GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

It is GM’s intention to be as transparent as possible about the Volt ordering process.  Since demand is expected to outstrip supply, it is important the company provide robust feedback to customers who are waiting for their cars.

To that end, beginning today GM is allowing customers to view the real-time status of their Chevrolet Volt order online.  The Volt tracking functionality is available directly on the Chevrolet.com website and is intended for all Chevrolet vehicles.  Just go to Chevrolet.com, click the “owners link” and you will see a drop down to “track your order.”

Courtesy of GM-Volt reader Sharon O., the following email message was sent to some Chevrolet dealers yesterday:

Chevrolet is pleased to announce the addition of the Track Your Order functionality to the already robust research/shopping tool set that is available on Chevrolet.com today.

This new functionality, which will be live at 12am on Wednesday (9/15), will allow our customers to log-in and watch the status of their new Chevrolet as it goes through the production process and finally ends up at their dealership of sale. Additionally, consumers will be able to see a 360 degree image of the vehicle they’ve purchased (trim, color, most options/accessories), vehicle build information and window sticker, and selling dealer information amongst other things.

Don’t be disappointed if you type in your Volt order number today and don’t find much, the apperance of your order there is part of a several step process.

First a customer contacts their Chevrolet dealer and orders the Volt configuration of their choice. “The dealer then types in that order online,” explains Volt marketing manager John Hughes.

Once the order gets typed in it won’t yet be available for tracking.  The next step is for the dealer to “look at their orders and then prioritize them within the 30 or 60 day production cycle,” says Hughes.  The dealer “physically controls which cars they sell first,” he adds.

Still, even at that point the car may not go on to assembly.  “The dealer has to have a sufficient earned allocation,” for that car to be built says Hughes.

So if your Volt is the 30th Volt a dealer ordered who only has an allocation of twenty cars, it wont be assembled.  Hughes laments that dealers often blame GM for not building such customers’ cars, but the reality is that the dealer hadn’t actually qualified for that allocation and shouldn’t have ordered it.

“Our allocation system is extremely equitable,” sasy Hughes. “It is applied accross all of our dealers.”

The magic moment of your order’s appearance in the tracking system is when the dealer asks for it and GM determines the dealer is eligible for it.  “It is then pulled into the production system process and then it gets built,” he says.

Hughes wouldn’t say exactly how many Volt orders GM has gotten so far since the pricing and ordering process was annouced on July 27th, but implies it is quite significant.

“We have over 100,000 handraisers, which is great,” he says.  “Orders are coming in pretty hot and heavy.”

“We’ll be more than sold out,” he said.

The Chevrolet Cruze is the gas-powered sister car to the Chevy Volt, riding atop the same global compact delta platform.  It is also one of GM’s greatest hopes for its future, a feature-packed luxury-like small car in an affordable price range.  It is designed to sell at high volumes and compete head on with bread and butter cars like the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic.  And unlike GM’s past small cars is to be sold at a profit.

The car has been on sale for more than a year internationally with over 165,000 having been sold, and starting today launches in the United States.  The first US retail Cruze rolled off GMs Lordstown Ohio production line at 10:30 AM today and will be delivered to a dealership. The configurator is now online, and pricing will begin below $17,000.

Accompanying the launch of GMs most important car next to the Volt, will be an advertising blitz including television commercials.  Movie and TV star Tim Allen, perhaps known best for his most famous role on the Home Improvement TV series, is GMs choice for the voice and spokesperson for the car, and indeed the Chevrolet brand as a whole.

Joel Ewanick who comes from Hyundai and is GMs new marketing chief told Automotive News his views on advertising the Chevrolet brand.  He said GM wont hammer home the message that Chevrolet is an American icon.  ”The nice thing about Chevrolet is that people know it’s an American brand,” he said. “We don’t need to remind them of the obvious.”

Ewanick doesn’t prefer the term social media it seems.  ”Maybe we need to change the language, it’s not media, it’s social engagement,” he said. “Aren’t we causing a conversation? Media is when you buy television or print.”  Whatever you call it, he promised some new social initiatives.  ”We’re going to do interesting things ,” he said.  ”Even this fall with the Cruze launch. ”

He also doesn’t believe Chevrolet needs a special theme or tagline. “I think the bow tie speaks for itself.” said. “And you’ll see us use the bow tie prominently and proudly in everything we do. ”

Ewanick feels strongly about having halo cars for the brand, and sees them as a good thing.  ”We should be using the Corvette to make a statement about Chevrolet,” he said. “Tying the Corvette to Chevrolet is a beautiful thing.”

“The Chevrolet brand has several halos, he said.  ”The Camaro could be a halo. You could look at the Volt as a halo product.”

“I hope we turn the Cruze into a halo in that segment,” he added.

GM has released two 30 seconds commercials including Allen’s narration which have begun appearing on national television.

You can see them below:

Source (GM) and (Automotive News)

Joel Ewanick is the relatively new Vice President of GM Marketing, and from what little I’ve dealt with him, a terrific guy.

