per day.

China alone could account for the majority of new fuel-requiring vehicles by 2050.

“We’ve got another one billion cars coming on the road from 700 million today,” she said, “half of which are going to be in China.”

The present demand for fuel, in that and other economically growing nations, will be impossible to fill in the absence of major new oil reserve discoveries, Ward said.

Ward said the more energy insecure regions are Europe, Latin America and India, with Europe looking the most dire.

“Europe is the big loser with many countries falling down or out of the league table of economic size,” she said. “They could be losing their influence on the world stage just at the time when they are most vulnerable.”

Actually, the scenario Ward portrayed falls neatly into justifying a recent EU initiative attempting to make all gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles illegal in city centers by 2050.

Those proposed “draconian” measures, as opponents have described them, quickly caught criticism from some in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere, however, with the UK being particularly outspoken.

This not being the first time it has stood up to the EU, British Transport Minister Norman Baker said these kinds of decisions should not over-ride local autonomy, nor be thrust upon a whole society as a collective mandate.

“We will not be banning cars from city centers anymore than we will be having rectangular bananas,” Baker said.

As for Ward’s predictions about the world’s energy future, her outlook also falls generally in line with some here at GM-Volt.com. Of the transportation sector, she said it is actually the “lowest hanging fruit” to find solutions for.

From where she sits, the answer for the escalating pressure to find energy solutions requires increased energy efficiency from a mixture of sources.

Natural candidates that can now supplement oil include the usual assortment of wind, solar, hydro-electric, new-generation biofuels from waste oil, and other perceptibly less harmful and sustainable alternatives.

Ward spoke for a bank concerned with “sustainability,” and has warned before of chaos in the developed world, but did not discuss this “alternative” energy source.

In the “interim” period where oil is getting painfully expensive, but not costly enough to fully justify wider-spread use of alternatives, she said it will be awkward and difficult. As oil prices rise higher still, she predicted the alternatives will start to look more cost effective.

And whether it is potentially “safe” or not, the court of public opinion says the jury is out on nuclear power at the moment in the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima plant crisis.

Ward also touched on Global Warming, and said “carbon capture” technology should be used for damage control on the world’s still-dominant energy source: fossil fuels.

Assuming fossil fuels used for transportation needs, Ward advocated “smaller, more efficient cars will get you from A to B, just not as quickly.”

Aside from one brief joke by the male moderator about the tiny G-Wiz cars in London, electric-powered cars and trucks were not even mentioned in the UK news interview.

Source:
CNBC

The word coming from General Motors’ highest-volume market is that the Chevrolet Volt will be made available for sale by the end of this year.

This was first reported last Thursday following a 154-mile Volt “unplugged” promotional drive from Shanghai to Hangzhou, in the eastern part of China.

Kevin Wale, GM of China’s president and managing director, was vaguely quoted but specifically attributed as stating the year-end time frame by an English-language Chinese publication.

“The Volt showed that GM leads the world in electric car technologies,” Wale said, “and that the company is committed to introducing advanced technologies and products to China.”

The article offered no further details such as number of projected units, where Volts would first be sold, etc.

A request for further commentary from a GM spokesperson was not returned over the weekend.

Last Thursday Chevrolet did an “unplugged” tour in eastern China from Shanghai to Hangzhou, which is the capital of the Zhenjiang Province.

Whether the Volt is indeed selling by the end of the year, or not long after, what is more certain is that GM has been testing interest and taking promo photos of the Volt in Chinese settings for some time.

As the technological forerunner for “the new General Motors,” this is in line with the company’s commitment to China, which is rapidly becoming a substantial source of revenue for the increasingly global company.

Last year’s Chinese deliveries marked the first time in GM’s 102-year history that its U.S. sales were exceeded by a foreign market.

“GM and its joint ventures sold a record 2.35 million vehicles in the domestic market,” says a GM of China press release about Chinese sales.

More specifically, its 2010 Chinese sales increased 29 percent, which was enough to top U.S. sales totaling 2.2 million units – a 6-percent increase for the U.S. market in the aftermath of financial restructuring, and cessation of sales from Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab.

And while last year’s China sales were enough to set a company record, the growth actually represented a substantial slowing from its previous pace. In 2009, GM deliveries of 1.83 million vehicles in China represented 67 percent growth, more than double the 2010 rate.

Despite challenges causing the company to apparently slacken its pace in some respects, GM maintains there is massive potential in China. In a February press conference in China, GM’s CEO Dan Akerson set the tone.

“GM will continue to make China one of our priorities,” Akerson said. “We plan to introduce more than 20 new and upgraded models over the next two years, strengthen our local product development capability, expand our cooperation and sharing of technology with local partners, and lead in the introduction of new energy vehicles including the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle. All of this is part of GM’s long-term commitment to the sustainable development of China’s automotive industry.”

