GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Back in 2007 when I started GM-Volt.com I was tremendously inspired to do so by the potential the Chevy Volt offered: limitless conventional driving with the chance to use little or no gasoline.

Over the years we fanned the flames of enthusiasm here to show GM how much we wanted this car and actually helped to get the program launched.

We watched with great anticipation as the car went from a back of the napkin idea in GM VP Jon Lauckner’s head into a full production launch in late 2010.

In those days we often thought GMs projections of 10,000 Volt sales in 2011 and 45,000 in 2012 would be too little.  We believed and wanted to believe a car of this importance and tremendous technology would be adopted at even greater rates.

Over the past year or so we have finally had the chance to see just how many Volts would be sold.  It turns out not as many. GM only sold 7671 Volts in 2011 and are on a similar track for 2012 so far. The same thing has happened for the all electric Nissan LEAF as well.  And yet, many other EVs are either in the pipelines or already have been launched.

So what’s the deal with the adoption curve?

Although there is a lot of curiosity, interest, and awareness it appears much of the American pubic is remaining on the sidelines. There are several reasons why.

For one thing the Volt and other EVs remain costly compared to their gas counterparts. Cheap gas cars and cheap hybrids make the cost of operation lower than driving the Volt.

Despite the federal tax credit, the $40,000 Volt price tag remains out of reach to many would-be buyers and for many there many not be enough liability to enjoy the tax credit.

At present volumes GM isn’t in a position to drop price yet, but over time as economies of scale come fully into play they will.  In fact, just knowing that prices may one day drop may be keeping some on the sidelines for now as they wait for that day to come. The first plasma screen were $10,000 for 32 inches when they first came out.  Now they are a few hundred dollars and everybody has one. This will happen with the Volt but will take time.

Lack of familiarity with the technology and fear of the unknown are also keeping buyers away.  The media barrage about the irrelevant battery fires further kindled and grew this group significantly.  They may need years of error free operation by the population at large as well as proof the cars retain their value before they buy.

Furthermore the use of the Volt as a political tool has pushed some conservative would-be buyers into the sideline. Some conservative media pundits have portrayed the car as a tool for the democrats to get a government bailout for GM to save union jobs. Though many conservatives would love to avoid using foreign oil they are being manipulated in this way to view the car negatively.

So patient we must be.  The electric car is here to stay and the Volt is the best foot forward right now.  Sales will eventually come along, it just make take a a bit more time.

GM has announced they are temporarily suspending production at the DHAM plant until unsold inventory shrinks and will build the car not to a random number but to demand.  Simple smart business.

So in the meantime all of us owners need to do our part as pioneers spreading the word and sharing the message and helping encourage those on the sidelines help get this country off of oil and to see the car for what is really is – a tour-de-force of technology and shining example of American ingenuity and engineering.

GM has begun a new ad campaign recruiting Volt owners to tell the world how happy they are with this car.

Though I wasn’t invited to participate, I have offered to do so if GM wants.  I know I am very happy with it.

These days I continue to love driving my Volt and avoiding the use of gas. I have also launched an interesting website to aggregate all the day’s automotive news socially. It is called veh.cl.   Please check it out.

See you on the roads!

My Chevrolet Volt was delivered on December 17th 2010, and as of today I have owned and operated the vehicle for a full year.

It is nearly five years in fact since I first founded this website in an effort to gain and sustain national attention on electric cars and this vehicle in particular, and to push GM to develop it.

I can say with sincere conviction I have immensely enjoyed owning and operating this vehicle.
To this day I still get a thrill when I jump in and power it up. I drive often with a smile on my face. I thoroughly love not using gas almost of of the time, and having the safety and freedom to kick in the gas generator when needed.

I have found the car of impeccably high quality and 100% reliable performance in all kinds of driving situations and environments. The car is worthy of all the awards it has received.

Thus far I have put on 8,635 miles and used a paltry 36.6 gallons of gas with a lifetime fuel efficiency of 237 miles per gallon. My number has fallen curiously close to the infamous 230 mpg estimate GM once put forth.

In April after five months of driving, I moved jobs, changing from 52 miles down to only 6 miles daily round trip. I drive at least twice a month more than 100 miles.

My oil life still says 56% and I haven’t changed it. I rotated the tires at 7,500 miles and had a software upgrade performed.

I have a steep driveway entrance and each day coming and going, the low spoiler scrapes against it. I realize it isn’t harmful and the part is meant to take it but I finally recently decided to change the spoiler to the newer shorter one.  Other than those trivial dealer visits I have had not problems whatsoever. The car has flexibly managed all the variations in my driving patterns.