He is charged with improving and advancing GM’s brands in consumers’ eyes and bringing in new sales.  The launch of the Volt (and Cruze) later this year is extremely important for GM, Chevrolet makes up 75% of sales.

Edmunds Inside Line had the chance to speak with Ewanick about the Volt launch.

It is apparently his overarching plan to present the Volt to the public as more “car” than “electric.”  Though we here love the Volt, there is a fear it could fail with the larger population who may be wary of new technology, and further put off by the high sticker price.

Insuring an “auspicuous” launch for the Volt and Cruze are Ewanick’s top marketing priorities.

“We’ve got a lot of education to do with Volt because it’s a whole new category of vehicle,” Ewanick told Edmund’s. “We want to show that it’s more ‘car’ than ‘electric.’ And that we’ve got everything, in an electric vehicle, that you require for the average human being.”

He also expects to heavily promote the Volt’s ability to eliminate range anxiety found in pure electric cars, and in fact a report by Jalopnik shows GM is actually trying to trademark the term.  The USPTO record shows GM submitted this application on July 6th under the heading promoting public awareness of electric vehicle capabilities. “It’s something we call ‘range anxiety,’ and it’s real,” said Ewanick. “That’s something we need to be very aware of when we market this car… people do not want to be stranded on the way home from work.”

He feels GM is in a unique postion to understand the importance of range anxiety in the marketplace because of its past experience with the all-electric EV-1.  ”We’ve been here before,” he says. “We have first-hand experience with what the issues are.”

Ewanick expects it’s possible some early adopters may prefer a pure electric car, but that the Volt is best positioned for the mainstream.

“Until there’s a robust infrastructure” for  pure electric cars, Ewanick told Edmunds, the Volt will rule as it “won’t ask the average person to make huge compromises in their lifestyle.”  He admits “there is a hard-core group that will be first buyers” of pure electrics that will put up with inconvenincnes.

Ewanick beleives as economies of scale drive down the cost of the Volt in the future, demand could skyrocket in turn further driving down cost.

“Once consumers begin to understand and as we build that awareness, demand will be greater than we now imagine,” Ewanick believes. “Once that happens, it’ll bring costs down.”

Source (Edmunds)

With the launch of the Volt nearly upon us, GM has finally provided some detail as to how they plan to go about the rollout process, and how some of the luckier and wealthier among us might be able to go about getting one.

The information was provided by GM’s Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle in a webcast in which he took reader’s questions.

He explained GM will produce 10,000 Volts from the end of this year through the end of next calendar year, and that they will produce 30,000 Volts in the 2012 calendar year. He noted that GM has been electronically communicating with every Chevrolet dealer across the nation what their Volt allocation will be and asked them if they wish to sell Volts and/or service them. Specific requirements for these dealers will not formidable and will include having personnel trained in Volts sales and Volt service, an the installation of two 240 Volt chargers.

He also explained those dealers will have to keep one Volt on the premises for demonstration and test drive purposes. He said he anticipates the car will be “very hot” and that dealers may not be able to keep any in inventory.

He said specifically GM will not maintain a centralized waiting list, and in personal communication with me said the long-lived GM-Volt want list will not be used in any way, that instead they will be “going through their dealer body.”

To get a Volt, DiSalle is recommending people “to go see the dealers.”

A given dealer’s allocation number will be based on that dealership’s regular sales volumes, so that busier dealers will get more Volts and smaller dealerships few if any. GM is then asking the dealers to reply back as to whether they want that allocation.

DiSalle expects most “medium and large volume dealerships will participate.”

He also expects that dealers outside of the launch markets will agree to service training, to help customers who might need service while driving away from home.

DiSalle is encouraging participating dealers to start their own waiting lists, and interested customers to get themselves on them. Placing a deposit is not necessary he says.

“The (dealers) can build their waitlists in conjunction with their particular allocation,” said DiSalle. “Deposits are not requirement of getting on dealers waitlist.”

The states of California and Michigan, and the cities of Washington DC, Austin Texas and New York will start receiving Volt deliveries “by the end of this calendar year,” said DiSalle.  He declined to confirm the November (or sooner) delivery date.

By mid-2011 the entire states of New York, Texas, New Jersey, and Connecticut will be getting Volt deliveries.  From there, GM will continue to announce new launch regions until finally all areas of the nation have Volts for sale.

“We’ll be adding markets halfway through the 2011 calendar year as we are getting into the 2012 model year,” said DiSalle.”We have very intention of selling in 12 to 18 months in all 50 states.”  By the time all states have allocation it will be into the second calendar year of production beyond the first 10,000 units.

DiSalle believes all the initial Volt allocations will sell out “very very quickly.”

“We do have estimates for demand,” said DiSalle.  “This is a movement that we are trying to create here.”

“It will require continued investment and communication,” he said.  “We’ll continue to market the car, we understand we’ll be short early.”

Like it or not, at least now we know what to expect.  What is your opinion?

Full Video Webcast:

We thought California, Michigan, and Washington DC were going to be the only initial Chevrolet Volt launch markets, but apparently GM had other plans in mind.