GM CEO Dan Akerson speaks in China about GM’s commitment earlier in 2011 – prior to fourth-quarter 2010 earnings reporting. It is now known to have been a record year.

GM’s Chinese market share is presently around 13 percent, and Akerson said the company continues to be quite dependent on its several Chinese subsidiaries, most notably SAIC-GM-Wuling which accounted for about 55 percent of its February 2011 sales.

“We regard our 11 domestic joint ventures as 11 keys to our success in China,” Akerson said, “To remain a global industry leader, GM must remain an industry leader in China.”

As previously reported a few of the challenges GM faces in China include a Jan. 1 small vehicle sales tax increase to 10 percent from 7.5 percent, and the ending of rural subsidies that had only been introduced in March 2009.

What is more, traffic in Beijing is beyond crowded. Vehicle registrations increased from 2.8 million to 4.8 million since 2005, with 700,000 registered just last year.

In an effort to curtail overloaded Beijing roadways, new license plates are being limited to 240,000 per year through a lottery system.

There is little doubt, however, that GM’s strategic planners will continue to find opportunities.

Its entry-level Baojun brand is priced for outlying regions, and the end of growth is anywhere but in sight.

In the words of GM China’s media relations, GM will “continue investing aggressively” for the “long-term success of the company.”

We will report again when we learn more specifics about the Volt’s roll out in China.

Sources:

xinhuanet
Los Angeles Times

With demand anticipated to skyrocket, General Motors is considering adding a second shift to its Detroit Hamtramck plant, a move which could add 1,000 jobs overall. The news was reported by the Detroit Free Press, and comes as gas prices continue to increase across the nation.

A GM spokesman refused to comment on the matter, but the move would help create economies of scale for the electric drive technology, allowing GM to cut the price of the second generation vehicle by an estimated $7,500. GM CEO Dan Akerson also wants to triple the company’s EV sales between 2012 and 2015 to 135,000 units.

General Motors is planning to build 10,000 Volts in 2011 and 45,000 in 2012. So far, the company is only on track to sell 3,600 in this calendar year. However, rising energy costs could see a sudden spike in demand for the Volt.

[Image Credit: Detroit Free Press]

The ongoing crisis in Japan may disrupt the supply of transmissions for the Chevrolet Volt, with GM President Mark Reuss stating that the supply of transmissions may be interrupted.

According to the New York Times, Reuss stated “We just don’t know from a supply standpoint,” when pressed about possible supply chain interruptions regarding the Volt. The Volt’s window sticker states that its electric drive unit comes from Japan.

A GM spokesman told Inside Line that “Volt production is currently not impacted by the crisis in Japan. We continue to monitor the situation closely as we do for all GM products.” Nevertheless, the possibility of a disruption remains, as Reuss went on to state in the Detroit Free Press that contingency plans are being created. Reuss also noted that one possibility is that shipments from Japan arrive at U.S. ports with unacceptable radiation levels.

On a positive note, Reuss said that GM’s plan to hire 1,000 engineers to work on electric cars in Michigan is still in place, but could change based on future events.

The Chevrolet Volt and Nissan LEAF rely heavily on government incentives to help bolster sales.

There is a $7500 federal tax credit available to offset the purchase price of these cars.  This credit currently applies to the first 250,000 units of each automakers plugin vehicles with large batteries of at least 16 kwh in size.  To obtain the credit, individuals with sufficient tax liability must report their purchase to the IRS.

According to a government audit, however, about 20% of the plugin  tax credits claimed so far are fraudulent.

The audit indicates that most of the fraudulent claims for the tax credit were requested for gas-powered cars that don’t qualify such as the Hyundai Sonata and Buick Enclave.

The total number of claies for the first seven month of 2010 was 4400 and amounted to $33 million in fraudulent credits.

“While IRS management did take corrective actions to reduce erroneous claims when TIGTA brought these process weaknesses to its attention, more clearly needs to be done,” said J. Russell George, the inspector general.

The auditor recommnedat an obvious solution was to automatically reject claims for ineligible cars.  The IRS, however, did not agree with this strategy as they felt it would reduce the rate at which incoming returns could be handled.

Instead, the recommended dealing with the fraudulent requests later on.

The IRS has already moved to recover the money that was inappropriately received.

“The IRS took immediate action to put additional protections in place to stop improper vehicle payments,” said IRS spokesman J. Russell George. “We are also taking steps to recapture the credits people erroneously claimed.”

There is a new proposal in congress to extended these credits up to 500,000 vehicles per automaker and to allow the federal credit to be received by owners at the point of purchase.

Source (Detroit Free Press)