As I drive around I still notice that in my area 40 or so miles north of New York City, there are almost no other Volts on the road. In my year of driving in fact I have only seen another Volt on the road about three times.

Though perhaps not important, I am a bit surprised GM won’t meet its first year target of 10,000 cars. Considering all the attention and robust discussion I observed while running this site, and the calls by many for great volumes, I was sure demand would be higher.  Eventually I still think it will. A lot of it is economic. In these tough financial times with gas prices stable, the $41,000 without tax break price tag remains out of reach for many. It is great though that the car is on the road so that in the future, through economies of scale the price will drop and more will be sold. As well, surely some are waiting for the first generation to work out its kinks and are watching on the sidelines eventually planning to buy a next generation model.

Speaking of kinks it has been impossible to ignore the media firestorm sparked by the Volt battery fires. When I first heard of it it caught my attention. As I learned more I came to the conclusion it was a non-issue for me.  Though GM officially offered loaners and unofficially Volt buybacks, I never considered either option. After all I’ve seen firsthand and learned about the Volt and its development I feel safe and comfortable.  Any human engineered item can be made to fail under the right set of conditions, in this case extreme and rare conditions that won’t occur in regular use.

I imagine GM will shortly issue some type of optional battery fix to current owners and an update for generation two, but just like the infamous iPhone Antennagate, the Volt Batterygate will surely just turn out to be a mere bump on the road to greater sales.

There were naysayers ever since the Volt concept was announced in January 2007, and many are still here today and will be ad infinitum. They may never be silenced, but the reality is GM has made the dream come true of a mass production electric car with range extender and it is an awesome thing indeed. I also think its fair to say the company ushered in a new era of accessible electric transportation as essentially every automaker has followed suit with electric cars of their own.

May everyone and their families of this great Volt nation have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new Year and be proud of what we have helped accomplish. I look forward to more Volt news in 2012.

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I am fortunate to be a member of the Chevy Volt Customer Advisory Board and have been driving the Volt since early November 2010. I have been having an incredible experience with the car and I will share my thoughts/experiences when my three month trial period ends in February 2011. In the meantime, I wanted to share a Letterman style Top-10 List I created entitled, “Top-10 Reasons to Buy an Electric Car” which I thought the GM-Volt.com web community would enjoy. I originally created this Top-10 List with the hopes that it would appear on David Letterman’s show, but it turns out his writers could not accept outside material, so I thought the next best place for the premier of this Top-10 List would be on GM-Volt.com. I realize that the daily topic is usually quite serious, but I thought a little comic relief might be fun for a change of pace.

Let’s see who can come up with the 11th best reason to buy an electric car.

#10. Great Way to Stay “Current”

#9. The Neighbors Objected to my NUCLEAR Powered Car

#8. It Comes in Many Colors, Yet All of Them Are Green

#7. Save Some Money…Ask Your Dealer to Deliver it Free of “Charge”

#6. If Your Kids Drive Too Fast, Just Flip the Circuit Breaker

#5. Impossible to “Pass Gas” in an Electric Vehicle

#4. If You Crash, Can You Be Charged with Assault and Battery?

#3. Outdated Gasoline Stations Can Become Polar Bear Safe Houses

#2. Better Than Trying to Drive Your Electric Refrigerator

#1. Hey Letterman, I’m a Volt…Can You Give Me a Plug?

Ward’s Auto publishes an annual list of what it considers to be the ten best engines of the year.  The Chevy Volt once again grabs another prize of recognition with the Voltec propulsion system being named to this year’s list.

Criteria the editors use to judge the engines include noise, vibration, and harshness, fuel efficiency and the use of new technology.  The Volt was named among the top ten out of a field of 38 entries for this year of vehicles with new or updated powertrains.

“Brave. Inspired. Brilliant,” said Drew Winter, Editor-in-Chief, Ward’s AutoWorld.  ”We don’t often use these words in the same sentence as ‘propulsion system,’ but that’s the only way to describe the magic under the hood of the Chevy Volt. General Motors engineers have changed the course of history by creating an electric vehicle with true mass appeal.”

Even though it doesn’t have an engine, in a strict sense of the definition, the Nissan LEAF was named to the list as well.  ”What’s remarkable about the Leaf is how much it feels like a conventional car, with four doors, five seats and accelerator and brake pedals that could have been borrowed from a Nissan Versa, or any other gas-driven subcompact,” wrote the Ward’s editors. “The Leaf is affordable – about $25,000 with a federal tax credit – and a thrill to drive.”