Today in a speech in Austin Texas, GM CEO Ed Whitacre announced that New York and Texas will join the other three states as initial Chevy Volt launch markets.

He also announced that New Jersey and Connecticut would be included in the first launch wave in early 2011, bringing the total first Volt states to seven. For New York and Texas, Volts will only be available in New York City and the city of Austin in 2010, with the remainder of those states getting allocations in 2011.

GM said it was the intense interest they were seeing that prompted the inclusion of these additional markets, not to mention that Volt is designed and engineered to handle those more challenging climates.

“We can add markets as diverse as Texas and New York because the Chevrolet Volt can handle both urban commuting and longer trips, in Austin summers and Manhattan winters,” Whitacre said. “The Volt can be your primary vehicle, giving you the freedom to drive gas-free without the stress of planning every trip around the battery’s charge level.”

“Chevrolet is extending the Volt launch to additional states because of strong customer interest and our confidence in all aspects of the vehicle and battery,” added Tony DiSalle, Chevrolet Volt marketing director.

To celebrate this terrific announcement (I’m a New Yorker) GM will drive a Volt from Austin Texas straight to New York City, a 1776 mile trip that would be considerably more tricky in a pure electric car.

GM is calling this trip the Freedom Drive, representing both freedom from oil and freedom from range anxiety.

“This drive is a demonstration of the freedom the Volt will provide customers – freedom to drive where you want, when you want,” said DiSalle. “Whether you are driving 50 miles or 1,750 miles, the Volt is the only electric vehicle that can be a family’s primary car.”

The Volt will take the last leg of the journey from New Jersey to New York, stopping briefly along the New Jersey Turnpike to pick up none other than yours truly as I accompany Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz for the home stretch. I will also be able to asses and experience firsthand in a nearly complete car the true performance of the Volt in real-world world highway driving, hopefully putting recent rumors to rest..

We will arrive at Pier 92 in New York City for an exclusive July 4th celebration. The celebration will include the Volt and members of the Volt team. The highlight of the party will of course be the famous Macy’s fireworks celebration over the Manhattan skyline. This waterfont pier location will be a perfect front row seat to experience the show.

In appreciation for our longstanding support, GM if offering GM-Volt readers free exclusive invitations to the party which will begin at 5:30 PM. There will be food drinks, friends and family are welcome.

The first 70 GM-Volt readers and their guests who registered here got exclusive free invitations to the event:

[UPDATE: CAPACITY FILLED]

On its way from Austin to New York the Volt will also stop off in Little Rock, AR on July 1; Nashville, TN and Roanoke, VA on July 2; Washington, D.C. and Frederick, MD on July 3; Philadelphia, PA and finally, New York City on July 4.

If you can’t make it to New York, enthusiasts in the Washington DC area can meet up at Criswell Chevrolet in Gaithersburg, MD on July 3rd. The time will be from 2PM to 4PM. There will be food and drinks and opportunity to test drive a Volt (confirmed).

Independence from oil is about to begin.

See you there!

It seems likely there will be great demand for the Volt when it arrives.  Those of us who are hoping to be among the first drivers are what GM calls the early adopters.

As GM VP Jon Lauckner has previously said, “there will be a lot of people who want to be part of that first group and have a Chevroelt Volt.”  The supply is limited though, and more recently GMs chief of EVs and hybrids Micky Bly said,“I feel strongly the early-adopter movement is done in North America.”

Jim Campbell is the chief of Chevrolet and thus oversees all of the brand’s marketing including Volt.  I had a discussion with him recently about who he thinks the early Volt adopters are and how or whether they will develop a special relationship with them (us).

I know there’s a large body of early Volt adopters out there with over 51,000 people on my symbolic list.  How will you capture those people and will you reach out specifically to the early adopters?

There’s no doubt there’s early adopters, and I think the early adopters have an amazing appreciation for technology combined with a green or eco-imperative in their lives.

So its really the two together that we think has the most potential particularly in the early stages.  People that really appreciate new technology combined with the green benefits that we’ll provide with the Chevrolet Volt.  That will be the initial target and then we’ll work very hard to look for ways to accelerate the adoption rate and adoption curve.  That’s really the task at hand for us.

There seems to big a large group of people that are mostly concerned with the energy independence.  They’re not necessarily technophiles or are concerned about emissions, but they don’t want to depend on foreign oil.  How big do you think that group is and do you have a way to market to them?

All those groups that we just talked about will be important and we’re going to need to reach out to them and show the benefits of this product as it relates to the things that are important to them in their lives.

So in some cases there is an intersection between those two or three groups we talked about.  In other cases there are not.

Some people just focus on the technology and its all about being an early adopter and the green benefits are nice to have.  I think there is a pretty large group in which there is an intersection between tech and green priorities and how they lives their lives at home, work, and other places.  So that going to be our opportunity particularly in the early stages.  I’m excited about it and coming back to Chevrolet.  Its an opportunity of a lifetime as a member of the Chevy team and as  a marketer and somebody who cares very deeply about the Chevrolet brand.

Its rolling the company.  We have a big job to do.  I think Volt can be a catalyst to help change the way people view Chevrolet broadly.