Additionally, yesterday GM released new financial information to its Chevrolet delaers outlining for the first time, the specifics of how Chevy Volt financing will be handled, and the options customers will have for managing the $7500 tax credit they would receive if they choose to buy:

Lease offer through US Bank
• $350 / month for 36 months with $2,500 Due at Signing
• National lease program through US Bank ONLY (not available in Alaska & Hawaii)
• Only available at 36 month term; 12,000 miles per year
• If you lease, you will not be directly eligible for the tax credit (since US Bank owns the vehicle).

Finance Alternatives through Ally
Ally is providing 3 finance alternatives to assist dealers/customers when a customer purchases a Volt:
• Option 1: “$7,500 Single Payment Program” which allows you to get the benefit of the tax credit at the time of purchase with a 0% interest loan.
• Option 2: “Spike Payment Program” which allows you to get the benefit of the tax credit at the time of purchase while offering equal monthly payments with an increased payment of up to $7,500 (due in June of the year following purchase) with no deviation in the payment schedule.
• Option 3: “Equal Monthly Payment Program” which offers equal monthly payments at standard rates up to 72 months.

Source (Wards) and (GM)

In celebration of this Thanksgiving Day, General Motors has released a poignant video (shown below) in which the company gives thanks to the American people for helping them back to their feet.

After a minute of historical moments of failures and triumphant returns the commercial ends with the simple two lines:

“We all fall down”

“Thank you for helping us get back up”

We realize GM entered into bankruptcy and an unpopular government-sponsored restructuring in mid 2009. This followed a number of agonizing months of uncertainty as to whether the company would live on.

All the while as the economy around it also fell, the Volt program miraculously lived on.

Throughout all this, we here continued our support and cheerleading for that Volt team and the Volt, day after day, post after post.

In the end the Volt has arrived. It is a real and fantastically good car that is living up to its promises of no-compromise gas free driving for the majority of drivers.

So too has GM returned to the stock market, and freed the US government of majority ownership.

I would like to offer a “you’re welcome” to GM, and thanks as well for making our car a reality and helping this country to take its first steps off of oil.

Also thanks to all the GM-Volt readers whose daily devotion, attention, and discussion have kept me going for all this time.

Happy Thanksgiving America.

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is a technological tour de force. It is an extremely well-engineered brilliantly planned and executed vehicle that looks, drives, feels, and behaves wonderfully. It breaks all the paradigms before it and most importantly allows one to drive the majority of time without the use of gasoline. Having now lived with the car for 14 days, I can tell you what I say is true.

Apparently I’m not the only one who feels that way. After already receiving triple honors as Motor Trend car of the year, Automobile magazine automobile of the year, and Green car of the year wards, the incredible Volt has done it yet again.

The venerable and respected Car and Driver magazine has named the Volt one the the 10 best cars of 2011. Joining it on that list with another GM-made car, the Cadillac CTS-V.

The whole list is below:

BMW 3-series/M3
Cadillac CTS-V
Chevrolet Volt
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Hyundai Sonata
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster/Cayman
Volkswagen Golf/GTI

“To put it simply, the Volt was far and away the biggest surprise to every editor at this year’s 10Best event,” Car and Driver editors wrote in their January 2011 issue. “None of us imagined that nestling into the glass cockpit would bring the words ‘automotive bliss’ and ‘electric vehicle’ together in the same sentence.

“Best of all, its efficiency is unmatched, as long as interstate travel is omitted,” Car and Driver concluded. “One editor drove the Volt 101 miles in 18 hours (including a 10.5-hour charge) and only used one gallon of gas. That’s some seriously eye-popping arithmetic.”

If they think those numbers are good, how about these: I have now driven the Volt 817.8 miles using 5.27 gallons of gas. 622.5 of those miles have been all-electric, and the total fuel economy thus far is 155 MPG. One day in these two weeks I had to drive more than 100 miles, which would have made a pure electric car unusable. Nearly all of those miles have been at vigorous highway speeds, and temperatures at or below 40 degrees with a 72 degree cabin temperature. I have not babied or hyerpmiled the car and almost always are either using the handsfree phone or cranking music.

You can follow my driving log here.

These awards are all well deserved and even more amazing because its impossible to realize just how unbelievably great this car is unless one lives with it. Something I wish for all of you will come as soon as possible.

Source (Car and Driver)